CHAPTER XVI.
AN ALARM.
Cleve reached the station, eight miles away from the dismal swamp Ihave described, in time to catch the mail train. From Llwynan he didnot go direct to Ware, but drove instead to Cardyllian, and put up atthe Verney Arms early next morning.
By ten o'clock he was seen, sauntering about the streets, talking withold friends, and popping into the shops and listening to the gossip ofthe town. Cleve had a sort of friendliness that answered allelectioneering purposes perfectly, and _that_ was the measure of itsvalue.
Who should he light upon in Castle Street but Tom Sedley! They musthave arrived by the same train at Llwynan. The sight of Tom jarredintensely upon Cleve Verney's nerves. There was something so strangein his looks and manner that Sedley thought him ill. He stopped for awhile to talk with him at the corner of Church Street, but seemed soobviously disposed to escape from him, that Sedley did not press hissociety, but acquiesced with some disgust and wonder in their newrelations.
Tom Sedley had been with Wynne Williams about poor Vane Etherage'saffairs. Honest Wynne Williams was in no mood to flatter Lord Verney,the management of whose affairs he had, he said, "resigned." The factwas that he had been, little by little, so uncomfortably superseded inhis functions by our good friend Jos. Larkin, and the fashion of LordVerney's countenance was so manifestly changed, that honest WynneWilliams felt that he might as well do a proud thing, and resign, aswait a little longer for the inevitable humiliation of dismissal.
"I'm afraid my friend the admiral is in bad hands; worse hands thanLarkin's he could hardly have fallen into. I could tell you things ofthat fellow, if we had time--of course strictly between ourselves, youknow--that would open your eyes. And as to his lordship--well, Isuppose most people know something of Lord Verney. I owe him nothing,you know; it's all ended between us, and I wash my hands of him andhis concerns. You may talk to him, if you like; but you'll find youmight as well argue with the tide in the estuary there. I'd bedevilish glad if I could be of any use; but you see how it is; and totell you the truth, I'm afraid it must come to a regular smash, unlessLord Verney drops that nasty litigation. There are some charges, youknow, upon the property already; and with that litigation hanging overit, I don't see how he's to get money to pay those calls. It's a badbusiness, I'm afraid, and an awful pity. Poor old fellow!--a littlebit rough, but devilish good-hearted."
Tom Sedley went up to Hazelden. The Etherage girls knew he was coming,and were watching for him at the top of the steep walk.
"I've been talking, as I said I would, to Wynne Williams thismorning," he said, after greetings and inquiries made and answered,"and he had not anything important to advise; but he has promised tothink over the whole matter."
"And Wynne Williams is _known_ to be _the_ cleverest lawyer _in theworld_," exclaimed Miss Charity, exulting. "I was afraid, on accountof his having been so lately Lord Verney's adviser, that he would nothave been willing to consult with you. And _will_ he use hisinfluence, which must be very great, with Lord Verney?"
"He has none; and he thinks it would be quite useless my talking tohim."
"Oh! Is it possible? Well, if he said _that_, I _never_ heard _such_nonsense in the course of my life. I think old Lord Verney was one ofthe _very nicest_ men I _ever_ spoke to in the course of my life; andI'm certain it is all that horrid Mr. Larkin, and a great mistake; forLord Verney is quite a gentleman, and would not do anything so_despicable_ as to worry and injure papa by this horrid business, ifonly you would make him understand it; and I _do_ think, ThomasSedley, you _might_ take that trouble for papa."
"I'll go over to Ware, and try to see Lord Verney, if you think mydoing so can be of the least use," said Tom, who knew the vanity ofarguing with Miss Charity.
"Oh, _do_," said pretty Agnes, and that entreaty was, of course, acommand; so without going up to see old Etherage, who was very muchbroken and ill, his daughters said; and hoping possibly to have somecheering news on his return, Tom Sedley took his leave for thepresent, and from the pier of Cardyllian crossed in a boat to Ware.
On the spacious steps of that palatial mansion, as Mr. Larkin used toterm it, stood Lord Verney, looking grandly seaward, with compressedeyes, like a near-sighted gentleman as he was.
"Oh! is she all right?" said Lord Verney.
"I--I don't know, Lord Verney," replied Tom Sedley. "I came to"--
"Oh--aw--Mr.--Mr.--how d'ye do, sir," said Lord Verney, with markedfrigidity, not this time giving him the accustomed finger.
"I came, Lord Verney, hoping you might possibly give me five minutes,and a very few words, about that unfortunate business of poor Mr. VaneEtherage."
"I'm unfortunately just going out in a boat--about it; and I can'tjust now afford time, Mr.--a--Mr."--
"_Sedley_ is my name," suggested Sedley, who knew that Lord Verneyremembered him perfectly.
"Sedley--Mr. Sedley; yes. As I mentioned, I'm going in a boat. I'msorry I can't possibly oblige you; and it is very natural you, who areso intimate, I believe, with Mr. Etherage, should take that side ofthe question--about it; but _I_'ve no reason to call those proceedingsunfortunate; and--and I don't anticipate--and, in fact, people usuallylook after their own concerns--about it." Lord Verney, standing on thesteps, was looking over Sedley's head, as he spoke, at the estuary andthe shipping there.
"I'm sure, Lord Verney, if you knew how utterly ruinous, how really_deplorable_, the consequences of pursuing this thing--I mean thelawsuit against him--may be--I am _sure_--you would stop it all."
Honest Tom spoke in the belief that in the hesitation that had markedthe close of the noble lord's remarks there was a faltering ofpurpose, whereas there was simply a failure of ideas.
"I can't help your forming opinions, sir, though I have not invitedtheir expression upon my concerns and--and affairs. If you haveanything to communicate about those proceedings, you had better seeMr. Larkin, my attorney; he's the proper person. Mr. Etherage hastaken a line in the county to wound and injure me, as, of course, hehas a perfect right to do; he has taken that line, and I don't see anyreason why I should not have what I'm entitled to. There's theprinciple of government by party, you're aware; and we're not to askfavours of those we seek to wound and injure--about it; and that's myview, and idea, and fixed opinion. I must wish you good morning, Mr.Sedley. I'm going down to my boat, and I decline distinctly anyconversation upon the subject of my law business; I decline it_distinctly_, Mr. Sedley--about it," repeated the peer peremptorily;and as he looked a good deal incensed, Tom Sedley wisely concluded itwas time to retire; and so his embassage came to an end.
Lord Verney crossed the estuary in his yacht, consulting his watchfrom time to time, and reconnoitering the green and pier ofCardyllian through his telescope with considerable interest. A littlegroup was assembled near the stair, among whose figures he saw LadyWimbledon. "Why is not Caroline there?" he kept asking himself, andall the time searching that little platform for the absent idol of hisheart.
Let us deal mercifully with this antiquated romance; and if MissCaroline Oldys forebore to say, "Go up, thou baldhead," let us alsospare the amorous incongruity. Does any young man love with theself-abandonment of an old one? Is any romance so romantic as theromance of an old man? When Sancho looked over his shoulder, and sawhis master in his shirt, cutting capers and tumbling head-over-heels,and tearing his hair in his love-madness, that wise governor and manof proverbs forgot the grotesqueness of the exhibition in his awe ofthat vehement adoration. So let us. When does this noble frenzyexhibit itself in such maudlin transports, and with a self-sacrificeso idolatrously suicidal, as in the old? Seeing, then, that the spiritis so prodigiously willing, let us bear with the spectacle of theirinfirmities, and when one of these sighing, magnanimous, wrinkledPhilanders goes by, let us not hiss, but rather say kindly, "_Vive labagatelle!_" or, as we say in Ireland, "More power!"
He was disappointed. Miss Caroline Oldys had a very bad headache, LadyWimbledon said, and was in her room, in care of her maid, _so_misera
ble at losing the charming sail to Malory.
Well, the lover was sorely disappointed, as we have said; but therewas nothing for it but submission, and to comfort himself with theassurances of Lady Wimbledon that Caroline's headaches never lastedlong, and that she was always better for a long time, when they wereover. This latter piece of information seemed to puzzle Lord Verney.
"Miss Oldys is always better after an attack than before it," saidCleve, interpreting for his uncle.
"Why, of _course_. That's what Lady Wimbledon means, as I understandit," said Lord Verney, a little impatiently. "It's very sad; you musttell me all about it; but we may hope to find her, you say, quiterecovered when we return?"
Cleve was not of the party to Malory. He returned to the Verney Arms.He went up to Lady Wimbledon's drawing-room with a book he hadpromised to lend her, and found Miss Caroline Oldys.
Yes, she was better. He was very earnest and tender in hissolicitudes. He was looking ill, and was very melancholy.
Two hours after her maid came in to know whether she "pleased to wantanything?" and she would have sworn that Miss Caroline had beencrying. Mr. Cleve had got up from beside her, and was looking out ofthe window.
A little later in the day, old Lady Calthorpe, a cousin of LadyWimbledon's, very feeble and fussy, and babbling in a queruloustreble, was pushed out in her Bath-chair, Cleve and Miss CarolineOldys accompanying, to the old castle of Cardyllian.
On the step of the door of the Verney Arms, as they emerged, whomshould they meet, descending from the fly that had borne him fromLlwynan, but the Rev. Isaac Dixie. That sleek and rosy gentleman, withflat feet, and large hands, and fascinating smile, was well pleased tojoin the party, and march blandly beside the chair of the viscountess,invigorating the fainting spirit of that great lady by the balm of hissympathy and the sunshine of his smile.
So into the castle they went, across the nearly obliterated moat,where once a drawbridge hung, now mantled with greenest grass, underthe grim arches, where once the clanging portcullis rose and fell, andinto the base court, and so under other arches into the inner court,surrounded by old ivy-mantled walls.
In this seclusion the old Lady Calthorpe stopped her chair to enjoythe sweet air and sunshine, and the agreeable conversation of thedivine, and Cleve offered to guide Miss Caroline Oldys through theruins, an exploration in which she seemed highly interested.
Cleve spoke low and eloquently, but I don't think it was about thearchitecture. Time passed rapidly, and at last Miss Oldys whispered--
"We've been too long away from Lady Calthorpe. I must go back. She'llthink I have deserted her."
So they emerged from the roofless chambers and dim corridors, andCleve wished from the bottom of his heart that some good or evil angelwould put off his uncle's nuptials for another week, and all would bewell--_well_!
Yes--what was "well," if one goes to moral ideals for a standard? Wemust run risks--we must set one side of the book against the other.What is the purpose and the justification of all morality buthappiness? The course which involves least misery is alternatively themoral course. And take the best act that ever you did, and place it inthat dreadful solvent, the light of God's eye, and how much of itsmotive will stand the test? Yes--another week, and all will be well;and has not a fertile mind like his, resource for any futurecomplication, as for this, that may arise?
Captain Shrapnell was not sorry to meet this distinguished party asthey emerged, and drew up on the grass at the side, and raised his hatwith a reverential smile, as the old lady wheeled by, and throwing adeferential concern suddenly into his countenance, he walked a fewpaces beside Cleve, while he said--
"You've heard, of course, about your uncle, Lord Verney?"
"No?" answered Cleve, on chance.
"_No?_--Oh?--Why it's half an hour ago. I hope it's nothing serious;but his groom drove down from Malory for the doctor here. Somethingwrong with his head--suddenly, I understand, and Old Lyster took hisbox with him, and a bottle of leeches--that looks serious, eh?--alongwith him."
Shrapnell spoke low, and shook his head.
"I--I did not hear a word of it. I've been in the castle with old LadyCalthorpe. I'm very much surprised."
There was something odd, shrewd old Shrapnell fancied in theexpression of Cleve's eye, which for a moment met his. But Clevelooked pale and excited, as he said a word in a very low tone to MissOldys, and walked across the street accompanied by Shrapnell, to thedoctor's shop.
"Oh!" said Cleve, hastily stepping in, and accosting a lean, paleyouth, with lank, black hair, who paused in the process of braying aprescription in a mortar as he approached. "My uncle's not well, Ihear--Lord Verney--at Malory?"
The young man glanced at Captain Shrapnell.
"The doctor told me not to mention, sir; but if _you'd_ come into theback-room"----
"I'll be with you in a moment," said Cleve Verney to Shrapnell, at thesame time stepping into the sanctum, and the glass door being shut, heasked, "What _is_ it?"
"The doctor thought it must be apoplexy, sir," murmured the young man,gazing with wide open eyes, very solemnly, in Cleve's face.
"So I fancied," and Cleve paused, a little stunned; "and the doctor'sthere, at Malory, _now_?"
"Yes, sir; he'll be there a quarter of an hour or more by this time,"answered the young man.
Again Cleve paused.
"It was not _fatal_--he was still living?" he asked very low.
"Yes, sir--sure."
Cleve, forgetting any form of valediction, passed into the shop.
"I must drive down to Malory," he said; and calling one of those ponycarriages which ply in Cardyllian, he drove away, with a wave of hishand to the Captain, who was sorely puzzled to read the true meaningof that handsome mysterious face.
The Tenants of Malory, Volume 3 Page 16
