I hate law details as cordially as my readers can, and therefore I shall
content myself with stating that Mr. Pike's management at the end, not of
three days, but of two weeks, was so admirable that Uncle Jack was drawn
out of prison and my father extracted from all his liabilities by a sum
two thirds less than was first startlingly submitted to our indignant
horror,--and that, too, in a manner that would have satisfied the
conscience of the most punctilious formalist whose contribution to the
national fund for an omitted payment to the Income Tax the Chancellor of
the Exchequer ever had the honor to acknowledge. Still, the sum was very
large in proportion to my poor father's income; and what with Jack's
debts, the claims of the Anti-Publisher Society's printer, including the
very expensive plates that had been so lavishly bespoken, and in great
part completed, for the "History of Human Error," and, above all, the
liabilities incurred on "The Capitalist;" what with the plant, as Mr.
Peck technically phrased a great upas-tree of a total, branching out into
types, cases, printing-presses, engines, etc., all now to be resold at a
third of their value; what with advertisements and bills that had covered
all the dead-walls by which rubbish might be shot, throughout the three
kingdoms; what with the dues of reporters, and salaries of writers, who
had been engaged for a year at least to "The Capitalist," and whose
claims survived the wretch they had killed and buried; what, in short,
with all that the combined ingenuity of Uncle Jack and Printer Peck could
supply for the utter ruin of the Caxton family (even after all
deductions, curtailments, and after all that one could extract in the way
of just contribution from the least unsubstantial of those shadows called
the shareholders),--my father's fortune was reduced to a sum of between
seven and eight thousand pounds, which being placed at mortgage at four
per cent, yielded just L372 10s. a year: enough for my father to live
upon, but not enough to afford also his son Pisistratus the advantages of
education at Trinity College, Cambridge. The blow fell rather upon me
than my father, and my young shoulders bore it without much wincing.
This settled to our universal satisfaction, I went to pay my farewell
visit to Sir Sedley Beaudesert. He had made much of me during my stay in
London. I had breakfasted and dined with him pretty often; I had
presented Squills to him, who no sooner set eyes upon that splendid
conformation than he described his character with the nicest accuracy, as
the necessary consequence of such a development for the rosy pleasures of
life. We had never once retouched on the subject of Fanny's marriage,
and both of us tacitly avoided even mentioning the Trevanions. But in
this last visit, though he maintained the same reserve as to Fanny, he
referred without scruple to her father.
"Well, my young Athenian," said he, after congratulating me on the result
of the negotiations, and endeavoring again in vain to bear at least some
share in my father's losses, "well, I see I cannot press this further;
but at least I can press on you any little interest I may have in
obtaining some appointment for yourself in one of the public offices.
Trevanion could of course be more useful; but I can understand that he is
not the kind of man you would like to apply to."
"Shall I own to you, my dear Sir Sedley, that I have no taste for
official employment? I am too fond of my liberty. Since I have been at
my uncle's old Tower, I account for half my character by the Borderer's
blood that is in me. I doubt if I am meant for the life of cities; and I
have odd floating notions in my head that will serve to amuse me when I
get home, and may settle into schemes. And now to change the subject:
may I ask what kind of person has succeeded me as Mr. Trevanion's
secretary?"
"Why, he has got a broad-shouldered, stooping fellow, in spectacles and
cotton stockings, who has written upon 'Rent,' I believe,--an imaginative
treatise in his case, I fear, for rent is a thing he could never have
received, and not often been trusted to pay. However, he is one of your
political economists, and wants Trevanion to sell his pictures, as
"unproductive capital.' Less mild than Pope's Narcissa, 'to make a
wash,' he would certainly 'stew a child.' Besides this official
secretary, Trevanion trusts, however, a good deal to a clever, good-
looking young gentleman who is a great favorite with him."
"What is his name?"
"His name? Oh! Gower,--a natural son, I believe, of one of the Gower
family."
Here two of Sir Sedley's fellow fine gentlemen lounged in, and my visit
ended.