"Alas! Miss Dalton," said he, with a faint smile, "these are no enigmas to us who mix in all the worries and cares of life."
"Then how do you read the riddle?" said she, almost laughing at the easy flippancy of his tone.
"Mr. Dalton being an Irish gentleman of a kind disposition and facile temper, suffers his tenantry to run most grievously into arrear. They won"t pay, and he won"t make them; his own creditors having no sympathy with such proceedings, become pressing and importunate. Mr. Dalton grows angry, and they grow irritable; he makes his agent write to them, they "instruct" their attorney to write to him. Mr. D. is puzzled, and were it not that But, may I go on?"
"Of course; proceed," said she, smiling.
"You"ll not be offended, though?" said he, "because, if I have not the privilege of being frank, I shall be worthless to you."
"There is no serious offence without intention."
"Very true; but I do not wish there should be even a trivial transgression."
"I "m not afraid. Go on," said she, nodding her head.
"Where was I, then? Oh! I remember. I said that Mr. Dalton, seeing difficulties thickening and troubles gathering, suddenly bethinks him that he has a daughter, a young lady of such attractions that, in a society where wealth and splendor and rank hold highest place, her beauty has already established a dominion which nothing, save her gentleness, prevents being a despotism."
"Mr. Jekyl mistakes the part of a friend when he becomes flatterer."
"There is no flattery in a plain unadorned truth," said he, hastily.
"And were it all as you say," rejoined she, speaking with a heightened color and a flashing eye, "how could such circ.u.mstances be linked with those you spoke of?"
"Easily enough, if I did but dare to tell it," was his reply.
"It is too late for reserve; go on freely," said she, with a faint sigh.
Jekyl resumed,
"Mr. Dalton knows there are thousands could have told him so that his daughter may be a princess to-morrow if she wishes it. She has but to choose her rank and her nationality, and there is not a land in Europe in whose peerage she may not inscribe her name. It is too late for reserve," said he, quickly, "and consequently too late for resentment.
You must not be angry with me now; I am but speaking in your presence what all the world says behind your back. Hearing this, and believing it, as all believe it, what is there more natural than that he should address himself to her at whose disposal lie all that wealth can compa.s.s? The sun bestows many a gleam of warmth and brightness before he reaches the zenith. Do not mistake me. This request was scarcely fair; it was ill-advised. Your freedom should never have been jeopardized for such a mere trifle. Had your father but seen with his own eyes your position here, he would never have done this; but, being done, there is no harm in it."
"But what am I to do?" said Kate, trembling with embarra.s.sment and vexation together.
"Send the money, of course," said he, coolly.
"But how from what source?"
"Your own benevolence, none other," said he, as calmly.
"There is no question of a favor, no stooping to an obligation necessary. You will simply give your promise to repay it at some future day, not specifying when; and I will find a banker but too happy to treat with you."
"But what prospect have I of such ability to pay? what resources can I reckon upon?"
"You will be angry if I repeat myself," said Jekyl, with deep humility.
"I am already angry with myself that I should have listened to your proposal so indulgently; my troubles must, indeed, have affected me deeply when I so far forgot myself."
Jekyl dropped his head forward on his breast, and looked a picture of sorrow; after a while he said,
"Sir Stafford Onslow would, I well know, but be honored by your asking him the slight favor; but I could not counsel you to do so. Your feelings would have to pay too severe a sacrifice, and hence I advise making it a mere business matter; depositing some ornament a necklace you were tired of, a bracelet, anything in fact, a nothing and thus there is neither a difficulty nor a disclosure."
"I have scarcely anything," said Kate; "and what I have, have been all presents from Lady Hester."
"Morlache would be quite content with your word," said Jekyl, blandly.
"And if I should be unable to acquit the debt, will these few things I possess be sufficient to do it?"
"I should say double the amount, as a mere guess."
"Can I dare I take your counsel?" cried she, in an accent of intense anxiety.
"Can you reject it, when refusal will be so bitter?"
Kate gave a slight shudder, as though that pang was greater than all the rest.
"There is fortunately no difficulty in the matter whatever," said Jekyl, speaking rapidly. "You will, of course, have many things to purchase before you leave this. Well; take the carriage and your maid, and drive to the Ponte Vecchio. The last shop on the right-hand side of the bridge is "Morlache"s." It is unpromising enough outside, but there is wealth within to subsidize a kingdom. I will be in waiting to receive you, and in a few minutes the whole will be concluded; and if you have your letter ready, you can enclose the sum, and post it at once."
If there were many things in this arrangement which shocked Kate, and revolted against her sense of delicacy and propriety, there was one counterpoise more than enough to outweigh them all: she should be enabled to serve her father, she, who alone of all his children had never contributed, save by affection, to his comfort, should now materially a.s.sist him. She knew too well the sufferings and anxieties his straitened fortune cost him, she witnessed but too often the half-desperation in which he would pa.s.s days, borne down and almost broken-hearted! and she had witnessed that outbreak of joy he would indulge in when an unexpected help had suddenly lifted him from the depth of his poverty. To be the messenger of such good tidings to be a.s.sociated in his mind with this a.s.sistance, to win his fervent "G.o.d bless you!" she would have put life itself in peril; and when Jekyl placed so palpably before her the prompt.i.tude with which the act could be accomplished, all hesitation ceased, and she promised to be punctual at the appointed place by three o"clock that same afternoon.
"It is too early to expect to see Lady Hester," said Jekyl; "and indeed, my real business here this morning was with yourself, so that now I shall drive out to Midchekoff"s and make all the arrangements about the villa. Till three, then, good-bye!"
"Good-bye," said Kate, for the first time disposed to feel warmly to the little man, and half reproach herself with some of the prejudices she used to entertain regarding him.
Jekyl now took his way to the stables, and ordering a brougham to be got ready for him, sauntered into the house, and took his coffee while he waited.
CHAPTER x.x.xV. RACCA MORLACHE.
There is something of mediaeval look and air about the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, which gives it a peculiar interest to the traveller. The quaint little low shops on either side, all glittering with gold and gems; the gorgeous tiaras of diamonds; the richly enamelled cups and vases aside of the grotesque ornaments of peasant costume; the c.u.mbrous ear-rings of stamped gold; the old-fashioned clasps and buckles of ma.s.sive make; the chains fashioned after long-forgotten models; the strings of Oriental pearls, costly and rare enough for queens to wear, are all thrown about in a rich profusion, curiously in contrast to the humble sheds for they are little more that hold them.
The incessant roll of equipages,--the crowd and movement of a great city; the lingering peasant, gazing with rapturous eyes at the glittering wares; the dark Israelitish face that peers from within; the ever-flowing tide of population of every rank and age and country, giving a bustle and animation to the scene, so beautifully relieved by the view that opens on the centre of the bridge, and where, in a vacant s.p.a.ce, the Arno is seen wending peacefully along, and scattering its circling eddies beneath the graceful arches of the "Santa Trinita," that little glimpse of hill and vineyard and river, the cypress-clad heights of San Miniato, and the distant mountain of Vallombrosa, more beautiful far than all the gold Pactolus ever rolled, or all the gems that ever glittered on crown or coronet.
There was one stall at the end of the bridge so humble-looking and so scantily provided that no stranger was seen to linger beside it. A few coral ornaments for peasant wear, some stamped medals for pious use, and some of those little silver tokens hung up by some devout hands as votive offerings at a holy shrine, were all that appeared; while, as if to confirm the impression of the scanty traffic that went on, the ma.s.sive door was barred and bolted like the portal of a prison. An almost erased inscription, unrenewed for nigh half a century, told that this was the shop of "Racca Morlache."
There may have been much of exaggeration in the stories that went of the Jew"s enormous wealth; doubtless many of the accounts were purely fabulous; but one fact is certain, that from that lowly roof went forth sums sufficient to maintain the credit of many a tottering state, or support the cost of warlike struggles to replace a dynasty. To him came the heads of despotic governments, the leaders of rebellious democracy, the Russian and the Circa.s.sian, the Carlist and the Cristino. To the proud champion of divine right, or the fearless promulgator of equality, to all he was accessible. Solvency and his profit were requirements he could not dispense with; but, for the rest, in what channel of future good and evil his wealth was to flow, whether to maintain a throne or sap its foundation, to uphold a faith or to desecrate its altars, to liberate a people or to bind their fetters more closely, were cares that sat lightly on his heart.
He might, with his vast means, have supported a style like royalty itself. There was no splendor nor magnificence he need have denied himself; nor, as the world goes, any society from which he should be debarred, gold is the picklock to the doors of palaces as of prisons; but he preferred this small and miserable habitation, which for above two centuries had never borne any other name than the "Casa Morlache."
Various reasons were given out for a choice so singular; among others, it was said that the Grand-Duke was accustomed to visit the Jew by means of a secret pa.s.sage from the "Pitti;" while some alleged that the secret frequenters of Morlache"s abode all came by water, and that in the dark night many a boat skimmed the Arno, and directed its course to the last arch of the Ponte Vecchio. With these rumors we have no concern, nor with Morlache himself have we more than a pa.s.sing business.
When Kate Dalton had driven up to the door, she had all but determined to abandon her intention. The arguments which in the morning had taken her by surprise seemed now weak and futile, and she was shocked with herself for even the momentary yielding to Jekyl"s counsels. Her only doubt was whether to drive on without further halt, or leave some short message, to the effect that she had called but could not delay there.
This seemed the better and more courteous proceeding; and while she was yet speaking to the dark-eyed, hook-nosed boy who appeared at the door, Jekyl came up.
"Be quick, Miss Dalton! Don"t lose an instant," said he. "Morlache is going to the palace, and we shall miss him."