Ralph the Heir Part 13

"We could get Gregory to join us," said the energetic Squire. "He, also, could sell his right."

"You had better leave it as it is, sir," said the son, after another pause. "I feel sure that you will only get yourself into trouble. The place is yours as long as you live, and you should enjoy it."

"And know that it is going to the Jews after me! Not if I can help it. You won't marry, as things are; but you'd marry quick enough if you knew you would remain here after my death;--if you were sure that a child of yours could inherit the estate. I mean to try it on, and it is best that you should know. Whatever he can make over to the Jews he can make over to me;--and as that is what he is about, I shall keep my eyes open. I shall go up to London about it and see Carey next week. A man can do a deal if he sets himself thoroughly to work."

"I'd leave it alone if I were you," said the young man.

"I shall not leave it alone. I mayn't be able to get it all, but I'll do my best to secure a part of it. If any is to go, it had better be the land in Bostock and Twining. I think we could manage to keep Newton entire."

His mind was always on the subject, though it was not often that he said a word about it to the son in whose behalf he was so anxious.

His thoughts were always dwelling on it, so that the whole peace and comfort of his life were disturbed. A life-interest in a property is, perhaps, as much as a man desires to have when he for whose protection he is debarred from further privileges of owners.h.i.+p is a well-loved son;--but an entail that limits an owner's rights on behalf of an heir who is not loved, who is looked upon as an enemy, is very grievous. And in this case the man who was so limited, so cramped, so hedged in, and robbed of the true pleasures of owners.h.i.+p, had a son with whom he would have been willing to share everything,--whom it would have been his delight to consult as to every roof to be built, every tree to be cut, every lease to be granted or denied. He would dream of telling his son, with a certain luxury of self-abnegation, that this or that question as to the estate should be settled in the interest, not of the setting, but of the rising sun. "It is your affair rather than mine, my boy;--do as you like." He could picture to himself in his imagination a pleasant, half-mock melancholy in saying such things, and in sharing the reins of government between his own hands and those of his heir. As the sun is falling in the heavens and the evening lights come on, this world's wealth and prosperity afford no pleasure equal to this. It is this delight that enables a man to feel, up to the last moment, that the goods of the world are good. But of all this he was to be robbed,--in spite of all his prudence. It might perhaps sometimes occur to him that he by his own vice had brought this scourge upon his back;--but not the less on that account did it cause him to rebel against the rod. Then there would come upon him the idea that he might cure this evil were his energy sufficient;--and all that he heard of that nephew and heir, whom he hated, tended to make him think that the cure was within his reach. There had been moments in which he had planned a scheme of leading on that reprobate into quicker and deeper destruction, of a pretended friends.h.i.+p with the spendthrift, in order that money for speedier ruin might be lent on that security which the uncle himself was so anxious to possess as his very own. But the scheme of this iniquity, though it had been planned and mapped out in his brain, had never been entertained as a thing really to be done. There are few of us who have not allowed our thoughts to work on this or that villany, arranging the method of its performance, though the performance itself is far enough from our purpose. The amus.e.m.e.nt is not without its danger,--and to the Squire of Newton had so far been injurious that it had tended to foster his hatred. He would, however, do nothing that was dishonest,--nothing that the world would condemn,--nothing that would not bear the light.

The argument to which he mainly trusted was this,--that if Ralph Newton, the heir, had anything to sell and was pleased to sell it, it was as open to him to buy it as to any other. If the reversion of the estate of Newton Priory was in the market, why should he not buy it?--the reversion or any part of the reversion? If such were the case he certainly would buy it.

CHAPTER XII.

MRS. BROWNLOW.

There was a certain old Mrs. Brownlow, who inhabited a large old-fas.h.i.+oned house on the Fulham Road, just beyond the fas.h.i.+onable confines of Brompton, but nearer to town than the decidedly rural district of Walham Green and Parson's Green. She was deeply interested in the welfare of the Underwood girls, having been a first cousin of their paternal grandmother, and was very unhappy because their father would not go home and take care of them. She was an excellent old woman, affectionate, charitable, and religious; but she was rather behindhand in general matters, and did not clearly understand much about anything in these latter days. She had heard that Sir Thomas was accustomed to live away from his daughters, and thought it very shocking;--but she knew that Sir Thomas either was or had been in Parliament, and that he was a great lawyer and a very clever man, and therefore she made excuses. She did not quite understand it all, but she thought it expedient to befriend the young ladies. She had heard, too, that Ralph Newton, who had been entrusted to the care of Sir Thomas, was heir to an enormous property; and she thought that the young man ought to marry one of the young ladies.

Consequently, whenever she would ask her cousins to tea, she would also ask Mr. Ralph Newton. Sometimes he would come. More frequently he would express his deep regret that a previous engagement prevented him from having the pleasure of accepting Mrs. Brownlow's kind invitation. On all these occasions Mrs. Brownlow invited Sir Thomas;--but Sir Thomas never came. It could hardly have been expected of him that he should do so. Bolsover House was the old-fas.h.i.+oned name of Mrs. Brownlow's residence; and an invitation for tea had been sent for a certain Tuesday in July,--Tuesday, July the 18th. Mrs. Brownlow had of course been informed of the arrival of Mary Bonner,--who was in truth as nearly related to her as the Underwood girls,--and the invitation was given with the express intention of doing honour to Mary. By the young ladies from Popham Villa the invitation was accepted as a matter of course.

"Will he be there?" Clary said to her sister.

"I hope not, Clarissa."

"Why do you hope not? We are not to quarrel; are we, Patty?"

"No;--we need not quarrel. But I am afraid of him. He is not good enough, Clary, for you to be unhappy about him. And I fear,--I fear, he is--"

"Is what, Patty? Do speak it out. There is nothing I hate so much as a mystery."

"I fear he is not genuine;--what people call honest. He would say things without quite meaning what he says."

"I don't think it. I am sure he is not like that. I may have been a fool--" Then she stopped herself, remembering the whole scene on the lawn. Alas;--there had been no misunderstanding him. The crime had been forgiven; but the crime had been a great fact. Since that she had seen him only once, and then he had been so cold! But yet as he left her he had not been quite cold. Surely that pressure of her hand had meant something;--had meant something after that great crime! But why did he not come to her; or why,--which would have been so far, far better,--did he not go to her papa and tell everything to him?

Now, however, there was the chance that she would see him at Bolsover House. That Mrs. Brownlow would ask him was quite a matter of course.

The great event of the evening was to be the introduction of Mrs.

Brownlow to the new cousin. They were to drink tea out in the old-fas.h.i.+oned garden behind the house, from which Mrs. Brownlow could retreat into her own room at the first touch of a breath of air. The day was one of which the world at large would declare that there was no breath of air, morning, noon, or night. There was to be quite a party. That was evident from the first to our young ladies, who knew the ways of the house, and who saw that the maids were very smart, and that an extra young woman had been brought in; but they were the first to come,--as was proper.

"My dear Mary," said the old woman to her new guest, "I am glad to see you. I knew your mother and loved her well. I hope you will be happy, my dear." Mrs. Brownlow was a very little old woman, very pretty, very grey, very nicely dressed, and just a little deaf. Mary Bonner kissed her, and murmured some word of thanks. The old woman stood for a few seconds, looking at the beauty,--astounded like the rest of the world. "Somebody told me she was good-looking," Mrs.

Brownlow said to Patience;--"but I did not expect to see her like that."

"Is she not lovely?"

"She is a miracle, my dear! I hope she won't steal all the nice young men away from you and your sister, eh? Yes;--yes. What does Mr.

Newton say to her?" Patience, however, knew that she need not answer all the questions which Mrs. Brownlow asked, and she left this question unanswered.

Two or three elderly ladies came in, and four or five young ladies, and an old gentleman who sat close to Mrs. Brownlow and squeezed her hand very often, and a middle-aged gentleman who was exceedingly funny, and two young gentlemen who carried the tea and cakes about, but did not talk much. Such were the guests, and the young ladies, who no doubt were accustomed to Mrs. Brownlow's parties, took it all as it was intended, and were not discontented. There was one young lady, however, who longed to ask a question, but durst not. Had Ralph Newton promised that he would come? Clary was sitting between the old gentleman who seemed to be so fond of Mrs. Brownlow's hand and her cousin Mary. She said not a word,--nor, indeed, was there much talking among the guests in general. The merry, middle-aged gentleman did the talking, combining with it a good deal of exhilarating laughter at his own wit. The ladies sat round, and sipped their tea and smiled. That middle-aged gentleman certainly earned his mild refreshment;--for the party without him must have been very dull.

Then there came a breath of air,--or, as Mrs. Brownlow called it, a keen north wind; and the old lady retreated into the house. "Don't let me take anybody else in,--only I can't stand a wind like that."

The old gentleman accompanied her, and then the elderly ladies. The young ladies came next, and the man of wit, with the silent young gentlemen, followed, laden with scarfs, parasols, fans, and stray teacups. "I don't think we used to have such cold winds in July,"

said Mrs. Brownlow. The old gentleman pressed her hand once more, and whispered into her ear that there had certainly been a great change.

Suddenly Ralph Newton was among them. Clarissa had not heard him announced, and to her it seemed as though he had come down from the heavens,--as would have befitted his G.o.ds.h.i.+p. He was a great favourite with Mrs. Brownlow, who, having heard that he was heir to a very large property, thought that his extravagance became him.

According to her views it was his duty to spend a good deal of money, and his duty also to marry Clarissa Underwood. As he was as yet unmarried to any one else, she hardly doubted that he would do his duty. She was a sanguine old lady, who always believed that things would go right. She bustled and fussed on the present occasion with the very evident intention of getting a seat for him next to Clarissa; but Clarissa was as active in avoiding such an arrangement, and Ralph soon found himself placed between Mary Bonner and a very deaf old lady, who was always present at Mrs. Brownlow's tea-parties.

"I suppose this has all been got up in your honour," he said to Mary.

She smiled, and shook her head. "Oh, but it has. I know the dear old lady's ways so well! She would never allow a new Underwood to be at the villa for a month without having a tea-party to consecrate the event."

"Isn't she charming, Mr. Newton;--and so pretty?"

"No end of charming, and awfully pretty. Why are we all in here instead of out in the garden?"

"Mrs. Brownlow thought that it was cold."

"With the thermometer at 80! What do you think, who ought to know what hot weather means? Are you chilly?"

"Not in the least. We West Indians never find this climate cold the first year. Next year I don't doubt that I shall be full of rheumatism all over, and begging to be taken back to the islands."

Clarissa watched them from over the way as though every word spoken between them had been a treason to herself. And yet she had almost been rude to old Mrs. Brownlow in the manner in which she had placed herself on one side of the circle when the old lady had begged her to sit on the other. Certainly, had she heard all that was said between her lover and her cousin, there was nothing in the words to offend her. She did not hear them; but she could see that Ralph looked into Mary's beautiful face, and that Mary smiled in a demure, silent, self-a.s.sured way which was already becoming odious to Clarissa.

Clarissa herself, when Ralph looked into her face, would blush and turn away, and feel herself unable to bear the gaze of the G.o.d.

In a few minutes there came to be a sudden move, and all the young people trooped back into the garden. It was Ralph Newton who did it, and n.o.body quite understood how it was done. "Certainly, my dears; certainly," said the old lady. "I dare say the moon is very beautiful. Yes; I see Mr. Ralph. You are not going to take me out, I can tell you. The moon is all very well, but I like to see it through the window. Don't mind me. Mr. Truepeny will stay with me."

Mr. Truepeny, who was turned eighty, put out his hand and patted Mrs.

Brownlow's arm, and a.s.sured her that he wanted nothing better than to stay with her for ever. The witty gentleman did not like the move, because it had been brought about by a newcomer, who had, as it were, taken the wind out of his sails. He lingered awhile, hoping to have weight enough to control the mult.i.tude;--in which he failed, and at last made one of the followers. And Clarissa lingered also, because Ralph had been the first to stir. Ralph had gone out with Mary Bonner, and therefore Clarissa had held back. So it came to pa.s.s that she found herself walking round the garden with the witty, exhilarating, middle-aged gentleman,--whom, for the present at least, she most cordially hated. "I am not quite sure that our dear old friend isn't right," said the witty man, whose name was Poojean;--"a chair to sit down upon, and a wall or two around one, and a few little knick-nacks about,--carpets and tables and those sort of things,--are comfortable at times."

"I wonder you should leave them then," said Clarissa.

"Can there be a wonder that I leave them with such temptation as this," said the gallant Poojean. Clarissa hated him worse than ever, and would not look at him, or even make the faintest sign that she heard him. The voice of Ralph Newton through the trees struck her ears; and yet the voice wasn't loud,--as it would not be if it were addressed with tenderness to Mary. And there was she bound by some indissoluble knot to,--Mr. Poojean. "That Mr. Newton is a friend of yours?" asked Mr. Poojean.

"Yes;--a friend of ours," said Clarissa.

"Then I will express my intense admiration for his wit, general character, and personal appearance. Had he been a stranger to you, I should, of course, have insinuated an opinion that he was a fool, a c.o.xcomb, and the very plainest young man I had ever seen. That is the way of the world,--isn't it, Miss Underwood?"

"I don't know," said Clarissa.

"Oh, yes,--you do. That's the way we all go on. As he is your friend, I can't dare to begin to abuse him till after the third time round the garden."

"I beg, then, that there may be only two turns," said Clarissa.

But she did not know how to stop, or to get rid of her abominable companion.

"If I mustn't abuse him after three turns, he must be a favourite,"

said the persevering Poojean. "I suppose he is a favourite.

By-the-bye, what a lovely girl that is with whom your favourite was,--shall I say flirting?"

"That lady is my cousin, Mr. Poojean."