"Well, Arthur dear," she said at last, taking her bonnet, "we must be going presently. What do you think of Dane, Mr.
Falkirk?"
Mr. Falkirk did not answer intelligibly, though the lady"s face was turned full upon him; he uttered an inexplicable sort of grunt, and knotted his eyebrows. He didn"t like Prudentia.
"I never saw anybody so changed in all my life," pursued the lady. "Such sudden changes are doubtful things, I always think;--come probably from some sudden cause, and may not last.
But it is very surprising while it _does_ last."
"I am sorry to contradict you, Prudens," said Dr. Arthur here; "but Dane was never more himself. He only happens to stand facing due north instead of north by east."
"He was "north" enough before," said his sister, a little, just a little bitterly; "a trifle more of southern direction wouldn"t have hurt him. But _I_ think, he"s out of his head. Men are, sometimes, you know," she went on, looking full at Wych Hazel now. "I shall let Miss Kennedy be judge. Do you know what Dane has been doing, Miss Kennedy?"
"Not waltzing?" said Hazel, opening her brown eyes with an expression of mild dismay which was very nearly too much for Dr. Arthur.
"Waltzing?" said Prudentia, mystified. "I did not say anything about waltzing. Why shouldn"t he waltz? I think he used. Why yes; he was a famous waltzer. Don"t you waltz, Miss Kennedy?"
"But I was always known to be out of my head," said Hazel. "In what other possible way could Mr. Rollo shew the state of his?"
"I don"t know what you mean," said Prudentia, handling her bonnet. "Then you haven"t heard my story already. You know that old Mr. Morton has failed; did you hear of that?"
"Not the first time, is it?" said Miss Kennedy coolly. Dr.
Arthur bit his lips.
"Yes, my dear! it"s the first and only time; he was always supposed to be a very rich man. Well, Dane has taken his fortune and thrown it into those mills!"
"I was afraid you were going to say the mill stream," said Wych Hazel, who was getting so nervous she didn"t know what to do with herself; "but the mills seem a safe place."
"I don"t know but he"s better done that of the two," said Prudentia. "A safe place? Why, my dear, just think! he has bought all of Mr. Morton"s right and t.i.tle there; with Mr.
Morton"s three mills. Of course, it _must_ have taken very nearly his whole fortune; it _must_."
"I fancy there"s a trifle left over," said Mr. Falkirk. "But I can"t conceive what possessed him. What does Rollo know of the mill business?"
"Nothing at all, of course," said Prudentia. "Nor of any other business. And he has shewed his ignorance--did Arthur tell you, sir, how he has shewed it?"
"In buying three mills to begin with," said Mr. Falkirk. "A modest man would have begun with one."
"But my dear sir, _that_ isn"t all. What _do_ you suppose, Miss Kennedy, was his first move?"
"One is prepared for almost anything."
"He will learn the business, before long," said Dr. Arthur, "if close attention can do it."
"What should he learn the business for?" said his sister. "He has already all that the mill business could give him, without any trouble. _I_ think he"s troubled in his wits; I do indeed.
He was always a wild boy, and now he"s a wilder man."
"Troubled in his wits!" said Dr. Arthur, with such supreme derision, that Wych Hazel laughed. To her own great relief, be it said.
"But what is this that he has done?" Mr. Falkirk inquired, his brows looking very much disgusted.
"My dear sir! Fancy it. Fancy it, Miss Kennedy. The first thing he did was to _raise the wages of his hands!_"
Just one person caught the gleam from under Hazel"s down-cast eyes,--perhaps something made his own quick-sighted. Dr. Arthur answered for her.
"They were not half paid before, Mr. Falkirk. That explains it."
"Weren"t they paid as other mill hands are paid, Dr. Arthur?"
"The more need for a change, then," said the young man, who was a trifle Quixotic himself.
"But if the change is made by one man alone, he effects nothing but his own ruin."
"That is what Dane is about, I am firmly persuaded," said Mrs.
Coles.
"No man ever yet went to ruin by doing right," said Dr.
Maryland.
"Many a one!" said Mr. Falkirk,--"by doing what he _thought_ right; from John Brown up to John Huss, and from John Huss back to the time when history is lost in a fog bank."
"They"ll get their reward, I suppose, in the other world,"
said Prudentia comfortably.
"How will his ruin affect the poor mill people?" said Wych Hazel, so seriously, that perhaps only Mr. Falkirk--knowing her-- knew what she was about.
"Why, my dear, it ruins them too in the end; that"s it. When he fails, of course his improvements fail, and everything goes back where it was before. Only worse."
"Precisely," said Mr. Falkirk. "You cannot lift the world out of the grooves it runs in, by mere force; and he who tries, will put his shoulder out of joint."
"Then my picture of "the loss of all things," is the portrait of a ruined man!" said Wych Hazel, with an expressive glance at Dr. Maryland. He smiled.
"It partly depends, you know, Miss Kennedy, upon where the race is supposed to end. But our friend is running well at present, for both worlds."
"Arthur, he is not!" said his sister emphatically. "Paul and John Charteris, the other mill-owners, hate him as hard as they can hate him; and if they can ruin him, they will; that you may depend upon."
"And his own people love him as hard as they can,--so that, even if you allow one rich mill-owner to be worth a hundred poor employes, Dane can still strike a fair balance."--Rather more than that, Dr. Arthur thought, as his quick eye took notice of the little screening hand that came suddenly up about Wych Hazel"s mouth and chin.
"That"s all nonsense, Arthur; business is business, and not sentiment. I never heard of a cotton mill yet that was run upon sentiment; nor did you. And I tell you, it won"t pay. I am speaking of business _as_ business. Paul and John Charteris will ruin Dane, if they can."
"They probably can," said Mr. Falkirk. "They will make a combination with other mill-owners and undersell him; and paying less wages they can afford to do it, for a time. And a certain time will settle Rollo"s business."
"I think he has lost his wits," Prudentia repeated, for the third or fourth utterance. "Then another thing he has done--But really, Arthur, my dear, we must go."
"O tell us some more!" said Miss Kennedy. "We have not heard of any wits lost in this way, all winter; and it is quite exciting. What next, Mrs. Coles?"
Prudentia laughed.
"How comes it he don"t tell you himself? I thought you used to be such friends--riding about everywhere. But indeed _we_ don"t see much of Dane now; he lives at his old nurse"s ever so much of the time; and comes scouring over the country on that bay horse of his, to consult papa about something;--but _I_ never see him, except through the window. Sometimes he rides your brown horse, I think, Miss Kennedy. I suppose he is keeping it in order for you."
"Well, that certainly does sound erratic!" said Miss Kennedy, drawing a long breath. "I hope he will confine all new-fangled notions to the bay."