screamed Rory, as the voice caught his ear. "Give me that crutch; let me have one lick at him, for the love of Mary."
"They"re all mad here, that"s plain," said M"Caskey, turning away with a contemptuous air. "Sir," added he, turning towards Skeff, "I have the honor to salute you;" and with a magnificent bow he withdrew, while Rory, in a voice of wildest pa.s.sion and invective, called down innumerable curses on his head, and inveighed even against the bystanders for not securing the "greatest villain in Europe." "I shall want to send a letter to Naples," cried out Skeff to the Colonel; "I mean to remain here;" but M"Caskey never deigned to notice his words, but walked proudly down the stairs, and went his way.
CHAPTER LVII. AT TONY"S BEDSIDE
My story draws to a close, and I have not s.p.a.ce to tell how Skeff watched beside his friend, rarely quitting him, and showing in a hundred ways the resources of a kind and thoughtful nature. Tony had been severely wounded; a sabre-cut had severed his scalp, and he had been shot through the shoulder; but all apprehension of evil consequences was now over, and he was able to listen to Skeff"s wondrous tidings, and hear all the details of his accession to wealth and fortune. His mother--how she would rejoice at it! how happy it would make her!--not for her own sake, but for his; how it would seem to repay to her all she had suffered from the haughty estrangement of Sir Omerod, and how proud she would be at the recognition, late though it came! These were Tony"s thoughts; and very often, when Skeflf imagined him to be following the details of his property, and listening with eagerness to the description of what he owned, Tony was far away in thought at the cottage beside the Causeway, and longing ardently when he should sit at the window with his mother at his side planning out some future in which they were to be no more separated.
There was no elation at his sudden fortune, nor any of that antic.i.p.ation of indulgence which Skeff himself would have felt, and which he indeed suggested. No. Tony"s whole thoughts so much centred in his dear mother, that she entered into all his projects; and there was not a picture of enjoyment wherein she was not a foreground figure.
They would keep the cottage,--that was his first resolve: his mother loved it dearly; it was a.s.sociated with years long of happiness and of trials too; and trials can endear a spot when they are n.o.bly borne, and the heart will cling fondly to that which has chastened its emotions and elevated its hopes. And then, Tony thought, they might obtain that long stretch of land that lay along the sh.o.r.e, with the little nook where the boats lay at anchor, and where he would have his yacht. "I suppose,"
said he, "Sir Arthur Lyle would have no objection to my being so near a neighbor?"
"Of course not; but we can soon settle that point, for they are all here."
"Here?"
"At Naples, I mean."
"How was it that you never told me that?" he asked sharply.
Skeff fidgeted--bit his cigar--threw it away; and with more confusion than became so distinguished a diplomatist, stammered out, "I have had so much to tell you--such lots of news;" and then with an altered voice he added, "Besides, old fellow, the doctor warned me not to say anything that might agitate you; and I thought--that is, I used to think--there was something in that quarter, eh?"
Tony grew pale, but made no answer.
"I know she likes you, Tony," said Skeff, taking his hand and pressing it. "Bella, who is engaged to me--I forget if I told you that--"
"No, you never told me!"
"Well, Bella and I are to be married immediately,--that is, as soon as I can get back to England. I have asked for leave already; they "ve refused me twice. It "s all very fine saying to me that I ought to know that in the present difficulties of Italy no man could replace me at this Court. My answer to that is: Skeff Darner has other stuff in him as well as ambition. He has a heart just as much as a head. Nor am I to go on pa.s.sing my life saving this dynasty. The Bourbons are not so much to me as my own happiness, eh?"
"I suppose not," said Tony, dryly.
"You "d have done the same, would n"t you?"
"I can"t tell. I cannot even imagine myself filling any station of responsibility or importance."
"My reply was brief: Leave for six months" time, to recruit an over-taxed frame and over-wrought intellect; time also for them to look out what to offer me, for I "ll not go to Mexico, nor to Rio; neither will I take Washington, nor any of the Northern Courts. Dearest Bella must have climate, and I myself must have congenial society; and so I said, not in such terms, but in meaning, Skeff Darner is only yours at _his_ price. Let them refuse me,--let me see them even hesitate, and I give my word of honor, I"m capable of abandoning public life altogether, and retiring into my woods at Tilney, leaving the whole thing at sizes and sevens."
Now, though Tony neither knew what the "whole thing" meant, nor the dire consequences to which his friend"s anger might have consigned it, he muttered something that sounded like a hope that he would not leave Europe to shift for herself at such a moment.
"Let them not drive me to it, that"s all," said he, haughtily; and he arose and walked up and down with an air of defiance. "The Lyles do not see this,--Lady Lyle especially. She wants a peerage for her daughter, but ambition is not always scrupulous."
"I always liked her the least of them," muttered Tony, who never could forget the sharp lesson she administered to him.
"She "ll make herself more agreeable to you now, Master Tony," said Skeff, with a dry laugh.
"And why so?"
"Can"t you guess?"
"No."
"On your word?".
"On my word, I cannot."
"Don"t you think Mr. Butler of something or other in Herefordshire is another guess man from Tony Butler of nowhere in particular?"
"Ah! I forgot my change of fortune: but if I had ever remembered it, I "d never have thought so meanly of _her_."
"That"s all rot and nonsense. There"s no meanness in a woman wanting to marry her daughter well, any more than in a man trying to get a colonelcy or a legation for his son. You were no match for Alice Trafford three months ago. Now both she and her mother will think differently of your pretensions."
"Say what you like of the mother, but you shall not impute such motives to Alice."
"Don"t you get red in the face and look like a tiger, young man, or I "ll take my leave and send that old damsel here with the ice-pail to you."
"It was the very thing I liked in you," muttered Tony, "that you never did impute mean motives to women."
"My poor Tony! the fellow who has seen life as I have, who knows the thing in its most minute anatomy, comes out of the investigation infernally case-hardened; he can"t help it. I love Alice. Indeed, if I had not seen Bella, I think I should have married Alice. There, you are getting turkey-c.o.c.k again. Let us talk of something else. What the deuce was it I wanted to ask you?--something about that great Irish monster in the next room, the fellow that sings all day: where did you pick him up?"
Tony made no reply, but lay with his hand over his eyes, while Skeff went on rambling over the odds and ends he had picked up in the course of Rory Quin"s story, and the devoted love he bore to Tony himself. "By the way, they say that it was for you Garibaldi intended the promotion to the rank of officer, but that you managed to pa.s.s it to this fellow, who could n"t sign his name when they asked him for it."
"If he could n"t write, he has left his mark on some of the Neapolitans!" said Tony, fiercely; "and as for the advancement, he deserved it far more than I did."
"It was a lucky thing for that aide-de-camp of Filangieri who accompanied me here, that your friend Rory had n"t got two legs, for he wanted to brain him with his crutch. Both of you had an antipathy to him, and indeed I own to concurring in the sentiment. My G.o.dfather you called him!" said he, laughing.
"I wish he had come a little closer to my bedside, that"s all," muttered Tony; and Skeff saw by the expression of his features that he was once more unfortunate in his attempt to hit upon an unexciting theme.
"Alice knew of your journey here, I think you said?" whispered Tony, faintly.
"Yes. I sent them a few lines to say I was setting out to find you."
"How soon could I get to Naples? Do you think they would let me move to-morrow?"
"I have asked that question already. The doctor says in a week; and I must hasten away to-night,--there"s no saying what confusion my absence will occasion. I mean to be back here by Thursday to fetch you."
"Good fellow! Remember, though," added he, after a moment, "we must take Rory. I can"t leave Rory here."
Skeff looked gravely.
"He carried _me_ when I was wounded out of the fire at Melazzo, and I am not going to desert him now."
"Strange situation for her Majesty"s Charge d"Affaires," said Skeff,--"giving protection to the wounded of the rebel army."
"Don"t talk to me of rebels. We are as legitimate as the fellows we were fighting against. It was a good stand-up fight, too,--man to man, some of it; and if it was n"t that my head reels so when I sit or stand up, I "d like to be at it again."
"It is a fine bull-dog,--just a bull-dog," said Skeff, patting him on the head, while in the compa.s.sionate pity of his voice he showed how humbly he ranked the qualities he ascribed to him. "Ah! now I remember what it was _I_ wished to ask you (it escaped me till this moment): who is the creature that calls himself Sam M"Gruder?"