The Daltons Volume I Part 16

"And have you been completely alone here of late?" said George, who began to fear that the sermon on ennui was not unaccompanied by a taste of the evil.

"Occasionally I 've chatted for half an hour with two gentlemen who reside here, a Colonel Haggerstone--"

"By the way, who is he?" broke in Onslow, eagerly.

"He has been traced back to Madras, but the most searching inquiries have failed to elicit anything further."

"Is he the man they called Arlington's Colonel Haggerstone?"

Jekyl nodded; but with an air that seemed to say, he would not enter more deeply into the subject.

"And your other companion who is he?"

"Peter Dalton, of I am ashamed to say I forget where," said Jekyl; who, at once a.s.suming Dalton's bloated look, in a well-feigned Irish accent, went on: "a descendant of as ancient and as honorable a familee as any in the three kingdoms, and if a little down in the world bad luck to them that done it! just as ready as ever he was to enjoy agreeable society and the ganial flow of soul."

"He 's the better of the two, I take it," said Onslow.

"More interesting, certainly, just as a ruined chateau is a more picturesque object than a new police-station or a cut-stone penitentiary. There 's another feature also which ought to give him the preference. I have seen two very pretty faces from time to time as I have pa.s.sed the windows, and which I conjecture to belong to his daughters."

"Have you not made their acquaintance?" asked Onslow, in some surprise.

"I grieve to say I have not," sighed Jekyl, softly.

"Why, the matter should not be very difficult, one might opine, in such a place, at such a time, and with--"

He hesitated, and Jekyl added,

"With such a papa, you were about to say. Well, that is precisely the difficulty. Had my excellent friend, Peter, been a native of any other country, I flatter myself I should have known how to make my advances; but with these dear Irish their very accessibility is a difficulty of no common order. a.s.sume an air of deference and respect, and they 'll set you down for a cold formalist, with whom they can have nothing in common. Try the opposite line, and affect the free and easy, and the chances are that you have a duel to fight before you know you have offended. I confess that I have made several small advances, and thrown out repeated little hints about loneliness, and long evenings, and so forth; and although he has concurred with me in every word, yet his practice has never followed his precept. But I don't despair. What say you, if we attack the fortress as allies? I have a notion we should succeed?" "With all my heart. What's your plan?" "At this moment I have formed none, nor is there need of any. Let us go out, like the knight-errants of old, in search of adventures, and see if they will not befall us. The first step will be to make Dalton's acquaintance. Now, he always takes his walk in bad weather in the great Saal below; should he not make his appearance there to-day, as he has already absented himself for some days, I 'll call to inquire after him at his own house. You 'll accompany me. The rest we 'll leave to fortune."

Although On slow could not see that this step could lead to anything beyond a civil reply to a civil demand, he a.s.sented readily, and promised to meet his companion at four o'clock the same evening. As for Jekyl, he took a very different view of the whole transaction, for he knew that while to him there might be considerable difficulty in establis.h.i.+ng any footing with the Daltons, the son of the wealthy baronet would be, in all likelihood, very differently looked on. In presenting him, thought he, I shall have become the friend of the family at once. It had often before been his fortune in life to have made valuable acquaintances in this manner; and although the poor Daltons were very unlikely to figure in the category of profitable friends, they would at least afford an agreeable resource against the dulness of wintry evenings, and prevent what he himself called the "demoralization"

of absence from female society. Lastly, the scheme promised to establish a close intimacy between Onslow and himself; and here was a benefit worth all the others.

CHAPTER XIII. A SUSPICIOUS VISITOR

How far were the Daltons from suspecting that they were the subject of so much and such varied solicitude, and that, while Lady Hester was fancying to herself all the fas.h.i.+onable beauties whom Kate would eclipse in loveliness, and what an effect charms like hers would produce on society, Sir Stafford was busily concerting with his lawyer the means of effectually benefiting them; and George Onslow for want of better speculated, as he smoked, on "the kind of people" they would prove, and wondered whether the scheme were worth the light trouble it was to cost him. Little did they know of all this, little imagine that outside of their humble roof there lived one save "dear Frank" whose thoughts included them. "The purple and fine linen" category of this world cannot appreciate the force of this want of sympathy! They, whose slightest griefs and least afflictions in life are always certain of the consolations of friends, and the even more bland solace of a fas.h.i.+onable physician whose woes are re-echoed by the "Morning Post," and whose sorrows are mourned in Court Journals cannot frame to themselves the sense of isolation which narrow fortune impresses. "Poverty," says a cla.s.sical authority, "has no heavier evil than that it makes men ridiculous." But this wound to self-love, deep and poignant though it be, is light in comparison with the crus.h.i.+ng sense of isolation, that abstraction from sympathy in which poor men live!

The Daltons were seated around Hanserl's bed, silently ministering to the sick man, and watching with deep and anxious interest the labored respiration and convulsive twitches of his fever. The wild and rapid utterance of his lips, and the strange fancies they syllabled, often exciting him to laughter, only deepened the gravity of their countenances, and cast over the glances they interchanged a tinge of sadder meaning.

"He could n't have better luck," muttered Dalton, sorrowfully; "just from being a friend to us! If he had never seen nor heard of us, maybe 't is happy and healthy he 'd be to-day!"

"Nay, nay, papa," said Nelly, gently; "this is to speak too gloomily; nor is it good for us to throw on fortune the burden that we each should bear patiently."

"Don't tell me that there is not such a thing as luck!" replied Dalton, in a tone of irritation. "I know well whether there is or no! For five-and-thirty years whatever I put my hand to in life turned out badly. It was the same whether I did anything on the spur of the moment, or thought over it for weeks. If I wished a thing, that was reason enough for it to come out wrong!"

"And even were it all as you fancy, papa dearest," said Nelly, as she fondly drew her arm round him, "is it nothing that these reverses have found you strong of heart and high of courage to bear them? Over and over again have you told me that the great charm of field sports lay in the sense of fatigue bravely endured, and peril boldly confronted; that, devoid of these, they were unworthy of men. Is there not a greater glory, then, in stemming the tide of adverse fortune; and is it not a higher victory that carries you triumphant over the real trials of life, kind of heart, trustful, and generous, as in the best days of your prosperity, and with a more gentle and forbearing spirit than prosperity ever taught?"

"That 's nothing against what I was saying," said Dalton, but with a more subdued face. "There 's poor little Hans, and till a couple of clays ago he never knew what it was to be unlucky. As he told us himself, his life was a fairy tale."

"True," interposed Nelly; "and happy as it was, and blameless and guileless he who led it, mark how many a gloomy thought, what dark distressing fancies, hover round his brain, and shadow his sick-bed! No, no! the sorrows of this world are more equally distributed than we think for, and he who seems to have fewest is oftentimes but he who best conceals them!"

Her voice shook, and became weaker as she spoke; and the last few words were barely audible. Dalton did not notice her emotion; but Kate's looks were bent upon her with an expression of fond and affectionate meaning.

"There's somebody at the door," whispered Daltou; "see who it is, Kate."

Kate arose, and opening the door softly, beheld old Andy; his shrivelled features and l.u.s.treless eyes appearing in a state of unusual excitement.

"What's the matter, Andy? what is it you want?" said she.

"Is the master here? Where 's the master?"

"He 's here; what do you want with him?" rejoined she.

"I want himself," said he, as with his palsied hand he motioned to Dalton to come out.

"What is it, you old fool?" said Dalton, impatiently, as he arose and followed him outside of the room.

"There's one of them again!" said Andy, putting his mouth to Dalton's ear, and whispering in deep confidence.

"One of what? one of whom?"

"He's upstairs," muttered Andy.

"Who's upstairs, who is he?" cried Dalton, angrily.

"Didn't I know him the minit I seen him! Ayeh! Ould as I am, my eyes isn't that dim yet."

"G.o.d give me patience with you!" said Dalton; and, to judge from his face, he was not entreating a vain blessing. "Tell me, I say, what do you mean, or who is it is upstairs?"

Andy put his lips once more to the other's ear, and whispered, "An attorney!"

"An attorney!" echoed Dalton.

"Iss!" said Andy, with a significant nod.

"And how do you know he 's an attorney?"

"I seen him!" replied the other, with a grin; "and I locked the door on him."

"What for?"

"What for! what for, is it? Oh, murther, murther!" whined the old creature, who in this unhappy question thought he read the evidence of his poor master's wreck of intellect. It was indeed no slight shock to him to hear that Peter Dalton had grown callous to danger, and could listen to the terrible word he had uttered without a sign of emotion.

"I seen the papers with a red string round 'em," said Andy, as though by this incidental trait he might be able to realize all the menaced danger.

"Sirrah, ye 're an old fool!" said Dalton, angrily; and, jerking the key from his trembling fingers, he pushed past him, and ascended the stairs.