Roland Cashel Volume I Part 42

Linton arose and walked the room in deep meditation; at last he said,--

"You had better let him have those letters we held back the last two days, to-day. He'll not think deeply over his losses on the Derby while dwelling on this missing letter."

"I don't suspect his losses, sir, will cause much uneasiness on any score; money occupies very little of his thoughts."

"True; but here the sum is a very heavy one. I made the book myself, and stood to win thirty thousand pounds; but, no matter,--it can't be helped now,--better luck another time. Now, another point. It strikes me of late that he seems bored somewhat by the kind of life he is leading, and that these carouses at the messes are becoming just as distasteful to him as the heavy dinner-parties with the Dean and the rest of them. Is that your opinion?"

"Perfectly, sir. He even said as much to me t'other evening, when he came back from a late supper. He is always wis.h.i.+ng for the yacht to come over,--speaks every now and then of taking a run over to London and Paris; in fact, sir, he _is_ bored here. There is no disguising it."

"I feared as much, George; I suspected, many a day ago, he would not be long satisfied with the provincial boards. But this must not be; once away from Dublin, he is lost to us forever. I know, and so do you know, the hands he would fall into in town. Better let him get back to his old prairie haunts, for a while, than that."

"Not so very unlikely, sir. He sits poring over maps and charts for hours together, and scans the new coast survey like a man bent on exploring the scenes for himself. It is hard to say what is best to do with him."

"I'll tell you what he must not be permitted to do with himself: he must not leave Ireland; he must not marry; he must not enter Parliament; and, for the moment, to employ his thoughts and banish _ennui_, we 'll get up the house-warming at Tubbermore. I mean to set off thither to-morrow."

"Without Mr. Cashel, sir?"

"Of course; be it your care that matters are well looked to in my absence, and as Kennyf.e.c.k's house is safer than the barracks, he may dine there as often as he pleases. Keep a watch on Jones,--not that I think he 'll be very dangerous; see after Lord Charles, whether he may try to profit by my absence; and, above all, write me a bulletin each day."

Mr. Phillis promised a strict obedience to orders, and rose to retire, pleading the necessity of his being at home when his master returned.

"What of this letter, sir? Shall I contrive to place it in his pocket, and discover it as he is undressing? He never suspects anything or anybody."

"No, George,--I 'll keep it; it may turn out useful to us one of these days; there's no knowing when or how. I 'm curious, too, to see how he will act with reference to it,--whether he will venture on any confidence towards me. I suspect not; he never alludes to his bygones. The only terror his mind is capable of would seem the fear of fas.h.i.+onable contempt. If he ever lose this, he's lost to us forever."

This was said rather in soliloquy than addressed to Phillis, who did not appear to catch the meaning of the remark. "You'll leave this note on his table, and take care he sees it. It is to remind him of an appointment here to-morrow with h.o.a.re, the money-lender, at eleven o'clock punctually."

Phillis took the note, and after a very respectful leave-taking, withdrew.

"Yes," said Linton, musing, as he leaned against the window, "all goes fairly so far. Mr. Phillis may live to see himself once more a merchant tailor in Cheapside, and Tom Linton, under the buckler of his M.P., defy duns and b.u.ms, and be again a denizen of the only city worth living in."

He then reseated himself in an easy-chair, and prepared to con over the letter, to which he had only given a pa.s.sing attention. The narrative of Enrique, full of exciting details and hair-breadth 'scapes, was, however, far less an object of interest to Linton than the consideration how far a character like this might be made use of for the purpose of threat and intimidation over Cashel.

His reflections ran somewhat thus: "The day may come--is, perhaps, even now nigh--when Cashel shall reject my influence and ascendency. There never has been anything which could even counterfeit friends.h.i.+p between us,--close intimacy has been all. To maintain that hold over him so necessary to my fortunes, I must be in a position to menace. Roland himself has opened the way to this by his own reserve. The very concealment he has practised implies fear;--otherwise, why, in all the openness of our familiar intercourse, never have mentioned Enrique's name; still more, never once alluded to this Maritana? It is clear enough with what shame he looks back on the past. Let mine be the task to increase that feeling, and build up the fear of the world's ridicule, till he shall be the slave of every whisper that syllables his name! The higher his path in society, the greater the depth to which disclosures may consign him; and what disclosures so certainly ruinous as to connect him with the lawless marauders of the Spanish main,--the slaver and the pirate? His dear friend, a felon, taken in open fight by a British cruiser! Maritana, too, may serve us; her name as mistress--or, if need be, as wife--will effectually oppose any matrimonial speculations here.

So far this letter has been a rare piece of fortune!"

For some moments he walked the room with excited and animated looks, the alternating shades of pleasure and its opposite flitting rapidly across his strong features. At last he broke out in words: "Ay, Cashel, I am as suddenly enriched as yourself,--but with a different heritage. Yours was Gold; mine, Revenge! And there are many to whom I could pay the old debt home. There's Forster, with his story of Ascot, and his black-ball at Graham's!--a double debt, with years of heavy interest upon it; there's Howard, too, that closed his book at Tattersall's, after tearing out the leaf that had my name! Frobisher himself daring his petty insolence at every turn!--all these cry for acquittance, and shall have it There are few men of my own standing, that with moneyed means at my command, I could not ruin! and, ungallant as the boast may be, some fair ladies, too! How I have longed for the day, how I have schemed and plotted for it! and now it comes almost unlooked for.

"Another month or two of this wasteful extravagance, and Cashel will be deeply, seriously embarra.s.sed. Kennyf.e.c.k will suggest retrenchment and economy; that shall be met with an insidious doubt of the good man's honesty. And how easy to impeach it! The schemes of his wife and daughter will aid the accusation. Roland shall, meanwhile, learn the discomfort of being 'hard up.' The importunity--nay, the insolence--of duns shall a.s.sail him at every post and every hour. From this there is but one bold, short step,--and take it he must,--make me his agent. That done, all the rest is easy. Embarra.s.sment and injurious reports will soon drive him from the country, and from an estate he shall never revisit as his own! So far,--the first act of the drama! The second discovers Tom Linton the owner of Tubbermore, and the host of Lord and Lady Kilgoff, who have condescendingly agreed to pa.s.s the Easter recess with him. Mr. Linton has made a very splendid maiden speech, which, however, puzzles the ministers and the 'Times;' and, if he were not a man perfectly indifferent to place, would expose him to the imputation of courting it.

"And Laura all this while!" said he, in a voice whose accents trembled with intense feeling, "can she forgive the past? Will old memories revive old affections, or will they rot into hatred? Well," cried he, sternly, "whichever way they turn, I 'm prepared."

There was a tone of triumphant meaning in his last words that seemed to thrill through his frame, and as he threw himself back upon his seat, and gazed out upon the starry sky, his features wore the look of proud and insolent defiance. "So is it," said he, after a pause; "one must be alone--friendless, and alone--in life, to dare the world so fearlessly."

He filled a goblet of sherry, and as he drank it off, cried, "Courage!

Tom Linton against 'the field!'"

CHAPTER XXI. THE CONSPIRATORS DISTURBED

Eternal friends.h.i.+p let us swear, In fraud at least--"nous serons freres."

Robert Macaire.

Cashel pa.s.sed a night of feverish anxiety. Enrique's uncertain fate was never out of his thoughts; and if for a moment he dropped off to sleep, he immediately awoke with a sudden start,--some fancied cry for help, some heart-uttered appeal to him for a.s.sistance breaking in upon his weary slumber.

How ardently did he wish for some one friend to whom he might confide his difficulty, and from whom receive advice and counsel. Linton's shrewdness and knowledge of life pointed him out as the fittest; but how to reveal to his fas.h.i.+onable friend the secrets of that buccaneering life he had himself so lately quitted? How expose himself to the dreaded depreciation a "fine gentleman" might visit on a career pa.s.sed amid slavers and pirates? A month or two previous, he could not have understood such scruples; but already the frivolities and excesses of daily habit had thrown an air of savage rudeness over the memory of his Western existence, and he had not the courage to brave the comments it might suggest To this false shame had Linton brought him, acting on a naturally sensitive nature, by those insidious and imperceptible counsels which represent the world--meaning, thereby, that portion of it who are in the purple and fine linen category--as the last appeal in all cases, not alone of a man's breeding and pretensions, but of his honor and independence.

It was not without many a severe struggle, and many a heartfelt repining, Cashel felt himself surrender the free action of his natural independence to the petty and formal restrictions of a code like this.

But there was an innate dread of notoriety, a sensitive shrinking from remark, that made him actually timid about transgressing whatever he was told to be an ordinance of fas.h.i.+on. To dress in a particular way; to frequent certain places; to be known to certain people; to go out at certain hours; and so on,--were become to his mind as the actual requirements of his station, and often did he regret the hour when he had parted with his untrammelled freedom to live a life of routine and monotony.

Shrinking, then, from any confidence in Linton, he next thought of Kennyf.e.c.k; and, although not placing a high value on his skill and correctness in such a difficulty, he resolved, at all hazards, to consult him on the course to be followed. He had been often told how gladly Government favors the possessor of fortune and influence. "Now,"

thought he, "is the time to test the problem. All of mine is at their service, if they but liberate my poor comrade."

So saying to himself, he had just reached the hall, when the sound of wheels approached the door. A carriage drew up, and Linton, followed by Mr. h.o.a.re, the money-lender, descended.

"Oh, I had entirely forgotten this affair," cried Cashel, as he met them; "can we not fix another day?"

"Impossible, sir; I leave town to-night."

"Another hour to-day, then?" said Cashel, impatiently.

"This will be very difficult, sir. I have some very pressing engagements, all of which were formed subject to your convenience in this business."

"But while you are discussing the postponement, you could finish the whole affair," cried Linton, drawing his arm within Cashel's, and leading him along towards the library. "By Jove! it does give a man a sublime idea of wealth, to be sure," said he, laughing, "to see the cool indifference with which you can propose to defer an interview that brings you some fifteen thousand pounds. As for me, I 'd make the Viceroy himself play 'ante-chamber,' if little h.o.a.re paid me a visit."

"Well, be it so; only let us despatch," said Cashel, "for I am anxious to catch Kennyf.e.c.k before he goes down to court."

"I 'll not detain you many minutes, sir," said h.o.a.re, drawing forth a very capacious black leather pocket-book, and opening it on the table. "There are the bills, drawn as agreed upon,--at three and six months,--here is a statement of the charges for interest, commission, and--"

"I am quite satisfied it is all right," said Cashel, pus.h.i.+ng the paper carelessly from him. "I have borrowed money once or twice in my life, and always thought anything liberal which did not exceed cent per cent."

"We are content with much less, sir, as you will perceive," said h.o.a.re, smiling. "Six per cent interest, one-half commission--"

"Yes, yes; it is all perfectly correct," broke in Cashel. "I sign my name here--and here?"

"And here, also, sir. There is also a policy of insurance on your life."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, a usual kind of security in these cases," said Linton; "because if you were to die before the bills came due--"

"I see it all; whatever you please," said Cashel, taking up his hat and gloves. "Now, will you pardon me for taking a very abrupt leave?"

"You are forgetting a very material point, sir," said h.o.a.re; "this is an order on Frend and Beggan for the money."

"Very true. The fact is, gentlemen, my head is none of the clearest to-day. Good-bye--good-bye."