"Oh, Julia, could you love me--"
"I think I "ve done things fully as hard," said she, with affected thoughtfulness.
"Do you think me, then, so hopeless of advancement in life that I shall live and die the humble creature you now see me?"
"No, I don"t think that. I think if fate is not very dead against you, you are likely, whatever you turn to, or wherever you go, to make your way; but to do this you must be heart-whole. The selfishness that men call ambition cannot afford to be weighted with thought of another and another"s welfare. Have a little patience with me--hear me out, for I am saying what I have thought over many and many an hour--what I have already told Nelly. There"s an old Persian fable that says, the people who love on through life are like two lovers who walk on opposite banks of a river, and never meet till the river mingles with the ocean, which is eternity, and then they are parted no more. Are you satisfied with this? I thought not Well, what are your plans for the future?"
"I have scores of them. If I would take service with any of those South American republics, there is not one would not give me rank and station to-morrow. Brazil would take me. If I offered myself to the Sultan"s Government, where I am known, I could have a command at once."
"I don"t know that I like Turkish ideas on the married state," said she, gravely.
"Julia, Julia! do not torture me," cried he, anxiously. "It is my very life is at stake--be serious for once;" he took her hand tenderly as he spoke, and was bending down to kiss it, when a heavy foot was heard approaching, and suddenly L"Estrange burst into the room, with an open newspaper in his hand.
"I have got something here will surprise you, Jack," he cried. "You will be astonished to learn that you owe your escape from Ischia to no intrepidity of your own; that you had neither act nor part in the matter, but that it was all due to the consummate skill of a great diplomatist, who represented England at Naples. Listen to this--it is "our own special correspondent" who writes:--"I have naturally been curious to ascertain the exact history of Rogers" escape, the journals of this country having invested that event with most melodramatic, I might go further, and say incredible, details. My own knowledge of the precautions adopted against evasion, and the jealous care bestowed by the Neapolitan Government towards political prisoners, rendered me slow to believe that an unaided convict would have the slightest chance of effecting his liberation; and, as far as I can learn, late events have not diminished, in any degree, my faith in this opinion.
""If the stories which circulate in diplomatic circles are to be credited, it was H. B. M"s special envoy at this Court who planned the whole achievement. He, seeing the fatal obduracy of the King"s Ministers, and the utter impracticability of all proceedings to instil into them notions of right or honor, determined, while prosecuting the cause with unusual ardor, to remove the basis of the litigation. By what bribery he effected his object, or of whom, I do not profess to know, though very high names are mentioned with unsparing freedom here; but the fact remains, that when the last despatch of the Foreign Secretary was on its way to our envoy, Rogers was careering over the glad waters in one of H. M."s steam-launches--thus relieving the controversy of a very material and interesting item in the negotiation. Of course this has no other foundation than mere rumor; but it is a rumor that no one a.s.sumes to discredit, nor, indeed, any to deny, except the very discreet officials of our mission here, who naturally protest that it is a fabrication of the French press. The envoy is still here, and actively proceeding against the Government for an indemnity for unjust imprisonment." And now, Jack, here is the best of all. Listen to this: "So sensible are our ministers at home of the great service rendered by this adroit measure, the relief experienced by the removal of what at any moment might have become the very gravest of all questions,--that of peace or war,--that no reward is deemed too high for its distinguished author, and his Excellency Lord Viscount Culduff"--Culduff--"
"Lord Culduff!" cried Jack and Julia, in amazement.
""Viscount Culduff has been offered the post of amba.s.sador at Constantinople!""
Jack s.n.a.t.c.hed the paper from his hands, and stared in mute amazement at the lines.
"And is this the way fortunes are made in the world?" cried he, at last.
"Only in the great walks of life, Jack," said Julia. "Small people talk and labor, take service in Argentine republics, or fight for Mussulmen; distinguished people fire but one shot, but it always explodes in the enemy"s magazine."
"I wonder what he would have thought if he had known for whom he was negotiating," said Jack, dryly. "I half suspect my distinguished brother-in-law would have left me in chains far rather than drive down the Corso with me."
"I declare--no, I won"t say the spiteful thing that crossed my mind--but I _will_ say, I "d like to have seen a meeting between you and your brother Temple."
"You think he"d have been so ashamed of me," said Jack, with a laugh.
"Not a bit of it. _You_ might possibly have been ashamed of the situation--shocked with being such an unworthy member of a great house--but _he_, Temple, would have accepted you like a fever or an ague,--a great calamity sent from above,--but he would not have felt shame, any more than if you had been the scarlatina. Look at poor George," cried she, with a merry laugh. "He thinks I "ve said something very wicked, and he feels he ought to deplore it and possibly rebuke me."
Jack could not help laughing at the rueful expression of L"Estrange"s face, and his emotion was catching; for the others joined in the laugh, and in this merry mood returned to the garden.
CHAPTER LX. A RETURN HOME
The morning that followed this scene broke very happily on the villa; for Augustus was to arrive by the afternoon packet, and all were eager to meet him. His telegram said, "Cutbill is with me; but I do not know if he will stop." And this announcement, indeed, more than tempered the pleasure they felt at the thought of meeting Augustus.
Jack, whose sailor"s eye had detected a thin streak of smoke in the sky long ere the others had seen it, and knew by what time the steamer might arrive, hastened down to the sh.o.r.e to meet his brother alone, not wishing that the first meeting should be observed by others. And he was so far right. Men as they were,--tried and hardened by the world"s conflict,--they could not speak as they clasped each other in their arms; and when they separated to gaze at each other"s faces, their eyes swam in heavy tears. "My poor fellow!" was all that Augustus could say for several minutes, till, struck by the manly vigor and dignified bearing of the other, he cried out, "What a great powerful fellow you have grown, Jack! You are twice as strong as you used to be."
"Strong enough, Gusty; but I suppose I shall need it all. But how comes it that you have gray hair here?"
"You find me terribly changed, Jack! I have aged greatly since we met."
"You are tired, now, old fellow. A little rest, and the pleasant care of the villa will soon set you up again."
"Perhaps so. At all events, I have strength enough for what I am called on to bear. How are they all?"
"Well and hearty. I "d say jollier than I ever saw them before."
"What a n.o.ble girl is Nelly!"
"Ay, and her companion, too. I tell you, Gusty, there"s the same comrade spirit amongst girls that there is in a ship"s company; and where good ones come together they make each other better. But tell me now of yourself. What"s your news?"
"Not good; far from it. I believe, indeed, our cause is "up."
He--Pracontal, I mean--intends to behave handsomely by us. There will be no severity used. Indeed, he means to go further; but I "ll have time enough for all this later on. I "m so glad to see you again, my poor dear fellow, that I have no mind to think of anything else."
"How did you get rid of Cutbill?"
"I have n"t got rid of him; he is on board there. I don"t think he means to land. I suspect he "ll go on with the steamer to-night; and he is so ashamed to show, that he is snug in his berth all this time."
"But what does he mean by that?"
"He "s in a sc.r.a.pe, Jack, and had to get away from England to save himself from a jail; but I "ll tell you the story this evening,--or, better still, I "ll make him tell you, if you can manage to persuade him to come on sh.o.r.e."
"That he shall do," said Jack. "He behaved like a trump to me once when I was in trouble; and I don"t forget it." And so saying, he hastened on board the packet, and hurried below, to re-appear in a few minutes, holding Cutbill by the collar, as though he were his prisoner.
"Here"s the culprit," cried Jack; "and if he won"t land his luggage, he must take to a Montenegro rig like mine; and he "ll become it well."
"There, don"t collar me that fashion. See how the fellows are all staring at us. Have you no decency?"
"Will you come quietly, then?"
"Yes; let them hand up my two trunks and my violin case. What a droll place this is."
"There "s many a worse, I can tell you, than our villa yonder. If it were my own, I "d never ask to leave it."
"Nor need you, Jack," whispered Augustus. "I"ve brought back money to buy it; and I hope it will be our home this many a day."
"What"s this sc.r.a.pe of yours, Cutty?" said Jack, as they made their way homewards. "Whom have you been robbing this time, or was it forgery?"
"Let him tell you," said Cutbill, doggedly, as he motioned with his hand towards Gusty.
"It"s a mixed case of robbery with housebreaking," said Augustus.
"Pracontal had taken it into his head that certain papers of great value to himself were concealed in some secret press in our house at Castello; and Cutbill was just as convinced that there were no papers and no press, and that the whole was a dream or a delusion. They argued the case so often that they got to quarrel about it."
"No, we did n"t quarrel," broke in Cutbill, sulkily; "we betted."
"Yes, that is more correct Pracontal was so firmly persuaded that the papers existed that he offered three to one on it, and Cutbill, who likes a good thing, took it in hundreds."
"No. I wish I had. It was in fifties."
"As they had no permission to make the search, which required to break down the wall, and damage a valuable fresco--"