The Landleaguers Part 44

"Oh!" said Mrs. Peac.o.c.k, "that would be terrible. A landlord wouldn't be a landlord if he didn't get any rent;--or hardly." Then Mr.

O'Mahony went to work to explain that a landlord was, of his very name and nature, an abomination before the Lord.

"And yet you want houses to live in," said Lord Castlewell.

When they were in the middle of their dinners they were all surprised by the approach of Mr. Mahomet M. Moss. He was dressed up to a degree of beauty which Rachel thought that she had never seen equalled. His s.h.i.+rt-front was full of little worked holes. His studs were gold and turquoise, and those at his wrists were double studs, also gold and turquoise. The tie of his cravat was a thing marvellous to behold.

His waistcoat was new for the occasion, and apparently all over marvellously fine needlework. It might, all the same, have been done by a sewing-machine. The breadth of the satin lappets of his dress-coat were most expansive. And his hair must have taken two artists the whole afternoon to accomplish. It was evident to see that he felt himself to be quite the lord's equal by the strength of his personal adornment. "Well, yes," he said, "I have brought Madame Tacchi down here to show her what we can do in the way of a suburban dinner. Madame Tacchi is about to take the place which Miss O'Mahony has vacated at 'The Embankment.' Ah, my lord, you behaved very shabbily to us there."

"If Madame Tacchi," said the lord, "can sing at all like Miss O'Mahony, we shall have her away very soon. Is Madame Tacchi in sight, so that I can see her?"

Then Mr. Moss indicated the table at which the lady sat, and with the lady was Madame Socani.

"They are a bad lot," said Lord Castlewell, as soon as Moss had withdrawn. "I know them, and they are a bad lot, particularly that woman who is with them. It is a marvel to me how you got among them."

Lord Castlewell had now become very intimate with the O'Mahonys; and by what he said showed also his intimacy with Mrs. Peac.o.c.k.

"They are Americans," said O'Mahony.

"And so are you," said the lord. "There can be good Americans and bad Americans. You don't mean to say that you think worse of an American than of an Englishman."

"I think higher of an Englishman than of an American, and lower also.

If I meet an American where a gentleman ought to be, I entertain a doubt; if I meet him where a labourer ought to be, I feel very confident. I suppose that the manager of a theatre ought to be a gentleman."

"I don't quite understand it all," said Mrs. Peac.o.c.k.

"Nor anybody else," said Rachel. "Father does fly so very high in the air when he talks about people."

After that the lord drove Miss O'Mahony and her father back to Cecil Street, and they all agreed that they had had a very pleasant evening.

END OF VOL. II.

Charles d.i.c.kens And Evans, Crystal Palace Press.

THE LANDLEAGUERS

by

ANTHONY TROLLOPE

In Three Volumes--VOL. III.

London Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly 1883 [All rights reserved]

Charles d.i.c.kens and Evans, Crystal Palace Press.

CONTENTS

Chapter

x.x.xIII. CAPTAIN CLAYTON'S LOVE-MAKING.

x.x.xIV. LORD CASTLEWELL'S LOVE-MAKING.

x.x.xV. MR. O'MAHONY'S APOLOGY.

x.x.xVI. RACHEL WRITES ABOUT HER LOVERS.

x.x.xVII. RACHEL IS ILL.

x.x.xVIII. LORD CASTLEWELL IS MUCH TROUBLED.

x.x.xIX. CAPTAIN CLAYTON'S FIRST TRIUMPH.

XL. YORKE CLAYTON AGAIN MAKES LOVE.

XLI. THE STATE OF IRELAND.

XLII. LORD CASTLEWELL'S FAREWELL.

XLIII. MR. MOSS IS FINALLY ANSWERED.

XLIV. FRANK JONES COMES BACK AGAIN.

XLV. MR. ROBERT MORRIS.

XLVI. CONG.

XLVII. KERRYCULLION.

XLVIII. THE NEW ARISTOCRACY FAILS.

XLIX.

THE LANDLEAGUERS.

CHAPTER x.x.xIII.

CAPTAIN CLAYTON'S LOVE-MAKING.

The household at Castle Morony was very sad for some time after the trial. They had hardly begun to feel the death of Florian while the excitement existed as they felt it afterwards. Mr. Jones, his father, seemed to regard the lost boy as though he had been his favourite child. It was not many months since he had refused to allow him to eat in his presence, and had been persuaded by such a stranger as was Captain Clayton, to treat him with some show of affection. When he had driven him into Ballyglunin, he had been stern and harsh to him to the very last. And now he was obliterated with sorrow because he had been robbed of his Florian. The two girls had sorrows of their own; though neither of them would permit her sorrow to create any quarrel between her and her sister. And Frank, who since his return from the North had toiled like a labourer on the property--only doing double a labourer's work--had sorrow, too, of his own. It was understood that he had altogether separated himself from Rachel O'Mahony. The cause of his separation was singular in its nature.

It was now November, and Rachel had already achieved a singularly rapid success at Covent Garden. She still lived in Cecil Street, but there was no lack of money. Indeed, her name had risen into such repute that some Irish people began to think that her father was the proper man for Cavan, simply because she was a great singer. It cannot be said, however, that this was the case among the men who were regarded as the leaders of the party, as they still doubted O'Mahony's obedience. But money at any rate poured into Rachel's lap, and with the money that which was quite as objectionable to poor Frank. He had begun by a.s.serting that he did not wish to live idle on the earnings of a singer; and, therefore, as the singer had said, "he and she were obliged to be two." As she explained to her father, she was badly treated. She was very anxious to be true to her lover; but she did not like living without some lover to whom she might be true. "You see, as I am placed I am exposed to the Mosses. I do want to have a husband to protect me." Then a lover had come forward.

Lord Castlewell had absolutely professed to make her the future Marchioness of Beaulieu. Of this there must be more hereafter; but Frank heard of it, and tore his hair in despair.