The Channings Part 3

"We have been up to the judges, as usual, for holiday, sir," replied Gaunt, in a tone of deprecation. "His lords.h.i.+p sends his card and compliments to you, and--"

"Holiday!" interrupted the master. "Holiday!" he repeated, with emphasis, as if disbelieving his own ears. "Do you consider that the school deserves it? A pretty senior you must be, if you do."

"What has the school done, sir?" respectfully asked Gaunt.

"Your memory must be conveniently short," chafed the master. "Have you forgotten the inked surplice?"

Gaunt paused. "But that was not the act of the whole school, sir. It was probably the act of only one."

"But, so long as that one does not confess, the whole school must bear it," returned the master, looking round on the a.s.sembly. "Boys, understand me. It is not for the fault itself--that may have been, as I said yesterday, the result of accident; but it is the concealment of the fault that makes me angry. Will you confess now?--he who did it?"

No; the appeal brought forth no further result than the other had done. The master continued: "You may think--I speak now to the guilty boy, and let him take these words to himself--that you were quite alone when you did it; that no eye was watching. But let me remind you that the eye of G.o.d was upon you. What you refuse to tell, He can bring to light, if it shall so please Him, in His own wonderful way, His own good time. There will be no holiday to-day. Prayers."

The boys fell into their places, and stood with hanging heads, something like rebellion working in every breast. At breakfast-time they were dismissed, and gathered in the cloisters to give vent to their sentiments.

"Isn't it a stunning shame?" cried hot Tom Channing. "The school ought not to suffer for the fault of one boy. The master has no right--"

"The fault lies in the boy, not in the master," interrupted Gaunt. "A sneak! a coward! If he has a spark of manly honour in him, he'll speak up now."

"As it has come to this, I say Charley Channing should be made to declare what he knows," said one. "He saw it done!"

"Who says he did?" quickly asked Tom Channing.

"Some one said so; and that he was afraid to tell."

Gaunt lifted his finger, and made a sign to Charles to approach. "Now, boy"--as the latter obeyed--"you will answer _me_, remember. The master has called the seniors to his aid, and I order you to speak. Did you see this mischief done?"

"No, I did not!" fearlessly replied little Channing.

"If he doesn't know, he suspects," persisted Hurst. "Come, Miss Channing."

"We don't declare things upon suspicion, do we, Mr. Gaunt?" appealed Charles. "I may suspect one; Hurst may suspect another; Bywater said he suspected two; the whole school may be suspicious, one of another. Where's the use of that?"

"It is of no use," decided Gaunt. "You say you did not see the surplice damaged?"

"I did not; upon my word of honour."

"That's enough," said Gaunt. "Depend upon it, the fellow, while he was at it, took precious good precautions against being seen. When he gets found out, he had better not come within reach of the seniors; I warn him of that: they might not leave him a head on his shoulders, or a tooth in his mouth."

"Suppose it should turn out to have been a senior, Mr. Gaunt?" spoke Bywater.

"Suppose you should turn out to be an everlasting big donkey?" retorted the senior boy.

CHAPTER V.

ROLAND YORKE.

Just without the Boundaries, in a wide, quiet street, called Close Street, was the office of Richard Galloway, Esquire, Proctor, and Steward to the Dean and Chapter. Excepting for this solitary office, the street consisted of private houses, and it was one of the approaches to the cathedral, though not the chief one. Mr. Galloway was a bachelor; a short, stout man, shaped like a cask, with a fat, round face, round, open, grey eyes--that always looked as if their owner was in a state of wonder--and a little round mouth. But he was a shrewd man and a capable; he was also, in his way, a dandy; dressed scrupulously in the fas.h.i.+on, with delicate s.h.i.+rt fronts and snow-white wristbands; and for the last twenty-five years, at least, had been a mark for all the single ladies of Helstonleigh to set their caps at.

Of beauty, Mr. Galloway could boast little; but of his hair he was moderately vain: a very good head of hair it was, and curled naturally. But hair, let it be luxuriant enough to excite the admiration of a whole army of coiffeurs, is, like other things in this sublunary world of ours, subject to change; it will not last for ever; and Mr. Galloway's, from a fine and glossy brown, turned, as years went on, to sober grey--nay, almost to white. He did not particularly admire the change, but he had to submit to it. Nature is stronger than we are. A friend hinted that it might be "dyed." Mr. Galloway resented the suggestion: anything false was abhorrent to him. When, however, after an illness, his hair began to fall off alarmingly, he thought it no harm to use a certain specific, emanating from one of her Majesty's physicians; extensively set forth and patronized as an undoubted remedy for hair that was falling off. Mr. Galloway used it extensively in his fear, for he had an equal dread both of baldness and wigs. The lotion not only had the desired effect, but it had more: the hair grew on again luxuriantly, and its whiteness turned into the finest flaxen you ever saw; a light delicate flaxen, exactly like the curls you see upon the heads of blue-eyed wax dolls. This is a fact: and whether Mr. Galloway liked it, or not, he had to put up with it. Many would not be persuaded but that he had used some delicate dye, hitherto unknown to science; and the suspicion vexed Mr. Galloway. Behold him, therefore, with a perfect shower of smooth, fair curls upon his head, equal to any young beau.

It was in this gentleman's office that Arthur Channing had been placed, with a view to his becoming ultimately a proctor. To article him to Mr. Galloway would take a good round sum of money; and this had been put off until the termination of the suit, when Mr. Channing had looked forward to being at his ease, in a pecuniary point of view. There were two others in the same office. The one was Roland Yorke, who was articled; the other was Joseph Jenkins, a thin, spare, humble man of nine and thirty, who had served Mr. Galloway for nearly twenty years, earning twenty-five s.h.i.+llings a week. He was a son of old Jenkins, the bedesman, and his wife kept a small hosiery shop in High Street. Roland Yorke was, of course, not paid; on the contrary, he had paid pretty smartly to Mr. Galloway for the privilege of being initiated into the mysteries belonging to a proctor. Arthur Channing may be said to have occupied a position in the office midway between the two. He was to become on the footing of Roland Yorke; but meanwhile, he received a small weekly sum in remuneration of his services, as Joe Jenkins did. Roland Yorke, in his proud moods, looked down upon him as a paid clerk; Mr. Jenkins looked up to him as a gentleman. It was a somewhat anomalous position; but Arthur had held his own bravely up in it until this blow came, looking forward to a brighter time.

In the years gone by, one of the stalls in Helstonleigh Cathedral was held by the Reverend Dr. Yorke: he had also some time filled the office of sub-dean. He had married, imprudently, the daughter of an Irish peer, a pretty, good-tempered girl, who was as fond of extravagance as she was devoid of means to support it. She had not a s.h.i.+lling in the world; it was even said that the bills for her trousseau came in afterwards to Dr. Yorke: but people, you know, are given to scandal. Want of fortune had been nothing, had Lady Augusta only possessed ordinary prudence; but she spent the doctor's money faster than he received it.

In the course of years Dr. Yorke died, leaving eight children, and slender means for them. There were six boys and two girls. Lady Augusta went to reside in a cheap and roomy house (somewhat dilapidated) in the Boundaries, close to her old prebendal residence, and scrambled on in her careless, spending fas.h.i.+on, never out of debt. She retained their old barouche, and would retain it, and was a great deal too fond of ordering horses from the livery stables and driving out in state. Gifted with excellent qualities had her children been born; but of training, in the highest sense of the word, she had given them none. George, the eldest, had a commission, and was away with his regiment. Roland, the second, had been designed for the Church, but no persuasion could induce him to be sufficiently attentive to his studies to qualify himself for it; he was therefore placed with Mr. Galloway, and the Church honours were now intended for Gerald. The fourth son, Theodore, was also in the college school, a junior. Next came two girls, Caroline and f.a.n.n.y, and there were two little boys still younger.

Haughty, self-willed, but of sufficiently honourable nature, were the Yorkes. If Lady Augusta had only toiled to foster the good, and eradicate the evil, they would have grown up to bless her. Good soil was there to work upon, as there was in the Channings; but, in the case of the Yorkes, it was allowed to run to waste, or to generate weeds. In short, to do as it pleased.

A noisy, scrambling, uncomfortable sort of home was that of the Yorkes; the boys sometimes contending one with another, Lady Augusta often quarrelling with all. The home of the Channings was ever full of love, calm, and peace. Can you guess where the difference lay?

On the morning when the college boys had gone up to crave holiday of the judges, and had not obtained it--at least not from the head-master--Arthur Channing proceeded, as usual, to Mr. Galloway's, after breakfast. Seated at a desk, in his place, writing--he seemed to be ever seated there--was Mr. Jenkins. He lifted his head when Arthur entered, with a "Good morning, sir," and then dropped it again over his copying.

"Good morning," replied Arthur. And at that moment Mr. Galloway--his flaxen curls in full flow upon his head, something like rings--came forth from his private room. "Good morning, sir," Arthur added, to his master.

Mr. Galloway nodded a reply to the salutation. "Have you seen anything of Yorke?" he asked. "I want that deed that he's about finished as soon as possible."

"He will not be an instant," said Arthur. "I saw him coming up the street."

Roland Yorke bustled in; a dark young man of twenty-one, with large but fine features, and a countenance expressive of indecision.

"Come, Mr. Yorke, you promised to be here early to-day. You know that deed is being waited for."

"So I am early, sir," returned Roland.

"Early! for you perhaps," grunted Mr. Galloway. "Get to it at once."

Roland Yorke unlocked a drawer, collected sundry parchments together, and sat down to his desk. He and Arthur had their places side by side. Mr. Galloway stood at a table, and began sorting some papers that were upon it.

"How is Mr. Channing this morning, Arthur?"

"Much as usual, thank you, sir. Certain news, which arrived last night, has not tended to cheer him."

"It is true, then?" remarked Mr. Galloway. "I heard a rumour of it."

"Oh, it's true enough," said Arthur. "It is in all the morning papers."

"Well, there never was a more unjust decision!" emphatically spoke Mr. Galloway. "Mark you, I am not reflecting on the Lord Chancellor's judgment. I have always said that there were one or two nasty points in that suit, which the law might get hold of; but I know the whole cause by heart, from beginning to end; and that money was as much your father's, as this coat, that I have on, is mine. Tell him I'll come in one of these fine evenings, and abuse the injustice of our laws with him,--will you?"

"Yes, sir," replied Arthur.

"What's this row in the college school about a destroyed surplice, and the boys not getting their holiday through it?" resumed Mr. Galloway.

"Oh, are they not savage!" struck in Roland Yorke. "The first thing Tod did, when he came home to breakfast, was to fling over his bowl of coffee, he was in such a pa.s.sion. Lady Augusta--she came down to breakfast this morning, for a wonder--boxed his ears, and ordered him to drink water; but he went into the kitchen, and made a lot of chocolate for himself."

"What are the particulars? How was it done? I cannot understand it at all," said Mr. Galloway.

"Bywater left his clean surplice yesterday in the vestry, and some one threw ink over it--half soaked it in ink, so the choristers told Tom," answered Arthur Channing. "In the afternoon--they had service late, you know, sir, waiting for the judges--Bywater was not in his place to sing the anthem, and Hurst sang it, and it put the master out very much."

"Put him out all the more that he has no one to punish for it," laughed Roland Yorke. "Of course Bywater couldn't appear in his stall, and sing the anthem, if he had no surplice to put on; and the master couldn't tan him for not doing it. I know this, if it had happened while I was in the college school, I'd just have skinned some of the fellows alive, but what I'd have made them confess."

"Suppose you had skinned the wrong party?" cynically observed Mr. Galloway. "You are too hasty with your tongue, Roland Yorke. My nephew, Mark, ran in just now to tell me of the holiday being denied, and that was the first I had heard of the affair. Mark thinks one of the seniors was in it; not Gaunt."

Arthur Channing and Roland Yorke both looked up with a sharp, quick gesture. Gaunt excepted, the only senior, besides their respective brothers, was Harry Huntley.

"It is not likely, sir," said Arthur.

"A senior do it!" scoffed Roland Yorke. "What a young idiot Mark Galloway must be, to think that!"

"Mark does not seem to think much about it on his own account," said Mr. Galloway. "He said Bywater thought so, from some cause or other; and has offered to bet the whole school that it will turn out to be a senior."

"Does he, though!" cried Yorke, looking puzzled. "Bywater's a cautious fellow with his money; he never bets at random. I say, sir, what else did Galloway tell you?"

"That was all," replied Mr. Galloway. And if you wonder at a staid old proctor chattering about this desultory news with his clerks in business hours, it may be explained to you that Mr. Galloway took the greatest possible interest, almost a boyish interest, in the college school. It was where he had been educated himself, where his nephews were being educated; he was on intimate terms with its masters; knew every boy in it to speak to; saw them troop past his house daily in their progress to and fro; watched them in their surplices in a Sunday, during morning and afternoon service; was cognizant of their advancement, their shortcomings, their merits, and their sc.r.a.pes: in fact, the head-master could not take a greater interest in the doings of the collegiate school, than did Mr. Galloway. Whether of work, or whether of gossip, his ears were ever open to listen to its records. Besides, they were not so overburdened with work in that office, but that there was ample time for discussing any news that might be agreeable to its master. His work was light; his returns were heavy; his stewards.h.i.+p alone brought him in several hundreds a year.

"The Reverend Mr. Pye seems uncommonly annoyed about it, sir," Mr. Jenkins ventured to put in. To interrupt, or take part in any conversation, was not usual with him, unless he could communicate little t.i.t-bits of information touching the pa.s.sing topic. "You are aware that Mr. Harper, the lay-clerk, lodges at our house, sir. Well, Mr. Pye came round last night, especially to question him about it."

"What could Harper tell?" asked Mr. Galloway.

"He could not tell anything; except that he would answer for the lay-clerks knowing nothing of the transaction. The master said he never supposed the lay-clerks did know anything of it, but he had his reasons for putting the question. He had been to the masons, too, who are repairing the cathedral; and they declared to the master, one and all, that they had not been into the vestry yesterday, or even round to that side of the college where the vestry is situated."

"Why should the master take it up so pertinaciously?" wondered Roland Yorke.

"I'm sure I don't know, sir. He was like one in a fever, so excited over it, Harper said."

"Did he talk to you about it, Jenkins?" asked Mr. Galloway.

"I did not see him, sir; it was Harper told me afterwards," was the reply of Jenkins, as he subsided to his writing again.

Just at this juncture, who should come in view of the window but the head-master himself. He was pa.s.sing it with a quick step, when out flew Mr. Galloway, and caught him by the b.u.t.ton. Roland Yorke, who was ever glad of a pretext for idleness, rose from his stool, and pushed his nose close up to the nearest pane, to listen to any colloquy that might ensue; but, the window being open, he might have heard without leaving his seat.

"I hear the boys have not a holiday to-day, Pye," began Mr. Galloway.

"No, that they have not," emphatically p.r.o.nounced the master; "and, if they go on as they seem to be going on now, I'll keep them without it for a twelvemonth. I believe the inking of that surplice was a concocted plan, look you, Galloway, to--"

"To what?" asked Mr. Galloway, for the master stopped short.

"Never mind, just yet. I have my strong suspicions as to the guilty boy, and I am doing what I can to convert them into proofs. If it be as I suspect now, I shall expel him."

"But what could it have been done for?" debated Mr. Galloway. "There's no point in the thing, that I can see, to ink and damage a surplice. If the boy to whom it belonged had been inked, one might not have wondered so much."

"I'll 'point him,'" cried the master, "if I catch the right one."

"Could it have been one of the seniors?" returned the proctor, all his strong interest awakened.

"It was one who ought to have known better," evasively returned the master. "I can't stop to talk now, Galloway. I have an errand to do, and must be back to duty at ten."

He marched off quickly, and Mr. Galloway came indoors again. "Is that the way you get on with your business, Mr. Yorke?"

Yorke clattered to his desk. "I'll get on with it, sir. I was listening to what the master said."

"It does not concern you, what he said. It was not one of your brothers who did it, I suppose?"

"No, that it was not," haughtily spoke Roland Yorke, drawing up his head with a proud, fierce gesture.

Mr. Galloway withdrew to his private room, and for a few minutes silence supervened--nothing was to be heard but the scratching of pens. But Roland Yorke, who had a great antipathy to steady work, and as great a love for his own tongue, soon began again.

"I say, Channing, what an awful blow the dropping of that expected money must be for you fellows! I'm blest if I didn't dream of it last night! If it spoilt my rest, what must it have done by yours!"

"Why! how could you have heard of it last night?" exclaimed Arthur, in surprise. "I don't think a soul came to our house to hear the news, except Mr. Yorke: and you were not likely to see him. He left late. It is in every one's mouth this morning."

"I had it from Hamish. He came to the party at the Knivetts'. Didn't Hamish get taken in!" laughed Roland. "He understood it was quite a ladies' affair, and loomed in, dressed up to the nines, and there he found only a bachelor gathering of d.i.c.k's. Hamish was disappointed, I think; he fancied he was going to meet Ellen Huntley; and glum enough he looked--"

"He had only just heard of the loss," interrupted Arthur. "Enough to make him look glum."

"Rubbis.h.!.+ It wasn't that. He announced at once that the money was gone for good and all, and laughed over it, and said there were worse disasters at sea. Knivett said he never saw a fellow carry ill news off with so high a hand. Had he been proclaiming the accession of a fortune, instead of the loss of one, he could not have been more carelessly cheerful. Channing, what on earth shall you do about your articles?"

A question that caused the greatest pain, especially when put by Roland Yorke; and Arthur's sensitive face flushed.

"You'll have to stop as a paid clerk for interminable years! Jenkins, you'll have him for your bosom companion, if you look sharp and make friends," cried Roland, laughing loudly.

"No, sir, I don't think Mr. Arthur Channing is likely to become a paid clerk," said Jenkins.

"Not likely to become a paid clerk! why, he is one. If he is not one, I'd like to know who is. Channing, you know you are nothing else."

"I may be something else in time," quietly replied Arthur, who knew how to control his rebellious spirit.

"I say, what a rum go it is about that surplice!" exclaimed Roland Yorke, das.h.i.+ng into another topic. "It's not exactly the mischief itself that's rum, but the master seem to be making so much stir and mystery over it! And then the hint at the seniors! They must mean Huntley."

"I don't know who they _mean_," said Arthur, "but I am sure Huntley never did it. He is too open, too honourable--"

"And do you pretend to say that Tom Channing and my brother Ger are not honourable?" fiercely interrupted Roland Yorke.

"There you go, Yorke; jumping to conclusions! It is not to be credited that any one of the seniors did it: still less, if they had done it, that they would not acknowledge it. They are all boys of truth and honour, so far as I believe. Huntley, I am sure, is."

"And of Tom, also, I conclude you feel sure?"

"Yes, I do."

"And I am sure of Ger Yorke. So, if the master is directing his suspicion to the seniors, he'll get floored. It's odd what can have turned it upon them."