Tales and Novels Volume IX Part 46

Sir Ulick led on to the drawing-room, and presented him to a fas.h.i.+onable-looking lady, neither young nor old, nothing in any respect remarkable.

"Lady Norton, Harry Ormond--Harry Ormond, my niece, Lady Norton, who will make this house as pleasant to you, and to me, and to all my friends, as it has been unpleasant ever since--in short, ever since you were out of it, Harry."

Lady Norton, with gracious smile and well-bred courtesy, received Harry in a manner that promised the performance of all for which Sir Ulick had engaged. Tea came; and the conversation went on chiefly between Sir Ulick and Lady Norton on their own affairs, about invitations and engagements they had made, before they left Dublin, with various persons who were coming down to Castle Hermitage. Sir Ulick asked, "When are the Brudenells to come to us, my dear?--Did you settle with the Lascelles?--and Lady Louisa, she must be here with the vice-regal party--arrange that, my dear."

Lady Norton had settled every thing; she took out an elegant memorandum-book, and read the arrangements to Sir Ulick. Between whiles, Sir Ulick turned to Ormond and noted the claims of those persons to distinction, and as several ladies were named, exclaimed, "Charming woman!--delightful little creature!--The Darrells; Harry, you'll like the Darrells too!--The Lardners, all clever, pleasant, and odd, will entertain you amazingly, Harry!--But Lady Millicent is _the_ woman--nothing at all has been seen in this country like her!--most fascinating! Harry, take care of your heart."

Then, as to the men--this man was clever--and the other was quite a hero--and the next the pleasantest fellow--and the best sportsman--and there were men of political eminence--men who had distinguished themselves on different occasions by celebrated speeches--and particularly promising rising young; men, with whom he must make Ormond intimately acquainted. Now Sir Ulick closed Lady Norton's book, and taking it from her hand, said, "I am tiring you, my dear--that's enough for to-night--we'll settle all the rest to-morrow: you must be tired after your journey--I whirled you down without mercy--you look fatigued and sleepy."

Lady Norton said, "Indeed, she believed she was a little tired, and rather sleepy."

Her uncle begged she would not sit up longer from compliment; accordingly, apologizing to Mr. Ormond, and "really much fatigued,"

she retired. Sir Ulick walked up and down the room, meditating for some moments, while Harry renewed his intimacy with an old dog, who, at every pause in the conversation, jumping up on him, and squealing with delight, had claimed his notice.

"Well, my boy," exclaimed Sir Ulick, stopping short, "aren't you a most extraordinary fellow? Pray did you get my note?"

"Certainly, sir, and came instantly in consequence."

"And yet you have never inquired what it is that you might hear to your advantage."

"I--I thought I had heard it, sir."

"Heard it, sir!" repeated Sir Ulick: "what _can_ you mean?"

"Simply, sir, that I thought the advantage you alluded to was the introduction you did me just now the favour to give me to Lady Norton; you said, her being here would be _a great advantage to me_, and that led me to conclude--"

"Well, well! you were always a simple good fellow--confiding in my friends.h.i.+p--continue the same--you will, I am confident. But had you no other thought?"

"I had," said Harry, "when first I read your note, I had, I own, another thought."

"And what might it be?"

"I thought of my commission, sir."

"What of your commission?"

"That you had procured it for me, sir."

"Since you ask me, I tell you honestly, that if it had been for your interest, I would have purchased that commission long ago; but there is a little secret, a political secret, which I could not tell you before--those who are behind the scenes cannot always speak--I may tell it to you now confidentially, but you must not repeat it, especially from me--that peace is likely to continue; so the army is out of the question."

"Well, sir, if that be the case--you know best."

"I do--it is, trust me; and as things have turned out--though I could not possibly foresee what has happened--every thing is for the best: I have come express from town to tell you news that will surprise you beyond measure."

"What can you mean, sir?"

"Simply, sir, that you are possessed, or soon will be possessed of--But come, sit down quietly, and in good earnest let me explain to you.

You know your father's second wife, the Indian woman, the governor's mahogany-coloured daughter--she had a prodigious fortune, which my poor friend, your father, chose, when dying, to settle upon her, and her Indian son; leaving you nothing but what he could not take from you, the little paternal estate of three hundred pounds a year. Well, it has pleased Heaven to take your mahogany-coloured step-mother and your Indian brother out of this world; both carried off within a few days of each other by a fever of the country--much regretted, I dare say, in the Bombay Gazette, by all who knew them.

"But as neither you nor I had that honour, we are not, upon this occasion, called upon for any hypocrisy, farther than a black coat, which I have ordered for you at my tailor's. _Have also noted_ and answered, _in conformity_, the agent's letter of 26th July, received yesterday, containing the melancholy intelligence: farther, replied to that part of his last, which requested to know how and where to transmit the property, which, on the Indian mother and brother's demise, falls, by the will of the late Captain Ormond, to his European son, Harry Ormond, esq., now under the guardians.h.i.+p of Sir Ulick O'Shane, Castle Hermitage, Ireland."

As he spoke, Sir Ulick produced the agent's letter, and put it into his ward's hand, pointing to the "useful pa.s.sages." Harry, glancing his eye over them, understood just enough to be convinced that Sir Ulick was in earnest, and that he was really heir to a very considerable property.

"Well! Harry Ormond, esq.," pursued Sir Ulick, "was I wrong when I told you that if you would inquire at Castle Hermitage you would hear of something to your advantage?"

"I _hope_ in Heaven," said Ormond, "and _pray_ to Heaven that it may be to my advantage!--I hope neither my head nor my heart may be turned by sudden prosperity."

"Your heart--oh! I'll answer for your heart, my n.o.ble fellow," said Sir Ulick; "but I own you surprise me by the coolness of head you show."

"If you'll excuse me," said Ormond, "I must run this minute to tell Dr.

Cambray and all my friends at Vicar's Dale."

"Certainly--quite right," said Sir Ulick--"I won't detain you a moment,"

said he--but he still held him fast. "I let you go to-night, but you must come to me to-morrow."

"Oh! sir, certainly."

"And you will bid adieu to Vicar's Dale, and take up your quarters at Castle Hermitage, with your old guardian."

"Thank you, sir--delightful! But I need not bid adieu to Vicar's Dale--_they_ are so near, I shall see them every day."

"Of course," said Sir Ulick, biting his lip; "_but_ I was thinking of something."

"Pray," continued Sir Ulick, "do you like a gig, a curricle, or a phaeton best, or what carriage will you have? there is Tom Darrel's in London now, who can bring it over for you. Well, we can settle that to-morrow."

"If you please--thank you, kind Sir Ulick--how _can_ you think so quickly of every thing?"

"Horses, too--let me see," said Sir Ulick, drawing Harry back to the fire-place--"Ay, George Beirne is a judge of horses--he can choose for you, unless you like to choose for yourself. What colour--black or bay?"

"I declare, sir, I don't know yet--my poor head is in such a state--and the horses happen not to be uppermost."

"I protest, Harry, you perfectly astonish me, by the sedateness of your mind and manner. You are certainly wonderfully formed and improved since I saw you last--but, how! in the name of wonder, in the Black Islands, _how_ I cannot conceive," said Sir Ulick.

"As to sedateness, you know, sir, since I saw you last, I may well be sobered a little, for I have suffered--not a little," said Harry.

"Suffered! how?" said Sir Ulick, leaning his arm on the mantel-piece opposite to him, and listening with an air of sympathy--"suffered! I was not aware--"

"You know, sir, I have lost an excellent friend."

"Poor Corny--ay, my poor cousin, as far as he could, I am sure, he wished to be a friend to you."

"He wished to be, and _was,_" said Ormond.

"It would have been better for him and his daughter too," resumed Sir Ulick, "if he had chosen you for his son-in-law, instead of the c.o.xcomb to whom Dora is going to be married: yet I own, as your guardian, I am well pleased that Dora, though a very pretty girl, is out of your way--you must look higher--she was no match for you."

"I am perfectly sensible, sir, that we should never have been happy together."

"You are a very sensible young man, Ormond--you make me admire you, seriously--I always foresaw what you would be Ah! if Marcus--but we'll not talk of that now. Terribly dissipated--has spent an immensity of money already--but still, when he speaks in parliament he will make a figure. But good bye, good night; I see you are in a hurry to get away from me."