Roger Ingleton, Minor Part 37

Captain Oliphant's motive for going to London was primarily to escape for a while from the unearthly dullness of Maxfield. As long as the prospect of a matrimonial alliance with Mrs Ingleton had been in view, it had seemed to him good policy to submit to the infliction and remain at his post. That vision was now unhappily past, and the good man felt he deserved a change of scene and amus.e.m.e.nt. A further motive was to evade a possible return of his dear friend Mr Ratman, whose abrupt departure from Maxfield had both perplexed and relieved him. The second of that gentleman's uncomfortable bills was falling due in a few days, and as on the present occasion no lucky windfall had dropped in from an American mayor, it seemed altogether a fitting occasion for dropping for a season below the horizon.

When, however, Roger unexpectedly consented to accompany his guardian, the visit a.s.sumed an altogether different aspect. The captain had long desired to have his dear ward to himself, and the opportunity now presented was certainly one not to be neglected.

"My dear boy," said he, as the two took their places in the London train, "I hope you are well protected against the weather. Change seats with me. You are so liable to cold, you know, that it is really hardly safe for you to face the engine. We must take great care of you now-- greater than ever," and he sighed pathetically.

Roger was getting accustomed to, and a little tired of, these demonstrative outbursts, and quietly took the seat in order to spare discussion. He was already repenting of his journey. No one seemed to commend it. Armstrong made no reference to it.

Dr Brandram stoutly disapproved of it. Rosalind tossed her head when she heard of it, and hoped he might enjoy himself. Tom failed to see why, when there was football in the air at Maxfield, any one could be bothered to travel up to London for pleasure, unless indeed he intended to take a season ticket for Christy's Minstrels. Altogether Roger did not feel elated at the prospect of this visit. For all that, he persuaded himself that duty called him thither, even if it was bad temper which drove him from Maxfield.

"What has become of Ratman?" he inquired of his guardian casually during the journey.

Captain Oliphant looked up from his paper sharply Mr Ratman's whereabouts had been occupying his thoughts that very moment.

"I really do not know, my boy," said he. "He left very suddenly, and in the sad trouble through which we have pa.s.sed I have hardly had time to think about him."

There was a pause. Then Roger said--

"Is he an old friend of yours, cousin Edward?"

Cousin Edward was a little perplexed by this curiosity.

"I have known him a year or so. The friends.h.i.+p, however, is chiefly on his side."

"I thought he came all the way from India on purpose to visit you?"

The captain laughed uncomfortably at this very correct representation of the facts.

"That is the version he likes to give. The fact is that business brought him home, and as he knew I was at Maxfield, he wrote and proposed the visit. He is no great favourite of yours, I suspect, Roger?"

"No," said Roger shortly, and relapsed again into silence. But before the journey's end he once more returned to the charge.

"Was he in the army in India?"

"Once, I believe. But I have never heard much of his antecedents.

Latterly I believe he called himself a financial agent, a very vague profession. He was in our station before our regiment went there."

"I suppose he had lived in India all his life?"

"He had certainly been in England when a young man," said the captain; "and from some of his reminiscences, appears not to have led a very profitable life there. But how comes it you are so interested in him?"

"I have only been wondering what he was, that's all," said Roger, feeling he had been on the topic long enough.

Roger had already written a letter to Ratman, addressed to that gentleman at the General Post Office, London.

"Your letter," it said, "has perplexed me greatly. If you are my brother, as you say you are, why do you not give some proof? That should be easy. There must be some people who can identify you, or some means of satisfying us all about your claim to be the elder son. I should not resist you, if it were so. Only my guardians would require clear proof before recognising you. As to whether I think well or ill of you, that has nothing to do with the matter if you are really and truly my elder brother. I enclose ten pounds in this, not to show you that I am myself fully satisfied, but to let you see that the bare chance of your being an Ingleton makes me feel anxious you should not think we, as a family, do not stand by one another. I do not expect to be able to repeat it, as my allowance is limited, and my guardians are not likely to consent to hand over any money for you till you can prove your claim. Write and give me more particulars, and I promise you I shall not s.h.i.+rk my duty to you or the name I bear."

At any other time Roger would have shown this epistle, the writing of which cost him many anxious hours, to Armstrong. Now, however, that help was denied him. The tutor, he knew, would have screwed his eye- gla.s.s into his eye and ruthlessly pulled the doc.u.ment to pieces. No.

He must play this game off his own bat, and keep his own counsel.

Captain Oliphant, who had a good notion of doing things comfortably with other people's money, had selected a fas.h.i.+onable hotel at the West End.

"We must see you have every comfort, dear boy," said he; "in your state of health we cannot afford to rough it. I have ordered a private sitting-room and fires in the bedroom. When you feel strong enough we will do a little sight-seeing; but meanwhile your first consideration must be to recover lost tone and spirits by means of rest and care."

These constant reminders of his poor health were very unwelcome to the unlucky Roger, who protested that he was in perfect health; and, to prove it, went out next day, in a cold November fog, with no overcoat.

The consequence was he caught a severe cold, and had the mortification of listening to a severe lecture from his solicitous guardian on the iniquity of trifling with his precious health.

Roger, too proud to admit that he could not take care of himself, declined to treat himself as an invalid, and insisted on claiming his guardian's promise to show him a little life in the great city.

It was surprising how many acquaintances Rosalind's father had in London. Some were pleasant enough--military men on leave, and here and there a civilian's family who remembered the captain and his charming family in the Hills.

Roger accepted their hospitality and listened to their Indian small-talk with great good-humour, and when now and then some sympathetic soul, guessing, as a good many did, one of the lad's secrets, talked admiringly of Rosalind, he felt himself rewarded for a good deal of long-suffering. Had he heard some of the jokes pa.s.sed behind his back, his satisfaction might have been considerably tempered.

"I always said," observed one shrewd dowager, "that Oliphant would make a catch with that daughter of his. He has done it, evidently. This boy will be worth five or ten thousand a year, I hear."

"Poor fellow! He looks as if it will be a battle with him to reach it.

What a cough!"

"I can't understand Oliphant not taking better care of him. He drags him about all over town, as if the boy were cast iron. I met them out twice this week."

"Certainly one cannot afford to play fast and loose with the goose that lays the golden eggs."

The "goose" in question made other acquaintances than these. In his bachelor days Captain Oliphant had "knocked about" in London pretty considerably, and had a notion, now that he was a bachelor again, to repeat the process. Roger--a raw country boy, as the reader by this time will admit--found himself entered upon a gay round of club and Bohemian life, which to an old stager like the captain may have seemed a little slow, but to a susceptible youth was decidedly attractive. The guardian's fast acquaintances made the young heir of Maxfield welcome, and might have proceeded to pluck him had his protector permitted.

Roger speedily discovered what hundreds of locks there are which the mere rumour of money will unlock. He had never had such an idea of his own importance before, and for a short time he deluded himself into the belief that his popularity was due wholly and solely to his personal merits.

Captain Oliphant fostered this delusion carefully.

"I hope you are enjoying yourself, my dear boy," he would say, after a particularly festive evening.

"It's an excellent rule to make oneself agreeable in all circ.u.mstances.

I envy you your facility. You see how it is appreciated. It does an old fogey like me good to see you enjoy yourself."

"It was a pleasant enough evening," said Roger, not quite without misgivings on the subject, however.

"By the way, who was the man, older than the others, who talked loudest and not always in the most cla.s.sical English?"

The captain laughed pleasantly.

"No. I should have been better pleased if he had not been of our party.

He never was select, even in my young days, when I met him once or twice. There used to be a saying among us that Fastnet, if he gave his mind to it--"

"Fastnet!"

The cab was dark, and the boy's pale face was invisible to his guardian.

But the tone with which he caught at the name struck that good gentleman.

"Yes. What about it?"

"Only," said Roger, after half a minute, and he spoke with an unusual effort, "it seems a good name for him."