“Miss Agnes, here, does not think so, hey?” giggled the Captain. “Now, come, Miss Agnes, what do you think of young Verney, hey? There’s a question.”
How Miss Agnes hated the gibing, giggling wretch, and detested the club of whose prattle and gossip he was the inexhaustible spokesman; and would at that moment have hailed the appearance of a ship-of-war with her broadside directed upon the bow window of that haunt, with just, of course, such notice to her worthy father, whose gray head was visible in it, as was accorded to the righteous Lot — under orders, with shot, shell, rockets, and marlin-spikes, to blow the entire concern into impalpable dust.
It must be allowed that Miss Agnes was unjust; that it would not have been fair to visit upon the harmless and, on the whole, goodnatured persons who congregated in that lively receptacle, and read the Times through their spectacles there, the waggeries and exaggerations of the agreeable captain, and to have reached that incorrigible offender, and demolished his stronghold at so great a waste of human life.
“Come, now; I won’t let you off, Miss Aggie. I say, there’s a question. What do you say? Come, now, you really must tell us. What do you think of young Verney?”
“If you wish to know what I think,” interposed Miss Charity, “I think he’s the very nicest man I ever spoke to. He’s so nice about religion. Wasn’t he, Aggie?”
Here the Captain exploded.
“Religion! egad — do you really mean to tell me — ha, ha, ha! Upon my soul, that’s the richest thing! — now, really!”
“My goodness! How frightfully wicked you are,” exclaimed Miss Charity.
“True bill, egad! upon my soul, I’m afraid — ha, ha, ha!”
“Now, Captain Shrapnell, you shall not walk with us, if you swear,” said Miss Charity.
“Swear! I didn’t swear, did I? Very sorry if I did, upon my — I give you my word,” said the Captain, politely.
“Yes, you did; and it’s extremely wicked,” said Miss Charity.
“Well, I won’t; I swear to you I won’t,” vowed the Captain, a little inconsistently; “but now about Master Cleve Verney, Miss Agnes. I said I would not let you off, and I won’t. I give you my honour, you shall say what you think of him, or, by Jove! — I conclude you can’t trust yourself on the subject, ha, ha, ha! Hey?”
“You are mad, Captain Shrapnell,” interposed Miss Charity, with weight.
“I can’t say, really, I’ve formed any particular opinion. I think he is rather agreeable,” answered Miss Agnes, under this pressure.
“Well, so do I” acquiesced the Captain.
“Master Cleve can certainly be agreeable when he chooses; and you think him devilish good-looking — don’t you?”
“I really can’t say — he has very good features — but — — “
“But what? Why every one allows that Verney’s as good-looking a fellow as you’ll meet with anywhere,” persisted the Captain.
“I think him perfectly be-autiful!” said Miss Charity, who never liked people by halves.
“Well — yes — he may be handsome,” said Miss Agnes. “I’m no very great critic; but I can’t conceive any girl falling in love with him.”
“Oh! as to that — but — why?” said Captain Shapnell.
“His face, I think, is so selfish — somehow,” she said.
“Is it now, really? — how?” asked the Captain. “I’m am-azed at you!” exclaimed Miss Charity.
“Well, there’s a selfish hook — no, not a hook, a curve — of his nose, and a cruel crook of his shoulder,” said Miss Agnes, in search of faults.
“You’re determined to hit him by hook or by crook — ha, ha, ha — I say,” pursued the Captain.
“A hook!” exclaimed Miss Charity, almost angrily; “there’s no hook! I wonder at you — I really think, sometimes, Agnes, you’re the greatest fool I ever met in the whole course of my life!”
“Well, I can’t help thinking what I think,” said Agnes.
“But you don’t think that — you know you don’t — you can’t think it,” decided her elder sister.
“No more she does,” urged the Captain, with his teazing giggle; “she doesn’t think it. You always know, when a girl abuses a man, she likes him; she does, by Jove! And I venture to say she thinks Master Cleve one of the very handsomest and most fascinating fellows she ever beheld,” said the agreeable Captain.
“I really think what I said,” replied Agnes, and her pretty face showed a brilliant colour, and her eyes had a handsome fire in them, for she was vexed; “though it is natural to think in a place like this, where all the men are more or less old and ugly, that any young man, even tolerably good-looking, should be thought a wonder.”
“Ha, ha, ha! very good,” said the Captain, plucking out his whisker a little, and twiddling his moustache, and glancing down at his easy waistcoat, and perhaps ever so little put out; but he also saw over his shoulder Cleve crossing the Green towards them from the jetty, and not perhaps being quite on terms to call him “Master Cleve” to his face, he mentioned a promise to meet young Owen of Henlwyd in the billiard-room for a great game of pyramid, and so took off his hat gracefully to the ladies, and, smirking, and nodding, and switching his cane, swaggered swiftly away toward the point of rendezvous.
So Cleve arrived, and joined the young ladies, and walked beside Agnes, chatting upon all sorts of subjects, and bearing some occasional reproofs and protests from Miss Charity with great submission and gaiety, and when Miss Charity caught a glimpse of “the Admiral’s” bath-chair, with that used-up officer in it, en route for the Hazelden Road, and already near the bridge, she plucked her watch from her belt, with a slight pallor in her cheek, and “declared” she had not an idea how late it was. Cleve Verney accompanied the ladies all the way to Hazelden, and even went in, when bidden, and drank a cup of tea, at their early meal, and obeyed also a summons to visit the “Admiral” in his study.
“Very glad to see you, sir — very happy, Mr. Verney,” said Mr. Vane Etherage, with his fez upon his head, and lowering his pipe with the gravity of a Turk. “I wish you would come and dine at three o’clock — the true hour for dinner, sir — I’ve tried every hour, in my time, from twelve to halfpast eight — at three o’clock, sir, some day — any day — tomorrow. The Welsh mutton is the best on earth, and the Hazelden mutton is the best in Wales!” The “Admiral” always looked in the face of the person whom he harangued, with an expression of cool astonishment, which somehow aided the pomp of his delivery. “An unfortunate difference, Mr. Verney — a dispute, sir — has arisen between me and your uncle; but that, Mr. Verney, need not extend to his nephew; no, sir, it need not; no need it should. Shall we say tomorrow, Mr. Verney?”
I forget what excuse Mr. Verney made; it was sufficient, however, and he was quite unable to name an immediate day, but lived in hope. So having won golden opinions, he took his leave. And the good people of Cardyllian, who make matches easily, began to give Mr. Cleve Verney to pretty Miss Agnes Etherage.
While this marrying and giving in marriage was going on over many tea-tables, that evening, in Cardyllian, Mr. Cleve Verney, the hero of this new romance, had got ashore a little below Malory, and at nightfall walked down the old road by Llanderris church, and so round the path that skirts the woods of Malory, and down upon the shore that winds before the front of the old house.
As he came full in sight of the shore, on a sudden, within little more than a hundred paces away, he saw, standing solitary upon the shingle, a tall man, with a Tweed rug across his arm, awaiting a boat which was slowly approaching in the distance.
In this tall figure he had no difficulty in recognizing Sir Booth Fanshawe, whom he had confronted in other, and very different scenes, and who had passed so near him, in the avenue at Malory.
With one of those sudden and irresistible impulses, which, as they fail or succeed, are classed as freaks of madness, or inspirations of genius, he resolved to walk up to Sir Booth, and speak to him upon the subject then so near to
his heart.
* * *
CHAPTER XXII.
SIR BOOTH SPEAKS.
The idea, perhaps, that sustained Cleve Verney in this move, was the sudden recurrence of his belief that Sir Booth would so clearly see the advantages of such a connexion as to forget his resentments.
Sir Booth was looking seaward, smoking a cigar, and watching the approach of the boat, which was still distant. As Cleve drew near, he saw Sir Booth eye him, he fancied, uneasily; and throwing back his head a little, and withdrawing his cheroot, ever so little from his lips, the Baronet demanded grimly —
“Wish to speak to me, sir?”
“Only a word, if you allow me,” answered Cleve, approaching.
On ascertaining that he had to deal with a gentleman, Sir Booth was confident once more.
“Well, sir, I hear you,” said he.
“You don’t recognise me, Sir Booth; and I fear when I introduce myself, you will hardly connect my name with anything pleasant or friendly. I only ask a patient hearing, and I am sure your own sense of fairness will excuse me personally.”
“Before you say, more, sir, I should like to know for whom you take me, and why; I don’t recollect you — I think — I can’t see very well — no one does in this sort of light; but I rather think, I never saw your face before, sir — nor you mine, I dare say — your guesses as to who I am, may be anything you please — and quite mistaken — and this is not a usual time, you know, for talking with strangers about business — and, in fact, I’ve come here for quiet and my health, and I can’t undertake to discuss other people’s affairs — I find my own as much as my health and leisure will allow me to attend to.”
“Sir Booth Fanshawe, you must excuse me for saying I know you perfectly. I am also well aware that you seek a little repose and privacy here, and you may rely implicitly upon my mentioning your name to no one; in fact, I have been for some weeks aware of your residing at Malory, and never have mentioned it to any one.”
“Ha! you’re very kind, indeed — taking great care of me, sir; you are very obliging,” said Sir Booth, sarcastically, “I’m sure; ha, ha! I ought to be very grateful. And to whom, may I ask, do I owe all this attention to my — my interests and comforts?”
“I am connected, Sir Booth, with a house that has unfortunately been a good deal opposed, in politics, to yours. There are reasons which make this particularly painful to me, although I have been by the direction of others, whom I had no choice but to obey, more in evidence in these miserable contests than I could wish; I’ve really been little more than a passive instrument in the hands of others, absolutely without power, or even influence of my own in the matter. You don’t recognise me, but you have seen me elsewhere. My name is Cleve Verney.”
Sir Booth had not expected this name, as his countenance showed. With a kind of jerk, he removed his cigar from his lips, sending a shower of red sparks away on the breeze, and gazing on the young man with eyes like balls of stone, ready to leap from their sockets. I dare say he was very near exploding in that sort of language which, on occasion, he did not spare. But he controlled himself, and said merely, clearing his voice first, —
“That will do, sir, the name’s enough; I can’t be supposed to wish to converse with any one of that name, sir — no more I do.”
“What I have to say, Sir Booth, affects you, it interests you very nearly,” answered Cleve.
“But, sir, I am going out in that boat — I wish to smoke my cigar — I’ve come down here to live to myself, and to be alone when I choose it,” said Sir Booth, with suppressed exasperation.
“One word, I beg — you’ll not regret it, Sir Booth,” pleaded Cleve.
“Well, sir, come — I will hear it; but I tell you beforehand, I have pretty strong views as to how I have been used, and it is not likely to lead to much,” said Sir Booth, with one of those sudden changes of purpose to which fiery men are liable.
So, as briefly and as persuasively as he could, Cleve Verney disclosed his own feelings, giving to the date of his attachment, skilfully, a retrospective character, and guarding the ladies of Malory from the unreasonable temper of this violent old man; and, in fact, from Cleve’s statement you would have gathered that he was not even conscious that the ladies were now residing at Malory. He closed his little confession with a formal proposal.
Was there something — ever so little — in the tone of this latter part of his brief speech, that reflected something of the confidence to which I have alluded, and stung the angry pride of this ruined man? He kept smoking his cigar a little faster, and looked steadily at the distant boat that was slowly approaching against the tide.
When Cleve concluded, the old man lowered his cigar and laughed shortly and scornfully.
“You do us a great deal of honour, Mr. Verney — too much honour, by — ,” scoffed the Baronet.
“Be so good at all events as to answer me this one question frankly — yes or no. Is your uncle, Kiffyn Verney, aware of your speaking to me on this subject?”
“No, Sir Booth, he is not,” said Cleve; “he knows nothing of it. I ought, perhaps, to have mentioned that at first.”
“So you ought,” said Sir Booth, brusquely.
“And I beg that you won’t mention the subject to him.”
“You may be very sure I shan’t, sir,” said the Baronet, fiercely. “Why, d — n it, sir, what do you mean? Do you know what you’re saying? You come here, and you make a proposal for my daughter, and you think I should be so charmed, that rather than risk your alliance I should practise any meanness you think fit. D — n you, sir, how dare you suppose I could fancy your aspiring to my daughter a thing to hide like a mésalliance?”
“Nothing of the kind, Sir Booth.”
“Everything of the kind, sir. Do you know who you are, sir? You have not a farthing on earth, sir, but what you get from your uncle.”
“I beg your pardon — allow me, Sir Booth — I’ve six hundred a-year of my own. I know it’s very little; but I’ve been thought to have some energies; I know I have some friends. I have still my seat in the House, and this Parliament may last two or three years. It is quite possible that I may quarrel with my uncle; I can’t help it; I’m quite willing to take my chance of that; and I entreat, Sir Booth, that you won’t make this a matter of personal feeling, and attribute to me the least sympathy with the miserable doings of my uncle.”
Sir Booth listened to him, looking over the sea as before, as if simply observing the approach of the boat, but he spoke this time in a mitigated tone.
“You’re no young man,” said he, “if you don’t owe money. I never knew one with a rich old fellow at his back who didn’t.”
He paused, and Cleve looked down.
“In fact, you don’t know how much you owe. If you were called on to book up, d’ye see, there might remain very little to show for your six hundred a-year. You’re just your uncle’s nephew, sir, and nothing more. When you quarrel with him you’re a ruined man.”
“I don’t see that— “ began Cleve.
“But I do. If he quarrels with you, he’ll never rest till he ruins you. That’s his character. It might be very different if you had a gentleman to deal with; but you must look the thing in the face. You may never succeed to the title. We old fellows have our palsies and apoplexies; and you, young fellows, your fevers and inflammations. Here you are quite well, and a fever comes, and turns you off like a gaslight the day after; and, besides, if you quarrel he’ll marry, and, where are you then? And I tell you frankly, if Mr. Kiffyn Verney has objections to me, I’ve stronger to him. There’s no brother of mine disgraced. Why, his elder brother — it’s contamination to a gentleman to name him.”
“He’s dead, sir; Arthur Verney is dead,” said Cleve, who was more patient under Sir Booth’s bitter language than under any other circumstances he would have been.
“Oh! Well, that does not very much matter,” said Sir Booth. “But this is the upshot: I’ll have nothing underhand — all above boa
rd, sir — and if Mr. Kiffyn Verney writes a proper apology — by —— , he owes me one — and puts a stop to the fiendish persecutions he has been directing against me, and himself submits the proposal you have — yes — done me the honour to make, and undertakes to make suitable settlements, I shan’t stand in the way; I shan’t object to your speaking to my daughter, though I can’t the least tell how she’ll take it! and I tell you from myself I don’t like it — I don’t, by —— , I don’t like it. He’s a bad fellow — a nasty dog, sir, as any in England — but that’s what I say, sir, and I shan’t alter; and you’ll please never to mention the subject to me again except on these conditions. Except from him I decline to hear of it — not a word — and — and, sir, you’ll please to regard my name as a secret; it has been hitherto; my liberty depends on it. Your uncle can’t possibly know I’m here?” he added, sharply.
“When last I saw him — a very short time since — he thought you were in France. You, of course, rely upon my honour, Sir Booth, that no one living shall hear from me one syllable affecting your safety.”
“Very good, sir. I never supposed you would; but I mean every one — these boatmen, and the people here. No one is to know who I am; and what I’ve said is my ultimatum, sir. And I’ll have no correspondence, sir — no attempt to visit any where. You understand. By —— , if you do, I’ll let your uncle, Mr. Kiffyn Verney, know the moment I learn it. Be so good as to leave me.”
“Good night, sir,” said Cleve.
Sir Booth nodded slightly.
The tall old man went stalking and stumbling over the shingle, toward the water’s edge, still watching the boat, his cigar making a red star in the dusk, by which Christmass Owen might have steered; and the boatmen that night heard their mysterious steersman from Malory, as he sat with his hand on the tiller, talking more than usual to himself, now and then d —— ing unknown persons, and backing his desultory babble to the waves, with oaths that startled those sober-tongued Dissenters.
Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu (Illustrated) Page 352