added he, rising from the table, as he finished off the last gla.s.s in the decanter. "I shall call at Downing Street to-morrow for that letter of Upton"s, and, with your permission, will deposit it in your hands afterwards."
Harcourt accompanied him to the door with thanks. Profuse, indeed, was he in his recognitions, desiring to get him clear off the ground before any further allusions on his part, or rejoinders from Glencore, might involve them all in new complications.
"I know that fellow well," cried Glencore, almost ere the door closed on him. "He is just what I remember him some twenty years ago. Dressed up in the cast-off vices of his betters, he has pa.s.sed for a man of fashion amongst his own set, while he is regarded as a wit by those who mistake malevolence for humor. I ask no other test of a society than that such a man is endured in it."
"I sometimes suspect," said Harcourt, "that the world never believes these fellows to be as ill-natured as then-tongues bespeak them."
"You are wrong, George; the world knows them well. The estimation they are held in is, for the reflective flattery by which each listener to their sarcasms soothes his own conscience as he says, "I could be just as bitter, if I consented to be as bad."""
"I cannot at all account for Upton"s endurance of such a man," said Harcourt.
"As there are men who fancy that they strengthen their animal system by braving every extreme of climate, so Upton imagines that he invigorates his _morale_ by a.s.sociating with all kinds and descriptions of people; and there is no doubt that in doing so he extends the sphere of his knowledge of mankind. After all," muttered he, with a sigh, "it "s only learning the geography of a land too unhealthy to live in."
Glencore arose as he said this, and, with a nod of leave-taking, retired to his room.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI. A FEVERED MIND
Harcourt pa.s.sed the morning of the following day in watching the street for Scaresby"s arrival. Glencore"s impatience had grown into absolute fever to obtain the missing letter, and he kept asking every moment at what hour he had promised to be there, and wondering at his delay.
Noon pa.s.sed over,--one o"clock; it was now nearly half-past, as a carriage drove hastily to the door.
"At last," cried Glencore, with a deep sigh.
"Sir Gilbert Bruce, sir, requests to know if you can receive him," said the servant to Harcourt.
"Another disappointment!" muttered Glencore, as he left the room, when Harcourt motioned to the servant to introduce the visitor.
"My dear Colonel Harcourt," cried the other, entering, "excuse a very abrupt call; but I have a most pressing need of your a.s.sistance. I hear you can inform me of Lord Glencore"s address."
"He is residing in North Wales at present. I can give you his post town."
"Yes, but can I be certain that he will admit me if I should go down there? He is living, I hear, in strict retirement, and I am anxious for a personal interview."
"I cannot insure you that," said Harcourt. "He does live, as you have heard, entirely estranged from all society. But if you write to him--"
"Ah! there"s the difficulty. A letter and its reply takes some days."
"And is the matter, then, so very imminent?"
"It is so; at least it is thought to be so by an authority that neither you nor I will be likely to dispute. You know his Lordship intimately, I fancy?"
"Perhaps. I may call myself as much his friend as any man living."
"Well, then, I may confide to you my business with him. It happened that, a few days back, Lord Adderley was on a visit with the King at Brighton, when a foreign messenger arrived with despatches. They were, of course, forwarded to him there; and as the King has a pa.s.sion for that species of literature, he opened them all himself. Now, I suspect that his Majesty cares more for the amusing incidents which occasionally diversify the life of foreign courts than for the great events of politics. At all events, he devours them with avidity, and seems conversant with the characters and private affairs of some hundreds of people he has never seen, nor in all likelihood will ever see! In turning over the loose pages of one of the despatches from Naples, I think, he came upon what appeared to be a fragment of a letter. Of what it was, or what it contained, I have not the slightest knowledge.
Adderley himself has not seen it, nor any one but the King. All I know is that it concerns in some way Lord Glencore; for immediately on reading it he gave me instructions to find him out, and send him down to Brighton."
"I am afraid, were you to see Glencore, your mission would prove a failure. He has given up the world altogether, and even a royal command would scarcely withdraw him from his retirement."
"At all events, I must make the trial. You can let me have his address, and perhaps you would do more, and give me some sort of introduction to him,--something that might smooth down the difficulty of a first visit."
Harcourt was silent, and stood for some seconds in deep thought; which the other, mistaking for a sign of unwillingness to comply with his request, quickly added, "If my demand occasion you any inconvenience, or if there be the slightest difficulty--"
"Nay, nay, I was not thinking of that," said Harcourt. "Pray excuse me for a moment. I will fetch you the address you spoke of;" and without waiting for more, he left the room. The next minute he was in Glencore"s room, hurriedly narrating to him all that had pa.s.sed, and asking him what course he should pursue. Glencore heard the story with a greater calm than Harcourt dared to hope for; and seemed pleased at the reiterated a.s.surance that the King alone had seen the letter referred to; and when Harcourt abruptly asked what was to be done, he slowly replied, "I must obey his Majesty"s commands. I must go to Brighton."
"But are you equal to all this? Have you strength for it?"
"I think so; at all events, I am determined to make the effort. I was a favorite with his Majesty long ago. He will say nothing to hurt me needlessly; nor is it in his nature to do so. Tell Bruce that you will arrange everything, and that I shall present myself to-morrow at the palace."
"Remember, Glencore, that if you say so--"
"I must be sure and keep my word. Well, so I mean, George. I was a courtier once upon a time, and have not outlived my deference to a sovereign. I "ll be there; you may answer for me."
From the moment that Glencore had come to this resolve, a complete change seemed to pa.s.s over the nature of the man. It was as though a new spring had been given to his existence. The reformation that all the blandishments of friendship, all the soft influences of kindness, could never accomplish, was more than half effected by the mere thought of an interview with a king, and the possible chance of a little royal sympathy!
If Harcourt was astonished, he was not the less pleased at all this.
He encouraged Glencore"s sense of gratification by every means in his power, and gladly lent himself to all the petty anxieties about dress and appearance in which he seemed now immersed. Nothing could exceed, indeed, the care he bestowed on these small details; ever insisting as he did that, his Majesty being the best-dressed gentleman in Europe, these matters a.s.sumed a greater importance in his eyes.
"I must try to recover somewhat of my former self," said he. "There was a time when I came and went freely to Carlton House, when I was somewhat more than a mere frequenter of the Prince"s society. They tell me that of late he is glad to see any of those who partook of his intimacy of those times; who can remember the genial spirits who made his table the most brilliant circle of the world; who can talk to him of Hanger, and Kelly, and Sheridan, and the rest of them. I spent my days and nights with them."
Warming with the recollection of a period which, dissolute and dissipated as it was, yet redeemed by its brilliancy many of its least valuable features, Glencore poured forth story after story of a time when statesmen had the sportive-ness of schoolboys, and the greatest intellects loved to indulge in the wildest excesses of folly. A good jest upon Eldon, a smart epigram on Sidmouth, a quiz against Vansittart, was a fortune at Court; and there grew up thus around the Prince a cla.s.s who cultivated ridicule so a.s.siduously that nothing was too high or too venerable to escape their sarcasms.
Though Glencore was only emerging out of boyhood,--a young subaltern in the Prince"s own regiment,--when he first entered this society, the impression it had made upon his mind was not the less permanent.
Independently of the charm of being thus admitted to the most choice circle of the land, there was the fascination of intimacy with names that even amongst contemporaries were ill.u.s.trious.
"I feel in such spirits to-day, George," cried Glencore at length, "that I vote we go and pa.s.s the day at Richmond. We shall escape the possibility of being bored by your acquaintance. We shall have a glorious stroll through the fields, and a pleasant dinner afterwards at the Star and Garter."
Only too well pleased at this sudden change in his friend"s humor, Harcourt a.s.sented.
The day was a bright and clear one, with a sharp, frosty air and that elasticity of atmosphere that invigorates and stimulates. They both soon felt its influence, and as the hours wore on, pleasant memories of the past were related, and old friends remembered and talked over in a spirit that brought back to each much of the youthful sentiments they recorded.
"If one could only go over it all again, George," said Glencore, as they sat after dinner, "up to three-and-twenty, or even a year or two later, I "d not ask to change a day,--scarcely an hour. Whatever was deficient in fact, was supplied by hope. It was a joyous, brilliant time, when we all made partnership of our good spirits, and traded freely on the capital. Even Upton was frank and free-hearted then. There were some six or eight of us, with just fortune enough never to care about money, and none of us so rich as to be immersed in dreams of gold, as ever happens with your millionnaire. Why could we not have continued so to the end?"
Harcourt adroitly turned him from the theme which he saw impending,--his departure for the Continent, his residence there, and his marriage,--and once more occupied him in stories of his youthful life in London, when Glencore suddenly came to a stop, and said, "I might have married the greatest beauty of the time,--of a family, too, second to none in all England. You know to whom I allude. Well, she would have accepted me; her father was not averse to the match; a stupid altercation with her brother, Lord Hervey, at Brookes"s one night--an absurd dispute about some etiquette of the play-table--estranged me from their house. I was offended at what I deemed their want of courtesy in not seeking me,--for I was in the right; every one said so. I determined not to call first.
They gave a great entertainment, and omitted me; and rather than stay in town to publish this affront, I started for the Continent; and out of that petty incident, a discussion of the veriest trifle imaginable, there came the whole course of my destiny."
"To be sure," said Harcourt, with a.s.sumed calm, "every man"s fortune in life is at the sport of some petty incident or other, which at the time he undervalues."
"And then we scoff at those men who scrutinize each move, and hesitate over every step in life, as triflers and little-minded; while, if your remark be just, it is exactly they who are the wise and prudent," cried Glencore, with warmth. "Had I, for instance, seen this occurrence, trivial as it was, in its true light, what and where might I not have been to-day?"
"My dear Glencore, the luckiest fellow that ever lived, were he only to cast a look back on opportunities neglected, and conjunctures unprofited by, would be sure to be miserable. I am far from saying that some have not more than their share of the world"s sorrows; but, take my word for it, every one has his load, be it greater or less; and, what is worse, we all of us carry our burdens with as much inconvenience to ourselves as we can."
"I know what you would say, Harcourt. It is the old story about giving way to pa.s.sion, and suffering temper to get the better of one; but let me tell you that there are trials where pa.s.sion is an instinct, and reason works too slowly. I have experienced such as this."
"Give yourself but fair play, Glencore, and you will surmount all your troubles. Come back into the world again,--I don"t mean this world of b.a.l.l.s and dinner-parties, of morning calls and afternoons in the Park; but a really active, stirring life. Come with me to India, and let us have a raid amongst the jaguars; mix with the pleasant, light-hearted fellows you "ll meet at every mess, who ask for nothing better than their own good spirits and good health, to content them with the world; just look out upon life, and see what numbers are struggling and swimming for existence, while you, at least, have competence and wealth for all you wish; and bear in mind that round the table where wit is flashing and the merriest laughter rings, there is not a man--no, not one--who hasn"t a something heavy in his heart, but yet who"d feel himself a coward if his face confessed it."
"And why am I to put this mask upon me? For what and for whom have I to wear this disguise?" cried Glencore, angrily.