"And justly so, too; none other offers so little in return as a mere speculation. None is so little exposed to the casualties which affect every other kind of wealth. The legitimate influence of the landed gentry is the safeguard of the State; but if, by the attractions of power, the flatteries of a Court, or the seductions of Party, you withdraw them from the rightful sphere of its exercise, you reduce them to the level of the Borough members, without, perhaps, their technical knowledge or professional acquirements. I am for giving them a higher position,--the heritage of the bold barons, from whom they are descended: but to maintain this, they must live on their own estates, dispense the influences of their wealth and their morals in their own native districts, be the friend of the poor man, the counsellor of the misguided, the encourager of the weak; know and be known to all around, not as the corrupt dispensers of Government patronage, but the guardians of those whose rights are in their keeping for defence and protection.
I would have them with their rightful influence in the Senate; an influence which should preponderate in both Houses. Their rank and education would be the best guarantee for the safety and wisdom of their counsels, their property the best surety for the permanence of the inst.i.tutions of the State. Suddenly acquired wealth can scarcely be intrusted with political power; it lacks the element of prudent caution, by which property is maintained as well as acc.u.mulated; it wants also the prestige of antiquity as a claim to respect; and, legislate as you will, men will look back as well as forward."
Lord Netherby made no reply; he thought the Knight, perhaps, was venting his own regrets at the downfall of a political ascendency he wished to see vested in men of his own station,--a position they had long enjoyed, and which, in some respects, had placed them above the law.
"You lay more store by such ties, Knight," said the Earl, in a low, insinuating voice, "than we are accustomed to do. Blood and birth have suffered less admixture with mere wealth here than with us."
"Perhaps we do, my Lord," said Darcy, smiling; "it is the compensation for our poverty. Unmixed descent is the boast of many who have retained nothing of their ancestors save the name."
"But you yourself can scarcely be an advocate for the maintenance of these opinions: this spirit of clan and chieftainship is opposed, not only to progress, but to liberty."
"I have given the best proof of the contrary," said Darcy, laughing, "by marrying an Englishwoman,--a dereliction, I a.s.sure you, that cost me many a warm supporter in this very country."
"Indeed! By the way, I am reminded of a subject I wished to speak of to you, and which I have been hesitating whether I should open with my cousin Eleanor or yourself; the moment seems, however, propitious,--may I broach it?"
Darcy bowed courteously, and the other resumed:--
"I will be brief, then. Young Beauclerk, a friend of your son Lionel, has been, as every one younger and older than himself must be, greatly taken by the charms of Miss Darcy. Brief as the acquaintance here has been, the poor fellow is desperately in love, and, while feeling how such an acknowledgment might prejudice his chance of success on so short an intimacy, he cannot leave this without the effort to secure for his pretensions a favorable hearing hereafter. In fact, my dear Knight, he has asked of me to be his intercessor with you,--not to receive him as a son-in-law, but to permit him to pay such attentions as, in the event of your daughter"s acceptance, may enable him to make the offer of his hand and fortune. I need not tell you that in point of position and means he is unexceptionable; a very old Baronetcy,--not one of these yesterday creations made up of State Physicians and Surgeons in Ordinary,--an estate of above twelve thousand a year. Such are claims to look high with; but I confess I think he could not lay them at the feet of one more captivating than my fair Helen."
Darcy made no reply for several minutes; he pressed his hand across his eyes, and turned his head away, as if to escape observation; then, with an effort that seemed to demand all his strength, he said,--
"This is impossible, my Lord. There are reasons--there are circ.u.mstances why I cannot entertain this proposition. I am not able to explain them; a few days more, and I need not trouble myself on that subject."
The evident agitation of manner the Knight displayed astonished his companion, who, while he forebore to ask more directly for its reason, yet gently hinted that the obstacles alluded to might be less stringent than Darcy deemed them.
Darcy shook his head mournfully, and Lord Netherby, though most anxious to divine the secret of his thoughts, had too much breeding to continue the subject.
Without any abruptness, which might have left an unpleasant impression after it, the polished courtier once more adverted to Beauclerk, but rather in a tone of regret for the youth"s own sake than with any reference to the Knight"s refusal.
"There was a kind of selfishness in my advocacy, Knight," said he, smiling. "I was--I am--very much depressed at quitting a spot where I have tasted more true happiness than it has been my fortune for many years to know, and I wish to carry away with me the reflection that I had left the germ of even greater happiness behind me; if Helen, however--"
"Hush!" said Darcy; "here she comes, with her mother."
"My dear Lady Eleanor," said Lord Netherby, "you have come to see me forget all the worldliness it has cost me a life to learn, and actually confess that I cannot tear myself away from the abbey."
"Well, my Lord," interposed Tom Nolan, who had just come up with a large walking party, "I suppose it"s only ordering away the posters, and staying another day."
"No, no, by Jove!" cried Crofton; "my Lord is in waiting, and I"m on duty."
While the groups now gathered together from the different parts of the garden, Lord Netherby joined Beauclerk, who awaited him in a distant alley, and soon after the youth was seen returning alone to the abbey.
The time of bustle and leave-taking--that moment when many a false smile and merry speech ill conceals the secret sorrow--was come, and each after each spoke his farewell; and Lord Netherby, kindly pledging himself to make Lionel"s peace at the Horse Guards for an extended absence of some days, thus conferred upon Lady Eleanor the very greatest of favors.
"Our next meeting is to be in London, remember," said the peer, in his blandest accents. "I stand pledged to show my countrymen that I have nothing extenuated in speaking of Irish beauty;--nay, Helen, it is my last time, forgive it."
"There they go," said Darcy, as he looked after the retiring equipages.
"Now, Eleanor, and my dear children, come along with me into the library. I have long been struggling against a secret sorrow; another moment would be more than I could bear."
They turned silently towards the abbey, none daring, even by a look, to interrogate him whose sad accents foreboded so much evil; yet as they walked they drew closer around him, and seemed even by that gesture to show that, come what might, they would meet their fortune boldly.
Darcy moved on for some minutes sunk in thought; but as he ascended the wide steps of the terrace, appearing to read the motives of those who clung so closely to his side, he smiled sadly, and said, "Ay! I knew it well,--in weal or woe--together!"
CHAPTER x.x.xII. "SAD DISCLOSURES."
The vicissitudes of life are never more palpably displayed before us than when the s.p.a.ce of a few brief hours has converted the scene of festivity and pleasure into one of gloom and sorrow, when the same silent witnesses of our joy should be present at our affliction. Thus was it now in the richly adorned chambers of Gwynne Abbey, so lately filled with happy faces and resounding with pleasant voices,--all was silent. Iu the courtyard, but a day before crowded with brilliant equipages and gay hors.e.m.e.n, the long shadows lay dark and unbroken, and the plash of the fountain was the only sound in the stillness. Over that wide lawn no groups on foot or horseback were to be seen; the landscape was fair and soft to look upon; the mild radiance of a spring morning beamed on the water and the sh.o.r.e, the fresh budding trees, and the tall towers; and the pa.s.sing traveller who might have stopped to gaze upon that princely dwelling and its swelling woods, might have thought it an earthly paradise, and that they who owned it must needs be above worldly cares and afflictions.
The scene within the walls was very unlike this impression. In a darkened room, where the close-drawn curtains excluded every ray of sunshine, sat Helen Darcy by the bedside of her mother. Lady Eleanor had fallen asleep after a night of intense suffering, both of mind and body, and her repose even yet exhibited, in short and fitful starts, the terrible traces of an agony not yet subdued. Helen was pale as death; two dark circles of almost purple hue surrounded her eyes, and her cheeks seemed wasted: yet she had not wept. The overwhelming amount of misfortune had stunned her for a moment or two, but, recalled to active exertion by her mother"s illness, she addressed herself to her task, and seemed to have no thought or care save to watch and tend her. It was only at last when, wearied out by suffering, Lady Eleanor fell into a slumber that Helen"s feelings found their vent, and the tears rolled heavily along her cheek, and dropped one by one upon her neck.
Her sorrow was indeed great, for it was unalloyed by one selfish feeling; her grief was for those a thousand times more dear to her than herself, nor through all her affliction did a single thought intrude of how this ruin was also her own.
The Knight was in the library, where he had pa.s.sed the night, lying down at short intervals to catch some moments" rest, and again rising to walk the room and reflect upon the coming stroke of fortune. Lionel had parted from him at a late hour, promising to go to bed; but, unable to endure the gloom of his own thoughts in his chamber, he wandered out into the woods, and strolled on without knowing or caring whither, till day broke. The bodily exertion at length induced sleep, and after a few hours" deep repose he joined his father, with few traces of weariness or even sorrow.
It was not without a struggle on either side that they met on that morning, and as Darcy grasped his son"s hand in both his own, his lip trembled, and his strong frame shook with agitation. Lionel"s ruddy cheek and clear blue eye seemed to rea.s.sure the old man"s courage; and after gazing on him steadfastly with a look where fatherly love and pride were blended, he said, "I see, my boy, the old blood of a Darcy has not degenerated--you are well to-day?"
"Never was better in my life," said Lionel, boldly; "and if I could only think that you, my mother, and Helen had no cause for sorrow, I "d almost say I never felt my spirits higher."
"My own brave-hearted boy," said Darcy, throwing his arms around the youth"s neck, while the tears gushed from his eyes and a choking stopped his utterance.
"I see your letters have come," said Lionel, gently disengaging himself, and affecting a degree of calmness his heart was very far from feeling.
"Do they bring us any news?"
"Nothing to hope from," said Darcy, sorrowfully. "Daly has seen Hickman"s solicitors, and the matter is as I expected: Gleeson did not pay the bond debt; his journey to Kildare was, probably, undertaken to gain time until the moment of the American ship"s sailing. He must have meditated this step for a considerable time, for it now appears that his losses in South America occurred several years back, though carefully screened from public knowledge. The man was a cold, calculating scoundrel, who practised peculation systematically and slowly; his resolve to escape was not a sudden notion,--these are Bagenal Daly"s impressions at least, and I begin to feel their force myself."
"Does Daly offer any suggestion for our guidance, or say how we should act?" said Lionel, far more eager to meet the present than speculate on either the past or the future.
"Yes; he gives us a choice of counsels, honestly confessing that his own advice meets little support or sympathy with the lawyers. It is to hold forcible possession of the abbey, to leave Hickman to his remedy by law, and to defy him when he has even got a verdict; he enumerates very circ.u.mstantially all our means of defence, and exhibits a very hopeful array of lawless probabilities in our favor. But this is a counsel I would never follow; it would not become one who has in a long life endeavored to set the example among the people of obedience and observance to law, to obliterate by one act of rashness and folly the whole force of his teaching. No, Lionel, we are cleanhanded on this score, and if the lesson, be a heavy one for ourselves, let it not be profitless for our poor neighbors. This is your own feeling too, my boy, I"m certain."
Lionel bit his lip, and his cheek grew scarlet; when, after a pause, he said, "And the other plan, what is that?"
"The renewed offer of his cottage on the northern coast, a lonely and secluded spot, where we can remain at least until we determine on something better."
"Perhaps that may be a wiser course," muttered the youth, half aloud; "my mother and Helen are to be thought of first. And yet, father, I.
cannot help thinking Daly"s first counsel has something in it."
"Something in it! ay, Lionel, that it has,--the whole story of our country"s misery and degradation. The owner of the soil has diffused little else among the people than the licentious terror of his own unbridled pa.s.sion; he has taught lawless outrage, when he should have inculcated obedience and submission. The corruption of our people has come from above downwards; the heavy retribution will come one day; and when the vices of the peasant shall ascend to the master, the social ruin will be complete. To this dreadful consummation let us lend no aid.
No, no, Lionel, sorrow may be lessened by time; but remorse is undying and eternal."
"I must leave the Guards at once," said the young man, pacing the room slowly, and endeavoring to speak with an air of calm composure, while every feature of his face betrayed the agitation he suffered; "an exchange will not be difficult to manage."
"You have some debts, too, in London: they must be cared for immediately."
"Nothing of any large amount; my horses and carriages when sold will more than meet all I owe. Have you formed any guess as to what income will be left you to live on?" said he, in a voice which anxiety made weak and tremulous.
"Without Daly"s a.s.sistance, I cannot answer that point; the extent of this fellow Gleeson"s iniquity seems but half explored. The likelihood is, that your mother"s jointure will be the utmost we can save from the wreck. Even that, however, will be enough for all we need, although, from motives of delicacy on her part, it was originally set down at a very small sum,--not more than a thousand per annum."
A long silence now ensued. The Knight, buried in thought, sat with his arms crossed, and his eyes bent upon the ground. Lionel leaned on the window-frame and looked out upon the lawn; nothing stirred, no sound was heard save the sharp ticking of the clock upon the mantelpiece, which marked with distinctness every second, as if reminding them of the fleeting moments that were to be their last beneath that roof.