Mr. M’KINLAY was too acute an observer not to see that his arrival
at the Boschetto was matter of general satisfaction, and his welcome
peculiarly cordial. The Vyners had just escaped from a heavy calamity,
and were profuse of grateful emotions to all who had assisted them in
their troubles.
Now, M’Kinlay had not been extravagant in his offices of friendship,
but, with a sort of professional instinct, he had always contemplated
the possibility of a restoration, and had never betrayed by his manner
any falling off from his old terms of loyalty and devotion.
The Vyners, however, had their acute attack of gratitude, and they felt
very warmly towards him, and even went so far as to designate by the
word “delicacy” the cold reserve which he had once or twice manifested.
Vyner gave him up his own room, and the little study adjoining it, and
Georgina--the haughty Georgina--vouchsafed to look over its internal
economies, and see that it was perfect in all its comforts. She went
further; she actually avowed to him the part she had taken in his
reception, and coquettishly engaged him to remember how much of his
accommodation had depended on _her_ foresight.
Mr. M’Kinlay was delighted; he had not been without certain misgivings,
as he journeyed along over the Alps, that he might have shown himself a
stronger, stauncher friend to Vyner in his hour of adversity. He had his
doubts as to whether he had not been betrayed once or twice into a
tone of rebuke or censure, and he knew he had assumed a manner of more
freedom than consorted with their former relations. Would these lapses
he remembered against him now? Should he find them all colder, stiffer,
haughtier than ever?
What a relief to him was the gracious, the more than gracious, reception
he met with! How pleasant to be thanked most enthusiastically for the
long journey he had come, with the consciousness he was to be paid
for it as handsomely afterwards! How lightly he took his fatigues, how
cheerily he talked of everything, slyly insinuating now and then that
if they would look back to his letters, they would see that he always
pointed to this issue to the case, and for his part never felt that
the matter was so serious as they deemed it. “Not that I ever permitted
myself to hold out hopes which might prove delusive,” added he, “for I
belong to a profession whose first maxim is, ‘Nothing is certain.’”
Nor was it merely kind or complimentary they were; they were
confidential. Vyner would sit down at the fire with him, and tell all
the little family secrets that are usually reserved for the members
themselves; and Georgina would join him in the garden, to explain
how she long foresaw the infatuation of her brother-in-law, but was
powerless to arrest it; and even Lady Vyner--the cold and distant Lady
Vyner--informed him, in the strictest secresy, that her dear mother
had latterly taken a fondness for Malaga, and actually drank two full
glasses of it every day more than the doctor permitted. What may not the
man do in the household who is thus accepted and trusted? So, certainly,
thought Mr. M’Kinlay, and as he strolled in the garden, apparently deep
in thought over the Vyner complications, his real cares were, How was he
himself to derive the fullest advantage of “the situation”?
“It is while towing the wreck into harbour the best bargain can be made
for salvage,” muttered M’Kinlay. “I must employ the present moments
well, since, once reinstated in their old prosperity, the old pride
is sure to return.” He hesitated long what course to take. Prudence
suggested the slow, cautious, patient approach; but then Miss Courtenay
was one of those capricious natures whose sudden turns disconcert
all regular siege. And, on the other hand, if he were to attempt a
“surprise,” and failed, he should never recover it. He had ascertained
that her fortune was safe; he had also learned that Mrs. Courtenay had
made a will in her favour, though to what precise amount he could not
tell; and he fancied--nor was it mere fancy--that she inclined far more
to his society than heretofore, and seemed to encourage him to a greater
frankness than he had yet dared to employ in his intercourse with her.
Partly because of the arduous task of investigating Vyner’s accounts,
and partly that he was a man who required abundant time and quiet before
he could make up his mind on any difficulty, he breakfasted alone in his
own room, and rarely mixed with the family before dinner-hour. He knew
well how all this seeming industry redounded to his credit; the little
entreaties to him to take some fresh air, to take a walk or a drive,
were all so many assurances of friendly interest in his behalf; and when
Vyner would say, “Have a care, M’Kinlay; remember what’s to become
of _us_ if you knock up,” Lady Vyner’s glance of gratitude, and Miss
Courtenay’s air of half confusion, were an incense that positively
intoxicated him with ecstasy.
A short stroll in the garden he at last permitted himself to take, and
of this brief period of relaxation he made a little daily history--one
of those small jokes great men weave out of some little personal detail,
which they have a conscious sense, perhaps, history will yet deal with
more pompously.
“Five times from the orangery to the far summer-house to-day! There’s
dissipation for you,” would he say, as he entered the drawing-room
before dinner. “Really I feel like a pedestrian training for a race.”
And how pleasantly would they laugh at his drollery, as we all do laugh
every day at some stupid attempt at fun by those whose services we stand
in need of, flattering ourselves the while that our sycophancy is but
politeness.
Vyner was absent one day, and Mr. M’Kinlay took the head of the table,
and did the honours with somewhat more pretension than the position
required, alluding jocularly to his high estate and its onerous
responsibilities, but the ladies liked his pleasantry, and treasured up
little details of it to tell Sir Gervais on his return.
When they left him to his coffee and his cigar on the terrace, his
feeling was little less than triumphant. “Yes,” thought he, “I have won
the race; I may claim the cup when I please.” While he thus revelled,
he saw, or fancied he saw, the flutter of a muslin dress in the garden
beneath. Was it Georgina? Could it be that she had gone there designedly
to draw him on to a declaration? If Mr. M’Kinlay appear to my fair
readers less gallant than he might be, let them bear in mind that his
years were not those which dispose to romance, and that he was only a
“solicitor” by profession.
“Now or never, then,” said he, finishing a second liqueur-glass of
brandy, and descending the steps into the garden.
Though within a few days of Christmas, the evening was mild and even
genial, for Chiavari is one of those sheltered nooks where the oranges
live out of doors through the winter, and enjoy a climate like that of
Naples. It was some time before he could detect her he was in search of,
and at last came suddenly to where she was gathering some fresh violets
for a bouquet.
“What a climate--what a heavenly climate this is, Miss Courtenay!” said
he, in a tone purposely softened and subdued for the occasion; and she
started and exclaimed:
“Oh! how you frightened me, my dear Mr. M’Kinlay. I never heard you
coming. I am in search of violets; come and help me, but only take the
deep blue ones.”
Now, if Mr. M’Kinlay had been perfectly sure--which he was not--that her
eyes were blue, he would have adventured on a pretty compliment, but, as
a lawyer, he knew the consequences of “misdescription,” and he contented
himself with expressing all the happiness he felt at being associated
with her in any pursuit.
“Has my sister told you what Gervais has gone about?” asked she, still
stooping to cull the flowers.
“Not a word of it.”
“Then I will, though certainly you scarcely deserve such a proof of my
confidence, seeing how very guarded you are as to your own secrets.”
“I, my dear Miss Courtenay? _I_ guarded! and towards _you!_ I pray you
tell me what you allude to.”
“By-and-by, perhaps; for the present, I want to speak of our own
mysteries. Know, then, that my brother has gone to Genoa to bring
back with him the young gentleman through whose means much of our late
discovery has been made, and who turns out to be Mr. Luttrell. He was
here for a couple of days already, but so overwhelmed by the news of his
father’s death, that we scarcely saw anything of him. He then left us to
go back and nurse his wounded friend the captain, who insists, it seems,
on being treated in the public hospital.”
“Luttrell--Luttrell! You mean one of that family who lived on the rock
off the Irish coast?”
“His son.”
“The boy I remember having rescued at the peril of my own life! I wonder
will his memory recal it? And why is Sir Gervais----”
He stopped; he was about to ask what interest could attach to any one so
devoid of fortune, friends, or station, and she saw the meaning of his
question, and said, though not without a certain confusion:
“My brother-in-law and this young man’s father were once on a time very
intimate; he used to be a great deal with us--I am speaking of very long
ago--and then we lost sight of him. A remote residence and an imprudent
marriage estranged him from us, and the merest accident led my brother
to where he lived--the barren island you spoke of--and renewed in some
sort their old friendship--in so far, at least, that Gervais promised to
be the guardian of his friend’s son----”
“I remember it all; I took a part in the arrangement.”
“But it turns out there is nothing to take charge of. In a letter that
my brother got from Mr. Grenfell some time since, we find that Mr.
Luttrell has left everything he possessed to a certain niece or
daughter. Which was she, Mr. M’Kinlay?”
“Niece, I always understood.”
“Which did you always believe?” said she, looking at him with a steady,
unflinching stare.
“Niece, certainly.”
“Indeed?”
“On my word of honour.”
“And all this wonderful story about her beauty and captivation, and
the running away and the secret marriage, how much of _that_ does Mr.
M’Kinlay believe?”
“I don’t know one word of what you allude to.”
“Oh, Mr. M’Kinlay, this is more than lawyer-like reserve!”
“I will swear it, if you desire.”
“But surely you’ll not say that you did not dine with Sir Within Wardle
at the Hôtel Windsor, as you came through Paris?”
“I have not the slightest intention to deny it.”
“And is it possible, Mr. M’Kinlay, that nothing of what I have just
mentioned was dropped during the dinner? No allusion to the beautiful
Miss Luttrell, or Mrs. Ladarelle? Mr. Grenfell is in doubt which to call
her.”
“Not a syllable; her name was never-uttered.”
“And what did you talk of, in Heaven’s name!” cried she, impatiently.
“Was it town gossip and scandal?”
For a moment Mr. M’Kinlay was almost scared by her impetuosity, but he
rallied, and assured her that Sir Within spoke with the warmest interest
of Sir Gervais, and alluded in the most cordial way to their old
relations of friendship, and with what pleasure he would renew them. “He
charged me with innumerable kind messages, and almost his last word was
a hope that he should be fortunate enough to meet you again.”
“And through all this no mention of the ‘beauty’--I mean, of Miss
Luttrell?”
“Not a word.”
“How strange--how incomprehensible!” said she, pausing, and seeming to
reflect.
“Remember, my dear Miss Courtenay, it was a very hurried meeting
altogether. We dined at half-past six, and at ten I was on the
railroad.”
“Did Sir Within strike you as looking so very ill--so much cut upas Mr.
Grenfell phrases it?”
“I thought him looking remarkably well; for a man of his age,
wonderfully well. He must be--let me see--he must be--not very far from
eighty.1’
“Not within ten years of it, Sir, I’m confident,” broke she in, almost
fiercely. “There is no error more common than to overrate the age of
distinguished men. The public infers that familiarity with their name
implies long acquaintance, and it is a most absurd mistake.”
Now, Mr. M’Kinlay thoroughly understood that he was typified under that
same public, who only knew great men by report, and misrepresented them
through ignorance. He was, however, so strong in “his brief,” that
he would not submit to be put down; he had taken pains to look over a
record of Sir Within’s services, and had seen that he was attached to
the Russian embassy fifty-two years ago.
“What do you say to that, Miss Courtenay? Fifty-two years ago.”
“I say, Sir, that I don’t care for arithmetic, and never settle any
question by a reference to mere figures. When I last saw Sir Within he
was in the prime of life, and if great social talents and agreeability
were to be any test, one of the youngest persons of the company.”
“Oh, I’m the first to extol his conversational powers. He is a perfect
mine of good stories.”
“I detest good stories. I like conversation, I like reply, rejoinder,
even amplification at times; anecdote is almost always a mistake.”
Mr. M’Kinlay was aghast. How disagreeable he must have made himself, to
render her so sharp and so incisive all at once.
“I can say all this to _you_,” said she, with a sweet tone, “for it is
a fault you never commit. And so, you remark, that Sir Within showed no
remarkable gloom or depression--nothing, in fact, that argued he had met
with any great shock?”
“My impression was, that I sow him in high spirits and in the best
possible health.”
“I thought so!” cried she, almost triumphantly. “I declare I thought
so!” But why she thought so, or what she thought, or how it could be
matter of such pleasure, she did not go on to explain. After a
moment, she resumed: “And was there nothing said about why he had left
Dalradern, and what induced him to come abroad?”
“Nothing--positively nothing.”
“Well,” said she, with a haughty toss of her head, “it is very possible
that the whole subject occupies a much larger space in Mr. Grenfell’s
letter than in Sir Within’s mind; and, for my own part, I only inquired
about the matter as it was once the cause of a certain coldness, a half
estrangement between Dalradern and ourselves, and which, as my brother
takes much pleasure in Sir Within’s society, I rejoice to perceive
exists no longer.”
All this was a perfect riddle to Mr. M’Kinlay, who had nothing for it
but to utter a wise sentiment on the happiness of reconciliation. Even
this was unfortunate, for she tartly told him that “there could be no
reconciliation where there was no quarrel;” and then dryly added, “Is it
not cold out here?”
“I protest I think it delightful,” said he.
“Well, then, it is damp, or it’s something or other,” said she,
carelessly, and turned towards the house.
M’Kinlay followed her; gloomy enough was he. Here was the opportunity he
had so long wished for, and what had he made of it? It had opened, too,
favourably; their first meeting was cordial; had he said anything that
might have offended her? or had he--this was his last thought as they
reached the porch--had he _not_ said what she expected he ought to
have said? _That_ supposition would at once explain her chagrin and
irritation.
“Miss Georgina,” said he, with a sort of reckless daring, “I have an
entreaty to make of you--I ask a favour at your hands.”
“It is granted, Mr. M’Kinlay,” said she, smiling. “I guess it already.”
“You guess it already, and you grant it!” cried he, in ecstasy.
“Yes,” said she, still graciously, as she threw off her shawl. “You are
impatient for your tea, and you shall have it at once.”
And with that she moved hurriedly forward, and left him overwhelmed with
shame and anger.