"The mother is as well as can be expected, Richard, and Patty very rosy with the country air. Your disappearance was a great shock to them both."
"And Tom?"
He went behind his reserve. "Tom is a d--d rake," he exclaimed, with some vehemence. "I have given him over. He has taken up with that macaroni Courtenay, who wins his money,--or rather my money,--and your cousin Philip, when he is home from King"s College. How Tom can be son of mine is beyond me, in faith. I see him about once in two months, when he comes here with a bill for his satins and his ruffles, and along face of repentance, and a lot of gaming debts to involve my honour. And that reminds me, Richard," said he, looking straight at me with his clear, dark eyes: "have you made any plans for your future?"
I ventured to ask his advice as to entering the law.
"As the only profession open to a gentleman," he replied, smiling a little. "No, you were no more cut out for an attorney, or a barrister, or a judge, than was I for a macaroni doctor. The time is not far away, my lad," he went on, seeing my shame and confusion, "when an American may ama.s.s money in any way he chooses, and still be a gentleman, behind a counter, if he will."
"I do not fear work, Mr. Swain," I remarked, with some pride.
"That is what I have been thinking," he said shortly. "And I am not a man to make up my mind while you count three, Richard. I have the place in Talbot, and no one to look after it. And--and in short I think you are the man."
He paused to watch the effect of this upon me. But I was so taken aback by this new act of kindness that I could not say a word.
"Tom is fast going to the devil, as I told you," he continued. "He cannot be trusted. If I die, that estate shall be Patty"s, and he may never squander it. Captain Daniel tells me, and Mr. Bordley also, that you managed at Carvel Hall with sense and ability. I know you are very young, but I think I may rely upon you."
Again he hesitated, eying me fixedly.
"Ah," said he, with his quiet smile, "it is the old n.o.blesse oblige. How many careers has it ruined since the world began!"
CHAPTER XLV. THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES
I was greatly touched, and made Mr. Swain many awkward acknowledgments, which he mercifully cut short. I asked him for a while to think over his offer. This seemed to please rather than displease him. And my first impulse on reaching the inn was to ask the captain"s advice. I thought better of it however, and at length resolved to thrash out the matter for myself.
The next morning, as I sat reflecting, an overwhelming desire seized me to go to Marlboro" Street. Hitherto I could not have borne the sight of the old place. I gulped down my emotion as the gate creaked behind me, and made my way slowly to the white seat under the big chestnut behind the house, where my grandfather had been wont to sit reading his prints, in the warm weather. The flowers and the hedges had grown to a certain wildness; and the smell of the American roses carried me back-as odours will-to long-forgotten and trivial scenes. Here I had been caned many a day for Mr. Daaken"s reports, and for earlier offences. And I recalled my mother as she once ran out at the sound of my cries to beg me off. So vivid was that picture that I could hear Mr. Carvel say: "He is yours, madam, not mine. Take him!"
I started up. The house was still, the sun blistering the green paint of the shutters. My eye was caught by those on the room that had been hers, and which, by my grandfather"s decree, had lain closed since she left it. The image of it grew in my mind: the mahogany bed with its poppy counterpane and creamy curtains, and the steps at the side by which she was wont to enter it; and the "prie-dieu", whence her soul had been lifted up to G.o.d. And the dresser with her china and silver upon it, covered by years of dust. For I had once stolen the key from Willis"s bunch, crept in, and crept out again, awed. That chamber would be profaned, now, and those dear ornaments, which were mine, violated. The imagination choked me.
I would have them. I must. Nothing easier than to pry open a door or window in the north wing, by the ball-room. When I saw Grafton I would tell him. Nay, I would write him that day. I was even casting about me for an implement, when I heard a step on the gravel beside me.
I swung around, and came face to face with my uncle.
He must have perceived me. And after the first shock of my surprise had pa.s.sed, I remarked a bearing on him that I had not seen before. He was master of the situation at last,--so it read. The realization gave him an easier speech than ever.
"I thought I might find you here, Richard," he said, "since you were not at the Coffee House."
He did not offer me his hand. I could only stare at him, for I had expected anything but this.
"I came from Carvel Hall to get you," he proceeded smoothly enough.
"I heard but yesterday of your return, and some of your miraculous adventures. Your recklessness has caused us many a trying day, Richard, and I believe killed your grandfather. You have paid dearly, and have made us pay dearly, for your mad frolic of fighting cut-throats on the highroad."
The wonder was that I did not kill him on the spot. I cannot think what possessed the man,--he must have known me better.
"My recklessness!" I shouted, fairly hoa.r.s.e with anger. I paid no heed to Mr. Swain"s warning. "You d--d scoundrel!" I cried, "it was you killed him, and you know it. When you had put me out of the way and he was in your power, you tortured him to death. You forced him to die alone with your sneering face, while your shrew of a wife counted cards downstairs. Grafton Carvel, G.o.d knows you better than I, who know you two well. And He will punish you as sure as the crack of doom."
He heard me through, giving back as I came forward, his face blanching only a little, and wearing all the time that yellow smile which so fitted it.
"You have finished?" says he.
"Ay, I have finished. And now you may order me from this ground you have robbed me of. But there are some things in that house you shall not steal, for they are mine despite you."
"Name them, Richard," he said, very sorrowful.
"The articles in my mother"s room, which were hers."
"You shall have them this day," he answered.
It was his way never to lose his temper, tho" he were called by the vilest name in the language. He must always a.s.sume this pious grief which made me long to throttle him. He had the best of me, even now, as he took the great key from his pocket.
"Will you look at them before you go?" he asked.
At first I was for refusing. Then I nodded. He led the way silently around by the front; and after he had turned the lock he stepped aside with a bow to let me pa.s.s in ahead of him. Once more I was in the familiar hall with the stairs dividing at the back. It was cool after the heat, and musty, and a touch of death hung in the prisoned air.
We paused for a moment on the landing, beside the high, triple-arched window which the branches tapped on windy winter days, while Grafton took down the bunch of keys from beside the clock. I thought of my dear grandfather winding it every Sunday, and his ruddy face and large figure as he stood glancing sidewise down at me. Then the sound of Grafton"s feet upon the bare steps recalled the present.
We pa.s.sed Mr. Carvel"s room and went down the little corridor over the ball-room, until we came to the full-storied wing. My uncle flung open the window and shutters opposite and gave me the key. A delicacy not foreign to him held him where he was. Time had sealed the door, and when at last it gave before my strength, a shower of dust quivered in the ray of sunlight from the window. I entered reverently. I took only the silverbound prayer-book, cast a lingering look at the old familiar objects dimly defined, and came out and locked the door again. I said very quietly that I would send for the things that afternoon, for my anger was hushed by what I had seen.
We halted together on the uncovered porch in front of the house, that had a seat set on each side of it. Marlboro" Street was still, the wide trees which flanked it spreading their shade over walk and roadway. Not a soul was abroad in the midday heat, and the windows of the long house opposite were sightless.
"Richard," said my uncle, staring ahead of him, "I came to offer you a home, and you insult me brutally, as you have done unreproved all your life. And yet no one shall say of me that I shirk my duty. But first I must ask you if there is aught else you desire of me."
"The black boy, Hugo, is mine," I said. I had no great love for Hugo, save for a.s.sociation"s sake, and I had one too many servants as it was; but to rescue one slave from Grafton"s clutches was charity.
"You shall have him," he replied, "and your chaise, and your wardrobe, and your horses, and whatever else I have that belongs to you. As I was saying, I will not shirk my duty. The memory of my dear father, and of what he would have wished, will not permit me to let you go a-begging.
You shall be provided for out of the estate, despite what you have said and done."
This was surely the quintessence of a rogue"s imagination. Instinctively I shrank from him. With a show of piety that "turned me sick he continued:
"Let G.o.d witness that I carry out my father"s will!"
"Stop there, Grafton Carvel!" I cried; "you shall not take His name in vain. Under this guise of holiness you and your accomplice have done the devil"s own work, and the devil will reward you."
This reference to Mr. Allen, I believe, frightened him. For a second only did he show it.
"My--my accomplice, sir!" he stammered. And then righting himself: "You will have to explain this, by Heaven."
"In ample time your plot shall be laid bare, and you and his Reverence shall hang, or lie in chains."
"You threaten, Mr. Carvel?" he shouted, nearly stepping off the porch in his excitement.
"Nay, I predict," I replied calmly. And I went down the steps and out of the gate, he looking after me. Before I had turned the corner of Freshwater Lane, he was in the seat, and fanning himself with his hat.
I went straight to Mr. Swain"s chambers in the Circle, where I found the good barrister and Captain Daniel in their shirt-sleeves, seated between the windows in the back room. Mr. Swain was grave enough when he heard of my talk with Grafton, but the captain swore I was my father"s son (for the fiftieth time since I had come back), and that a man could no more help flying at Grafton"s face than Knipe could resist his legs; or Cynthia his back, if he went into her stall. I had scarce finished my recital, when Mr. Renwick, the barrister"s clerk, announced Mr. Tucker, which caused Mr. Swain to let out a whistle of surprise.
"So the wind blows from that quarter, Daniel," said he. "I thought so."