it is called--and he"s quite happy--little Fairy, on his little stool at the window."
"No headache or fever?" asked Miss Lake cheerfully, though, she knew not why, there seemed something ominous in this little ailment.
"None at all; oh, none, thank you; none in the world. I"d be so frightened if there was. But, thank Heaven, Doctor Buddle says there"s nothing to make us at all uneasy. My blessed little man! And he has his canary in the cage in the window, and his kitten to play with in the study. He"s quite happy."
"Please Heaven, he"ll be quite well to-morrow--the darling little man,"
said Rachel, all the more fondly for that vague omen that seemed to say, "He"s gone."
"Here"s Mr. Larkin!" cried Dolly, jumping up, and smiling and nodding at the window to that long and natty apparition, who glided to the hall-door with a sad smile, raising his well-brushed hat as he pa.s.sed, and with one grim glance beyond Mrs. Wylder, for his sharp eye half detected another presence in the room.
He was followed, not accompanied--for Mr. Larkin knew what a gentleman he was--by a young and bilious clerk, with black hair and a melancholy countenance, and by old Buggs--his conducting man--always grinning, whose red face glared in the little garden like a great bunch of hollyhocks. He was sober as a judge all the morning, and proceeded strictly on the principle of business first, and pleasure afterward. But his orgies, when off duty, were such as to cause the good attorney, when complaints reached him, to shake his head, and sigh profoundly, and sometimes to lift up his mild eyes and long hands; and, indeed, so scandalous an appendage was Buggs, that if he had been less useful, I believe the pure attorney, who, in the uncomfortable words of John Bunyan, "had found a cleaner road to h.e.l.l," would have cashiered him long ago.
"There is that awful Mr. Buggs," said Dolly, with a look of honest alarm.
"I often wonder so Christian a man as Mr. Larkin can countenance him. He is hardly ever without a black eye. He has been three nights together without once putting off his clothes--think of that; and, my dear, on Friday week he fell through the window of the Fancy Emporium, at two o"clock in the morning; and Doctor Buddle says if the cut on his jaw had been half an inch lower, he would have cut some artery, and lost his life--wretched man!"
"They have come about law business, Dolly!" enquired the young lady, who had a profound, instinctive dread of Mr. Larkin.
"Yes, my dear; a most important windfall. Only for Mr. Larkin, it never could have been accomplished, and, indeed, I don"t think it would ever have been thought of."
"I hope he has some one to advise him," said Miss Lake, anxiously. "I--I think Mr. Larkin a very cunning person; and you know your husband does not understand business."
"Is it Mr. Larkin, my dear? Mr. Larkin! Why, my dear, if you knew him as we do, you"d trust your life in his hands."
"But there are people who know him still better; and I think they fancy he is a very crafty man. I do not like him myself, and Dorcas Brandon dislikes him too; and, though I don"t think we could either give a reason--I don"t know, Dolly, but I should not like to trust him."
"But, my dear, he is an excellent man, and such a friend, and he has managed all this most troublesome business so delightfully. It is what they call a reversion."
"William Wylder is not selling his reversion?" said Rachel, fixing a wild and startled look on her companion.
"Yes, reversion, I am sure, is the name. And why not, dear? It is most unlikely we should ever get a farthing of it any other way, and it will give us enough to make us quite happy."
"But, my darling, don"t you know the reversion under the will is a great _fortune_? He must not think of it;" and up started Rachel, and before Dolly could interpose or remonstrate, she had crossed the little hall, and entered the homely study, where the gentlemen were conferring.
William Wylder was sitting at his desk, and a large sheet of law scrivenery, on thick paper, with a stamp in the corner, was before him.
The bald head of the attorney, as he leaned over him, and indicated an imaginary line with his gold pencil-case, was presented toward Miss Lake as she entered.
The attorney had just said "_there_, please," in reply to the vicar"s question, "Where do I write my name?" and red Buggs, grinning with his mouth open, like an over-heated dog, and the sad and bilious young gentleman, stood by to witness the execution of the cleric"s autograph.
Tall Jos. Larkin looked up, smiling with his mouth also a little open, as was his wont when he was particularly affable. But the rat"s eyes were looking at her with a hungry suspicion, and smiled not.
"William Wylder, I am so glad I"m in time," said Rachel, rustling across the room.
"_There_," said the attorney, very peremptorily, and making a little furrow in the thick paper with the seal end of his pencil.
"Stop, William Wylder, don"t sign; I"ve a word to say--you _must_ pause."
"If it affects our business, Miss Lake, I do request that you address yourself to me; if not, may I beg, Miss Lake, that you will defer it for a moment."
"William Wylder, lay down that pen; as you love your little boy, lay it _down_, and hear me," continued Miss Lake.
The vicar looked at her with his eyes wide open, puzzled, like a man who is not quite sure whether he may not be doing something wrong.
"I--really, Miss Lake--pardon me, but this is very irregular, and, in fact, unprecedented!" said Jos. Larkin. "I think--I suppose, you can hardly be aware, Ma"am, that I am here as the Rev. Mr. Wylder"s confidential solicitor, acting solely for him, in a matter of a strictly private nature."
The attorney stood erect, a little flushed, with that peculiar contraction, mean and dangerous, in his eyes.
"Of course, Mr. Wylder, if you, Sir, desire me to leave, I shall instantaneously do so; and, indeed, unless you proceed to sign, I had better go, as my time is generally, I may say, a little pressed upon, and I have, in fact, some business elsewhere to attend to."
"What _is_ this law-paper?" demanded Rachel, laying the tips of her slender fingers upon it.
"Am I to conclude that you withdraw from your engagement?" asked Mr.
Larkin. "I had better, then, communicate with Burlington and Smith by this post; as also with the sheriff, who has been very kind."
"Oh, no!--oh, no, Mr. Larkin!--pray, I"m quite ready to sign."
"Now, William Wylder, you _sha"n"t_ sign until you tell me whether this is a sale of your reversion."
The young lady had her white hand firmly pressed upon the spot where he was to sign, and the ring that glittered on her finger looked like a talisman interposing between the poor vicar and the momentous act he was meditating.
"I think, Miss Lake, it is pretty plain you are not acting for yourself here--you have been sent, Ma"am," said the attorney, looking very vicious, and speaking a little huskily and hurriedly; "I quite conceive by whom."
"I don"t know what you mean, Sir," replied Miss Lake, with grave disdain.
"You have been commissioned, Ma"am, I venture to think, to come here to watch the interests of another party."
"I say, Sir, I don"t in the least comprehend you."
"I think it is pretty obvious, Ma"am--Miss Lake, I beg pardon--you have had some conversation with your _brother_," answered the attorney, with a significant sneer.
"I don"t know what you mean, Sir, I repeat. I"ve just heard, in the other room, from your wife, William Wylder, that you were about selling your reversion in the estates, and I want to know whether that is so; for if it be, it is the act of a madman, and I"ll prevent it, if I possibly can."
"Upon my word! possibly"--said the vicar, his eyes very wide open, and looking with a hesitating gaze from Rachel to the attorney--"there may be something in it which neither you nor I know; does it not strike you--had we not better consider?"
"Consider _what_, Sir?" said the attorney, with a snap, and losing his temper somewhat. "It is simply, Sir, that this young lady represents Captain Lake, who wishes to get the reversion for himself."
"That is utterly false, Sir!" said Miss Lake, flashing and blushing with indignation. "You, William, are a _gentleman_; and such inconceivable meanness cannot enter _your_ mind."
The attorney, with what he meant to be a polished sarcasm, bowed and smiled toward Miss Lake.
Pale little Fairy, sitting before his "picture-book," was watching the scene with round eyes and round mouth, and that mixture of interest, awe, and distress, with which children witness the uncomprehended excitement and collision of their elders.
"My dear Miss Lake, I respect and esteem you; you quite mistake, I am persuaded, my good friend Mr. Larkin; and, indeed, I don"t quite comprehend; but if it were so, and that your brother really wished--do you think he does, Mr. Larkin?--to buy the reversion, he might think it more valuable, perhaps."
"I can say with certainty, Sir, that from that quarter you would get nothing like what you have agreed to take; and I must say, once for all, Sir, that--quite setting aside every consideration of honour and of conscience, and of the highly prejudicial position in which you would place me as a man of business, by taking the very _short turn_ which this young lady, Miss Lake, suggests--your letters amount to an equitable agreement to sell, which, on pet.i.tion, the court would compel you to do."
"So you see, my dear Miss Lake, there is no more to be said," said the vicar, with a careworn smile, looking upon Rachel"s handsome face.
"Now, now, we are all friends, aren"t we?" said poor Dolly, who could not make anything of the debate, and was staring, with open mouth, from one speaker to another. "We are all agreed, are not we? You are all so good, and fond of Willie, that you are actually ready almost to quarrel for him." But her little laugh produced no echo, except a very joyless and flushed effort from the attorney, as he looked up from consulting his watch.