The Wages Of Virtue (A Poor Man at the Gate Series, Book 8)

by Andrew Wareham

  "A statement of despair, my lord."

  "That is the Irish reality, Mr Goldsmith."

  "Enough of the Paddies, I think. What of the things of importance - what is the latest scandal?"

  "Lord Byron is said to be furthering the cause of the Greeks against their Turkish masters and is variously reported to be a great hindrance to their military success or the sole cause of their victories. Mention of his name is generally held to be quite scandalous, but otherwise London is becoming quite tame - numbers of the respectable are to be discovered everywhere, including in the mansions of the rich and renowned - the glory is quite gone, I fear!"

  Robert was inclined not to regret the passing of the age - he was forced into respectability and conformity to the demands of Society and could see no reason why others should escape those bonds.

  "In response to your letter of last week, my lord, I have moved Heaven and Earth to discover a valet who shall be fashionable whilst avoiding any and all extremes of the current mode, however they may exhibit themselves - for such I interpreted your provisos to mean."

  "I am aware that I set you a task that was not simple of achievement, Mr Michael. That is why I begged your services, sir, knowing that I would probably not attain my desires if I undertook the solution myself."

  Michael smiled, more of a grimace than an expression of delight.

  "I have discovered Turton, who first entered service at Chatsworth and has learned at the feet of masters in his avocation. He is aware of your desires and believes that he can turn you out both respectably and to your wishes. I have put him on for a year, on liking, at one hundred and fifty pounds, which is no small sum, I agree, but you set him no small task, my lord. He will make his appearance tomorrow morning at Mount Street, my lord. I have also found a man for Mr Goldsmith, if he will come to the office to talk with me, my lord."

  "Schultz, my lord? A competent tailor, for a German. There are, I believe, others better suited, shall we say, to our needs. I must confess, my lord, that I have lost my affection for the schneiders - their style is become a little out-dated."

  Robert scowled - he had little taste for wit amongst his servants, and he was damned if he would be patronised.

  "Who do you have in mind, Turton?"

  "A young English gentleman, my lord, who served his time as a cutter to Scott and yet has not wholly imbibed his air of militarism. Mr Harris has opened his doors in Savile Row quite recently but has already gained a number of followers."

  "Then let us also enter his portals, Turton - but at the first sign of a corset we shall leave, never to return!"

  "There will be no need for such, my lord. The slightest stiffening of the waistcoat, so that it falls uncreased, will be the most that it necessary. You have a military look to you already, my lord, the gift of nature. Pantaloons are rapidly becoming things of the past and trousers, cut with care so as not to flap, are becoming de rigeur. Breeches and boots for country wear, as always, and Court Dress remains as ever - fortunately you have a leg that will tolerate knee-smalls. Shirt collars are high, though not to an exaggerated degree - winkers are not the norm, my lord. The style of the cravat is wholly a matter of personal choice - I see you favour the Osbaldistone; I shall, with your permission, my lord, correct your technique of tying the neck-cloth. There is a tendency amongst many to flaunt a large, bejewelled tie-pin; one might prefer to forgo that particular vanity, my lord. I see that you favour very little of other personal ornamentation, a decision I applaud - you are a strongly-built, tall gentleman and should not therefore permit any extremes of personal decorative wear."

  Turton stood back, winced at Robert's frock-coat, stared accusingly at his half-boots.

  "I think, my lord, that we must attend to the matter of footwear. I do not believe that one must achieve so high a gloss as to reflect the visage of the fortunate wearer - but I would suggest, strongly, that the boot should not be scuffed!"

  "I slipped on the wet paving-stones yesterday, Turton."

  Robert was immediately irritated with himself for sounding defensive and offering excuses.

  "A mishap that can occur to any, my lord."

  Turton was very gracious, but managed to imply nonetheless that it would not have happened had Robert been less careless.

  "Do you intend to be seen in public this week, my lord?"

  "We are still in mourning, Turton."

  "We are indeed, my lord, but I had wondered whether the demands of Public Life might force you into company."

  "Not until the New Year, Turton. I believe the Lords will sit again on or about Hilary Day and I shall be present then. I shall take my seat as Viscount St Helens, Turton, though that, of course, is not yet to be bruited about. Appropriate robes, as you will know better than I. My lady expects to be confined in late spring, will therefore not be making an appearance during the Season."

  Turton asked whether there were plans to purchase a seat in Lancashire - a house with a park, perhaps would be best, there being a shortage of agricultural land thereabouts, or so he understood.

  "I had not considered that question, Turton. Would it be appropriate?"

  "It might be appreciated, my lord, was you to become known in the town, making the occasional appearance and perhaps endowing an infirmary or alms-houses or the like. The pursuit of popularity as such is not needful, but a good reputation may pay dividends at a later date. I believe your late father was well-known in the locality, and the firms of Roberts will benefit from retention of the good-will associated with him."

  A good valet was a source of useful and wholly confidential advice to his master, speaking to none other at all. Turton would have sought out every piece of information he could find about his new master and his family to aid him in the process of gaining intelligence.

  "Then I must also be seen in the house in Wales, I presume? I have never been there, so I think I should show my face."

  "A smallish dwelling-house, near that place known as the Rhondda, I understand. I might be inclined to suggest, my lord, that the existing building should be consigned to the use of a visiting engineer or manager - a Mr Fraser, I believe - and that we should purchase a seat, appropriate to a landed gentleman rather than to one who is more in the commercial line. If needs be, my lord, one could buy out a small hill farmer, converting his acres into a park and replacing his cottage and sties with a proper, correctly designed and convenient, mansion."

  The First Lord Andrews had been a businessman who had shouldered his way into the ranks of the gentry; the Second was a gentleman who also had business interests. The way of life of the Family must reflect this particular reality.

  Book Eight: A Poor Man

  at the Gate Series

  Chapter Five

  "The Marquis of Grafham, my lord!"

  The butler making a formal announcement, thus a business meeting, not a simple courtesy call riding out of a morning and finding himself nearby.

  "I need your advice, and probably your active assistance, my lord. Young George, Rothwell, that is, returned home last night - Mail from Edinburgh, outside passenger, booking at the last minute and half-frozen from the long journey. He had little enough to say before his mother packed him off to bed with a stone bottle of hot water at his side."

  Robert had never travelled outside, had almost never that he could recall used a public coach, except occasionally as a schoolboy. He shuddered at the hardships involved, but the boy was young still, twenty or so - in fact, thinking on it, not really a boy at all, he might well have reached his majority.

  "He is of age now, and waited only until he received the letter from the attorney confirming that he had entered into the income of the holdings accruing to the title. He has, it seems, no liking for the University life, even at Edinburgh, where the education is more to his taste. He wishes 'to do more and reflect on the doings of others less', I quote. He pointed out that you had come back from America at his age, which is unanswerable, of course. He would like to see the world.
"

  "Then a visit first to Thomas Miller and then to Henry Star is called for. They will look after him until he has found his feet, and then, what? The Sugar Islands? He should not, for obvious reasons enter the Spanish colonies, and would be ill-advised in fact to be seen in any Catholic country. What of India? Wolverstone could host him there, and it would be a very different sort of place - I have often wished that I might have gone there, you know. Has he any final intention yet?"

  "He does not wish to enter Public Life and might well consider immersing himself in the estate - we have a library and there is much to learn about our acres as well."

  That, Robert perceived, was the real fear - the boy displayed reclusive tendencies, might well hide away from the world for the rest of his life, given half an opportunity.

  "He is, I recall, an earnest sort of a lad..."

  "He has deep, or possibly high, moral thoughts about the state of the world. It is a pity, to a certain extent, that we do not have a war for him to crusade in - much easier to don a uniform and go out to battle in simple physical terms, you know."

  Grafham had commanded his own sloop, had fought small battles and taken prizes, thus solving all of his own moral dilemmas in the simplest way. 'King and Country' could answer all of a young man's self-questioning.

  "If he was to learn about our country first, rather than travel the world, then he might find himself obligated to work for the benefit of lesser mortals in distress?"

  "And after a few years might well find himself sated, his self-abnegation brought to a natural conclusion; he would also be in the habit of meeting people of all walks of life and would be far less likely to retire to a monastic cell, or its nearest modern equivalent. He needs, in fact, to do, rather than to read, and to be taken out of himself. A pity that we could not send him to school - he would have been in the habit of mixing in a society of sorts from an early age."

  The mechanics came next - who should he visit and how might he be persuaded: he had just announced that he was an adult, now made his own decisions, so it was necessary to manipulate his future rather than order it.

  "A request that he might visit with his cousin Mr Joseph Andrews, perhaps? We are worried about Joseph, fear that he will be too much alone - two weeks or a month in his cousin's company, forced to play the host, would be good for him. I shall be here for at least a week, sir - there is much to be done on the estate, I find, or so the boy may understand - and Rothwell, as an adult, is obligated do the civil and pay me a morning visit now that he is resident in the area, and I should be able to bring into the conversation the way in which he might discover he could do me a very good turn."

  The young man fell in with their plans, making no objections at all - he had long envied Joseph his independence, though not really wishing to emulate it quite yet, and would be very happy to visit with him. Robert sent a hasty note to Joseph, explaining that Rothwell needed to be brought out of himself and begging that he, being much of an age, might find the time to work with the boy - it was important to the family that the young lord should take his place in Society in the near future.

  Joseph returned that he was about to spend time with the Stephensons and that Rothwell would be very welcome to come along - he would see another part of the country and be immersed in the new world of trackways, certain to be a delight to any intelligent man. He might then spend a week or two with the Stars, making an acquaintance with cotton, the single most significant product in the country, possibly the most important manufacture in the whole world. Lord Star would also introduce him to the local social scene, where a new lord would be very much welcomed - it might do him good to realise that he was a great man.

  "Or it might scare him witless, of course," Robert remarked to Grafham. "A dozen of ambitious misses in hot pursuit will either make him believe that he is one hell of a fellow or drive him to his monastery in simple shock!"

  "Perhaps Joseph can ensure that a monastery will seem less attractive to him - I seem to remember hearing that he had an adventurous youth."

  Robert sat long in the library that night, at his father's old desk, seeking the best words for another letter to Joseph, one that remained within the bounds of decency yet begged that he should assist the boy to become a man, in the physical sense at least. The task defeated him and in the end he simply wrote that Rothwell would be joining him within the week, to the pleasure of his father as well.

  "A nuisance, Mr McGregor, but not one that should interfere too much with our plans."

  McGregor was quite happy for there to be any disruption in the incessant round of toil he had undertaken; it was a rare week that saw fewer than one hundred hours of work in the engineering shops, at the drawing board, in the master's office or travelling from one to the other - taking dictation the while if they were in a carriage.

  "Entertainment, Mr Joseph - I presume it will be necessary to offer the young gentleman some amusement whilst he is here."

  That thought had not occurred to Joseph; on consideration he decided that McGregor was probably right - he wondered what people did when they were at leisure, in the end could only imagine one thing.

  What had her name been? The woman his father had mentioned as running a 'gaming-house' in St Helens - Mrs Morris, that was it. She would probably be dead now, certainly retired, but he expected the business would still be active - Farlow would know for sure.

  Joseph dropped into the office of Clapperley and Pitt, spoke quietly to Mr Farlow, was given confirmation that the proprietor had changed but that the premises remained the same, far the most exclusive in the whole area.

  "There is an unobtrusive side entrance now, Mr Joseph, used by those who do not wish their business to be advertised to the whole town."

  Arrangements were made - a note a few hours in advance would ensure that all would be ready in the most discreet fashion.

  What more could he do to ensure that his cousin enjoyed his stay?

  "Perhaps there should be wine in the house, Mr Joseph? Your man can see to that, if instructed."

  Joseph almost never drank - he could not stand the unclear head it had left him of a morning when he had been forced to indulge at Family affairs.

  Lord Rothwell took post-chaise and four on his journey north; his father suggested that he might consider purchasing his own, custom-made chaise as was often done by independent young men.

  "It would cost about three hundreds, possibly fifty more, and would be sturdier and better-sprung than a yellow bounder - far more comfortable, and never needing to be booked in advance. Not, of course, that we expect to have to do that - others wait on our convenience in such matters, I believe. Purchase of your own team is also possible, but is hugely more expensive and would require good advice - and, of course, you still need to change horses if you intend to travel more than two or three stages."

  Rothwell knew very little about horseflesh, having never been interested in the beasts, and had no wish to set up his own stables, requiring groom and boy as well as the animals.

  "Good advice, sir, but I intend, having my own income, to live within it."

  It was family tradition that the heir took the rents from the old estate bearing his name, attached to the rest of the Grafham acres but still run separately. There was no entail, no legal necessity that it should be so, but a century of habit could not lightly be overturned and he possessed a rare independence.

  "Good! Do not, if you should outrun the constable, go to money-lenders. Speak to me, I beg of you. Your uncle, my elder brother, found great difficulty in living on fifteen hundred pounds a year; I had no such problem when I stepped into his shoes - though I, of course, married within the twelvemonth of so doing."

  Grafham thought it to be time for his son to become aware of the realities of their existence.

  "Your mother brought riches with her, my son! My grandfather was a spendthrift who very nearly ruined the family; my brother was in line to complete the process before he took himself off. My father
spent almost his whole existence scraping the pennies together to make a recover - he at least saved our lands, not without assistance from his eldest daughter's husband! I was able to enclose and to bring the estate to the prosperity it now possesses again - using Goldsmid money, never forget. My father inherited poverty; I stepped into twelve thousand a year - you will see double that, at least, from estate and investments."

  "I had not realised, sir... What did happen to your brother, sir?"

  "He took his own life on discovering himself to be entering the final stages of the syphilis. He was about to spend a period of extreme physical, and then mental, debilitation - anything from six months to twenty years of misery for him and his family. He used a pistol instead."

  Rothwell was appalled, as much by the act of self-murder as by its cause.

  "I had not realised he had so degraded himself, sir."

  "He mixed in bad company - degenerate young men of good family who found it amusing to frequent the lowest of the gutter-slums of London. It is entirely natural that a young man should seek female company before he marries, indeed I would venture to say that almost all do - but exercising a sensible discretion, which I trust you will do, George. Pay top price, sir, and frequent only the best of houses!"

  It was very difficult for so sheltered a young man to assimilate such an instruction; George blushed.

  "On other matters, sir - Mr Joseph Andrews has the intention of visiting with the engineer, Mr Stephenson, and will invite you to accompany him to inspect work on his new, long trackway, some part of which is to employ the locomotive steam engine! There will be many more built, if this first enterprise is successful - a boom to outdo canals, I suspect. I would wish to invest some several thousands of our funds, entering the field early and cheaply - but only if there will be a profit! Keep your eyes open, if you please, and be ready to give me advice, which I shall follow without demur."