Sir Brook Fossbrooke, Volume I.. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ will come over the determination I have this day declared.

      “‘He went away, and I fainted. The exertion was too long sustained, too much for me. I believe, after all,’ added he, with a smile, ‘his Excellency bore it very little better. He told the Archbishop the same evening that he’d not go through another such morning for “the garter.” Men in his station hear so little of truth that it revolts them like coarse diet. They ‘d rather abstain altogether till forced by actual hunger to touch it. When they come to me, however, it is the only fare they will find before them.’

      “There was a long pause after this,” continued Lendrick. “I saw that the theme had greatly excited him, and I forbore to say a word, lest he should be led to resume it. ‘Too old for the bench!’ burst he out suddenly; ‘my Lord, there are men who are never too old, as there are those who are never too young. The oak is but a sapling when the pine is in decay. Is there that glut of intellect just now in England, are we so surfeited with ability that, to make room for the coming men, we, who have made our mark on the age, must retire into obscurity?’ He tried to rise from his seat; his face was flushed, and his eyes flashing; he evidently forgot where he was, and with whom, for he sank back with a faint sigh, and said, ‘Let us talk of it no more. Let us think of something else. Indeed, it was to talk of something else I desired to see you.’ He went on, then, to say that he wished something could be done for me. His own means were, he said, sadly crippled; he spoke bitterly, resentfully, I thought. ‘It is too long a story to enter on, and were it briefer, too disagreeable a one,’ added he. ‘I ought to be a rich man, and I am poor; I should be powerful, and I have no influence. All has gone ill with me.’ After a silence, he continued, ‘They have a place to offer you: the inspectorship, I think they call it, of hospitals at the Cape; it is worth, altogether, nigh a thousand a year, a thing not to be refused.’

      “‘The offer could only be made in compliment to you, sir; and if my acceptance were to compromise your position – ’

      “‘Compromise me!’ broke he in. ‘I ‘ll take care it shall not. No man need instruct me in the art of self-defence, sir. Accept at once.’

      “‘I will do whatever you desire, sir,’ was my answer.

      “‘Go out there yourself, alone, – at first, I mean. Let your boy continue his college career; the girl shall come to me.’

      “‘I have never been separated from my children, sir,’ said I, almost trembling with anxiety.

      “‘Such separations are bearable,’ added he, ‘when it is duty dictates them, not disobedience.’

      “He fixed his eyes sternly on me, and I trembled as I thought that the long score of years was at last come to the reckoning. He did not dwell on the theme, however, but in a tone of much gentler meaning, went on: ‘It will be an act of mercy to let me see a loving face, to hear a tender voice. Your boy would be too rough for me.’

      “‘You would like him, sir. He is thoroughly truthful and honest.’

      “‘So he may, and yet be self-willed, be noisy, be over-redolent of that youth which age resents like outrage. Give me the girl, Tom; let her come here, and bestow some of those loving graces on the last hours of my life her looks show she should be rich in. For your sake she will be kind to me. Who knows what charm there may be in gentleness, even to a tiger-nature like mine? Ask her, at least, if she will make the sacrifice.’

      “I knew not what to answer. If I could not endure the thought of parting from Lucy, yet it seemed equally impossible to refuse his entreaty, – old, friendless, and deserted as he was. I felt, besides, that my only hope of a real reconciliation with him lay through this road; deny him this, and it was clear he would never see me more. He said, too, it should only be for a season. I was to see how the place, the climate, suited for a residence. In a word, every possible argument to reconcile me to the project rushed to my mind, and I at last said, ‘Lucy shall decide, sir. I will set out for home at once, and you shall have her own answer.’

      “‘Uninfluenced, sir,’ cried he, – ‘mind that. If influence were to be used, I could perhaps tell her what might decide her at once; but I would not that pity should plead for me, till she should have seen if I be worth compassion! There is but one argument I will permit in my favor, – tell her that her picture has been my pleasantest companion these three long days. There it lies, always before me. Go now, and let me hear from you as soon as may be.’ I arose, but somehow my agitation, do what I would, mastered me. It was so long since we had met! All the sorrows the long estrangement had cost me came to my mind, together with little touches of his kindness in long-past years, and I could not speak. ‘Poor Tom! poor Tom!’ said he, drawing me towards him; and he kissed me.”

      As Lendrick said this, emotion overcame him, and he covered his face with his hands, and sobbed bitterly. More than a mile of road was traversed before a word passed between them. “There they are, doctor! There ‘s Tom, there’s Lucy! They are coming to meet me,” cried he. “Good-bye, doctor; you ‘ll forgive me, I know, – goodbye;” and he sprang off the car as he spoke, while the vicar, respecting the sacredness of the joy, wheeled his horse round, and drove back towards the town.

      CHAPTER XI. CAVE CONSULTS SIR BROOK

      A few minutes after the Adjutant had informed Colonel Cave that Lieutenant Traflford had reported himself, Sir Brook entered the Colonel’s quarters, eager to know what was the reason of the sudden recall of Traflford, and whether the regiment had been unexpectedly ordered for foreign service.

      “No, no,” said Cave, in some confusion. “We have had our turn of India and the Cape; they can’t send us away again for some time. It was purely personal; it was, I may say, a private reason. You know,” added he, with a slight smile, “I am acting as a sort of guardian to Trafford just now. His family sent him over to me, as to a reformatory.”

      “From everything I have seen of him, your office will be an easy one.”

      “Well, I suspect that, so far as mere wildness goes, – extravagance and that sort of thing, – he has had enough of it; but there are mistakes that a young fellow may make in life – mistakes in judgment – which will damage him more irreparably than all his derelictions against morality.”

      “That I deny, – totally, entirely deny. I know what you mean, – that is, I think I know what you mean; and if I guess aright, I am distinctly at issue with you on this matter.”

      “Perhaps I could convince you, notwithstanding. Here’s a letter which I have no right to show you; it is marked ‘Strictly confidential and private.’ You shall read it, – nay, you must read it, – because you are exactly the man to be able to give advice on the matter. You like Traflford, and wish him well. Read that over carefully, and tell me what you would counsel.”

      Fossbrooke took out his spectacles, and, having seated himself comfortably, with his back to the light, began in leisurely fashion to peruse the letter. “It’s his mother who writes,” said he, turning to the signature, – “one of the most worldly women I ever met. She was a Lascelles. Don’t you know how she married Trafford?”

      “I don’t remember, if I ever heard.”

      “It was her sister that Trafford wanted to marry, but she was ambitious to be a peeress; and as Bradbrook was in love with her, she told Sir Hugh, ‘I have got a sister so like me nobody can distinguish between us. She ‘d make an excellent wife for you. She rides far better than me, and she is n’t half so extravagant. I ‘ll send for her.’ She did so, and the whole thing was settled in a week.”

      “They have lived very happily together.”

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