"Will you take a turn with me?" said Sir Marcus, in a whining voice, that sounded like habitual complaint. "I "m obliged to do this every day; it "s the doctor"s order. He says, "Take the air and distract yourself;" and I do so." L"Estrange had now seated himself, and they drove away.
"I"m glad you"ve come," said Sir Marcus. "It will stop all this plotting and intriguing. If you had delayed much longer, I think they "d have had a dozen here--one of them a converted Jew, a very dirty fellow. Oh, dear, how fatiguing it is! that little crop-eared pony pulls so he can"t be held, and we call him John Bright; but don"t mention it. I hope you have no family, sir?"
"I have my sister only."
"A sister isn"t so bad. A sister may marry, or she may--" What was the other alternative did not appear, for John Bright bolted at this moment, and it was full five minutes ere he could be pulled up again. "This is the distraction I "m promised," said the sick man. "If it was n"t for Mr. Needham--I call the near-sider Mr. Needham, as I bought him of that gentleman--I "d have too much distraction; but Needham never runs away--he falls; he comes down as if he was shot!" cried he, with a joyous twinkle of the eye, "and I bought him for that. There"s no drag ever was invented like a horse on his belly--the most inveterate runaway can"t escape against that." If the little cackle that followed this speech did not sound exactly like a laugh, it was all of that emotion that Sir Marcus ever permitted himself.
"I can"t ask you if you like this place. You "re too newly come to answer that question," resumed he; "but I may ask what is the sort of society you prefer?"
"I "ve seen next to nothing of the world since I left the University.
I have been living these last four or five years in one of the least visited spots in Great Britain, and only since the arrival of the Bramleigh family had a neighbor to speak to."
"Ah, then, you know these Bramleighs?" said the other with more animation than he had yet displayed. "Overbearing people, I "ve heard they were--very rich, and insolent to a degree."
"I must say I have found them everything that was kind and considerate, hospitable neighbors, and very warmhearted friends."
"That "s not the world"s judgment on them, my dear sir--far from it.
They are a proverb for pretension and impertinence. As for Lady Augusta here--to be sure she "s only one of them by marriage--but there"s not a soul in the place she has not outraged. She goes nowhere--of course, _that_ she has a right to do--but she never returns a call, never even sends a card. She went so far as to tell Mr. Pemberton, your predecessor here, that she liked Albano for its savagery; that there was no one to know was its chief charm for her."
"I saw her for the first time this morning," said L"Estrange, not liking to involve himself in this censure.
"And she fascinated you, of course? I "m told she does that with every good-looking young fellow that comes in her way. She"s a finished coquette, they say. I don"t know what that means, nor do I believe it would have much success with me if I did know. All the coquetry she bestows upon me is to set my ponies off in full gallop whenever she overtakes me driving. She starts away in a sharp canter just behind me, and John Bright fancies it a race, and away he goes too, and if Mr.
Needham was of the same mettle I don"t know what would become of us. I"m afraid, besides, she"s a connection of mine. My mother, Lady Marion, was cousin to one of the Delahunts of Kings Cromer. Would you mind taking the reins for a while, John is fearfully rash to-day? Just sit where you are, the near-side gives you the whip-hand for Needham. Ah! that"s a relief! Turn down the next road on your left. And so she never asked you about your tenets--never inquired whether you were High Church or Low Church or no church at all?"
"Pardon me, Sir Marcus; she was particularly anxious that I should guard myself against Romish fascinations and advances."
"Ah, she knows them all! They thought they had secured her--indeed they were full sure of it; but as she said to poor Mr. Pemberton, they found they had hatched a duck. She was only flirting with Rome. The woman would flirt with the Holy Father, sir, if she had a chance. There"s nothing serious, nothing real, nothing honest about her; but she charmed _you_, for all that--I see it. I see it all; and you "re to take moonlight rides with her over the Campagna. Ha, ha, ha! Haven"t I hit it? Poor old Pemberton--fifty-eight if he was an hour--got a bad bronchitis with these same night excursions. Worse than that, he made the place too hot for him. Mrs. Trumpler--an active woman Mrs. T., and the eye of a hawk--would n"t stand the "few sweet moments," as poor Pemberton in his simplicity called them. She threatened him with a general meeting, and a vote of censure, and a letter to the Bishop of Gibraltar; and she frightened him so that he resigned. I was away at the time at the baths at Ischia, or I "d have tried to patch up matters.
Indeed, as I told Mrs. T., I"d have tried to get rid of my Lady, instead of banishing poor Pemberton, as kind-hearted a creature as ever I met, and a capital whist-player. Not one of your new-fangled fellows, with the "call for trumps" and all the last devices of the Portland, but a steady player, who never varied--did n"t go chopping about, changing his suits, and making false leads, but went manfully through his hearts before he opened his spades. We were at Christ Church together. I knew him for a matter of six-and-thirty years, Mr. L"Estrange, and I pledge you my word of honor"--here his voice grew tremulous with agitation--"and in all that time I never knew him revoke!" He drew his hat over his eyes as he spoke, and leaning back in the seat seemed almost overcome by his emotions.
"Will you turn in there at the small gate? It is a private entrance to my grounds. I "ll not ask you to come in to-day, sir. I"m a little flurried and nervous; but if you "ll join a sick man"s dinner at two o"clock to-morrow--some rice and a chicken and a bit of fish--nothing more, I promise you. Well, well, I see it does not tempt you. My best thanks for your pleasant company. Let me see you soon. Take care of yourself, beware of my Lady, and avoid the moonlight!"
Apparently this little sally seemed to revive the invalid, for he stepped up the approach to his house with a lively air and waved his hand pleasantly as he said adieu.
"There"s another still!" muttered L"Estrange as he inquired the way to Mrs. Trumpler"s; "and I wish with all my heart it was over."
L"Estrange found Mrs. Trumpler at tea. She was an early diner, and took tea about six o"clock, after which she went out for an evening drive over the Campagna. In aspect, the lady was not prepossessing. She was very red-faced, with large grizzly curls arranged in a straight line across her forehead, and she wore spectacles of such a size as to give her somewhat the look of an owl. In figure, she was portly and stout, and had a stand-up sort of air, that, to a timid or bashful man like the curate, was the reverse of rea.s.suring.
"I perceive, sir, I am the last on your list," said she, looking at her watch as he entered. "It is past six."
"I regret, madam, if I have come at an inconvenient hour. Will you allow me to wait on you to-morrow?"
"No, sir. We will, with your permission, avail ourselves of the present to make acquaintance with each other." She rang the bell after this speech, and ordered that the carriage should be sent away. "I shall not drive, Giacomo," said she; "and I do not receive if any one calls."
"You brought me a letter, sir, from the Reverend Silas Smallwood," said she, very much in the tone of a barrister cross-examining a troublesome witness.
"Yes, madam; that gentleman kindly offered a friend of mine to be the means of presenting me to you."
"So that you are not personally acquainted, sir?"
"We have never, so far as I know, even seen each other."
"It is as well, sir, fully as well. Mr. Smallwood is a person for whose judgment or discrimination I would have the very humblest opinion, and I have therefore, from what you tell me, the hope that you are not of his party in the Church."
"I am unable to answer you, madam, knowing nothing whatever of Mr.
Smallwood"s peculiar views."
"This is fencing, sir; and I don"t admire fencing. Let us understand each other. What have you come here to preach? I hope my question is a direct one?"
"I am an ordained minister of the Church of England, madam; and when I have said so, I have answered you."
"What, sir? do you imagine your reply is sufficient. In an age when not alone every doctrine is embraced within the Church, but that there is a very large and increasing party who are prepared to have no doctrine at all? I perceive, sir, I must make my approaches to you in a different fashion. Are you a man of vestments, gesticulations, and gla.s.s windows?
Do you dramatize your Christianity?"
"I believe I can say no, madam, to all these."
"Are you a Literalist, then? What about Noah, sir? Let me hear what you have to say about the Flood. Have you ever calculated what forty days"
rainfall would amount to? Do you know that in a.s.sam, where the rains are the heaviest in that part of the world, and in Colon, in Central America, no twelve hours" rain ever pa.s.sed five inches and three quarters? You are, I am sure, acquainted with Esch-schormes" book on the Nile deposits? If not, sir, it is yonder--at your service. Now, sir, we shall devote this evening to the Deluge, and, so far as time permits, the age of the earth. To-morrow evening we"ll take Moses, on Staub"s suggestion that many persons were included under that name. We"ll keep the Pentateuch for Friday, for I expect the Rabbi Bensi will be here by that time."
"Will you pardon me, madam," said L"Estrange, rising, "if I decline entering upon all discussion of these momentous questions with you? I have no such scholarship as would enable me to prove instructive, and I have conviction sufficiently strong, in my faith in other men"s learning, to enable me to reject quibbles and be unmoved by subtleties.
Besides," added he, in a sharper tone, "I have come here to have the honor of making your acquaintance, and not to submit myself to an examination. May I wish you a good evening?"
How he took his leave, how he descended the stairs, and rushed into the street, and found his way to the little inn where his sister wearily was waiting dinner for him, the poor curate never knew to the last day of his life.
CHAPTER x.x.xIII. A SMALL LODGING AT LOUVAIN.
In a very humble quarter of the old town of Louvain, at the corner of La Rue des Moines, Augustus Bramleigh and his sister had taken up their lodgings. Madame Jerva.s.se, the proprietress of the house, had in her youth been the _femme-de-chambre_ of some high-born dame of Brussels, and offered her services in the same capacity to Ellen, while, with the aid of her own servant, she prepared their meals, thus at once supplying the modest requirements they needed. Augustus Bramleigh was not a very resolute or determined man, but his was one of those natures that acquire solidity from pressure. When once he found himself on the road of sacrifices, his self-esteem imparted vigor and energy to his character. In the ordinary course of events he was accustomed to hold himself--his abilities and his temperament--cheaply enough. No man was ever less self-opinionated or self-confident. If referred to for advice, or even for opinion, he would modestly decline the last, and say, "Marion or Temple perhaps could help you here." He shrank from all self-a.s.sertion whatever, and it was ever a most painful moment to him when he was presented to any one as the future head of the house and the heir to the Bramleigh estates. To Ellen, from whom he had no secrets, he had often confessed how he wished he had been a younger son. All his tastes and all his likings were those to be enjoyed by a man of moderate fortune, and an ambition even smaller than that fortune. He would say, too, half-jestingly, "With such aspiring spirits amongst us as Marion and Temple, I can afford myself the luxury of obscurity. _They_ are sure to carry our banner loftily, and _I_ may with safety go on my humble path unnoticed."
Jack had always been his favorite brother: his joyous nature, his sailor-like frankness, his spirit, and his willingness to oblige, contrasted very favorably with Temple"s sedate, cautious manner, and the traces of a selfishness that never forgot itself. Had Jack been the second son instead of the youngest, Augustus would have abdicated in his favor at once, but he could not make such a sacrifice for Temple. All the less that the very astute diplomatist continually harped on the sort of qualities which were required to dispense an ample fortune, and more than insinuated how much such a position would become himself, while another might only regard it as a burden and a worry. It was certainly a great shock to him to learn that there was a claimant to his family fortune and estate: the terrible feeling that they were to appear before the world as impostors--holding a station and dispensing a wealth to which they had no right--almost overcame him. The disgrace of a public exposure, the notoriety it would evoke, were about the most poignant sufferings such a man could be brought to endure. He to whom a newspaper comment, a mere pa.s.sing notice of his name, was a source of pain and annoyance,--that he should figure in a great trial, and his downfall be made the theme of moral reflections in a leading article! How was this to be borne? What could break the fall from a position of affluence and power to a condition of penury and insignificance? Nothing,--if not the spirit which, by meeting disaster half-way, seemed at least to accept the inevitable with courage, and so carry a high heart in the last moments of defeat.
Augustus well knew what a mistaken estimate the world had ever formed of his timid, bashful nature, and this had given his manner a semblance of pride and hauteur which made the keynote of his character. It was all in vain that he tried to persuade people that he had not an immeasurable self-conceit. They saw it in his every word and gesture, in his coolness when they approached him, in his almost ungraciousness when they were courteous to him. "Many will doubtless declare," said he, "that this reverse of fortune is but a natural justice on one who plumed himself too much on his prosperity, and who arrogated too far on the accident of his wealth. If so, I can but say they will not judge me fairly. They will know nothing of where my real suffering lies. It is less the loss of fortune I deplore, than the world"s judgment on having so long usurped that we had no right to."
From the day he read Sedley"s letter and held that conversation with the lawyer, in which he heard that the claimant"s case seemed a very strong one, and that perhaps the Bram-leighs had nothing to oppose to it of so much weight as the great fact of possession,--from that hour he took a despairing view of the case. There are men who at the first reverse of fortune throw down their cards and confess themselves beaten. There are men who can accept defeat itself better than meet the vacillating events of a changeful destiny; who have no persistence in their courage, nor any resources to meet the coming incidents of life. Augustus Bramleigh possessed a great share of this temperament. It is true that Sedley, after much persuasion, induced him to entertain the idea of a compromise, carefully avoiding the use of that unhappy word, and subst.i.tuting for it the less obnoxious expression "arrangement." Now this same arrangement, as Mr. Sedley put it, was a matter which concerned the Bramleighs collectively,--seeing that if the family estates were to be taken away, nothing would remain to furnish a provision for younger children. "You must ascertain what your brothers will do," wrote Sedley; "you must inquire how far Lord Culduff--who through his marriage has a rent-charge on the estate--will be willing to contribute to an "arrangement.""
Nothing could be less encouraging than the answer this appeal called forth. Lord Culduff wrote back in the tone of an injured man, all but declaring that he had been regularly taken in; indeed, he did not scruple to aver that it had never been his intention to embark in a ship that was sure to founder, and he threw out something like a rebuke on the indelicacy of asking him to add to the sacrifice he had already made for the honor of being allied to them.
Temple"s note ran thus:--
Dear Gusty,--If your annoyances have not affected your brain, I am at a loss for an explanation of your last letter. How, I would ask you, is a poor secretary of legation to subsist on the beggarly pittance F.
O. affords him? Four hundred and fifty per annum is to supply rent, clothes, club expenses, a stall at the opera, and one"s little charities in perhaps one of the dearest capitals in Europe. So far from expecting the demands you have made upon me, I actually, at the moment of receiving yours, had a half-finished note on my writing-table asking you to increase my poor allowance. When I left Castello, I think you had sixteen horses. Can you possibly want more than two for the carriage and one for your own riding? As to your garden and greenhouse expenses, I "ll lay ten to one your first peas cost you a guinea a quart, and you never saw a pine at your table under five-and-twenty pounds; and now that I am on the theme of reduction, I would ask what do you want with a chef at two hundred and fifty a year? Do you, or does Ellen, ever eat of anything but the simplest diet at table? Don"t you send away the entrees every day, wait for the roast gigot, or the turkey, or the woodc.o.c.ks, and in consequence, does not Monsieur Gregoire leave the cookery to be done by one of his "aides," and betake himself to the healthful pursuit of snipe-shooting, and the evening delight of Mrs. Somebody"s tea at Portshandon? Why not add this useless extravagance to the condemned list of the vineries, the stables, and the score of other extraordinaires, which an energetic hand would reduce in half an hour?
I "m sure you "ll not take it in ill part that I bring these things under your notice. Whether out of the balance in hand you will give me five hundred a year, or only three, I shall ever remain Your affectionate brother,
Temple Edgerton Bramleigh.
"Read that, Nelly," said Augustus, as he threw it across the table. "I "m almost afraid to say what I think of it."