Frere’s answer to Lewis’s note made its appearance at Broadhurst on the
morning of the second day after that on which the events narrated in the
previous chapter took place. It ran as follows:--
“Dear Lewis,--I think I’ve told you before--(if it wasn’t you it was
your sister, which is much the same thing)--not to write such a pack of
nonsense as ‘adding to my many kindnesses,’ and all that sort of stuff,
because it’s just so much time and trouble wasted. I see no particular
kindness in it, that’s the fact. You and she live in the country, and I
in town; and if there is anything that either of you want here, why of
course it’s natural to tell me to get or to do it for you; and as to
apologising, or making pretty speeches every time you require anything,
it’s sheer folly; besides, I _like_ doing the things for you. If I
didn’t I wouldn’t do them, you may depend upon _that_; so no more of
such rubbish ‘an you love me.’ And now, touching those interesting, or
rather interest_ed_, individuals, Messrs. Jones & Levi. I thought when
I read their letter they were rascals or thereabouts, but a personal
interview placed the matter beyond doubt; and if you take my advice,
you’ll see them--well, never mind where--but keep your £10 in your
pocket, that’s all. Depend upon it, they are more used to making rich
men poor than poor ones rich. However, I’ll tell you all their sayings
and doings, as far as I am acquainted therewith, and then you can judge
for yourself. As soon as I received your letter I trudged off into the
city, found the den of thieves--I mean the lawyer’s office--of which
I was in search, sent in my card by an unwashed Israelite with a pen
behind each ear and ink all over him, whom I took to be a clerk, and by
the same unsavoury individual was ushered into the presence of Messrs.
Jones & Levi. Jones was a long cadaverous-looking animal, with a clever,
bad face, and the eye of a hawk; Levi, a fat Jew, and apparently a
German into the bargain, with a cunning expression of countenance and
a cringing manner, who gave one the idea of having been fed on oil-cake
till he had become something of the sort himself; a kind of man who, if
you had put a wick into him, wouldn’t have made a bad candle, only one
should so have longed to snuff him out. Well, I soon told these worthies
what I was come about, and then waited to hear all they had to say for
themselves. The Gentile, being most richly gifted with speech, took upon
him to reply--
“‘Let me offer you a chair, Mr. Frere, sir. Delighted to have the honour
of making your acquaintance. I speak for my partner and myself--eh, Mr.
Levi?’
“‘In courshe, shir. Moosh playsure, Misthur Vreer, shir,’ muttered Levi,
who spoke through his nose, after the manner of modern Israelites, as if
that organ were afflicted with a permanent cold.
“When I had seated myself Jones returned to the attack by observing:
‘Our letter contained a certain definite and specific offer. Does Mr.
Arundel agree to that, Mr. Frere, sir?’
“‘Mr. Arundel has placed the matter entirely in my hands, Mr. Jones,’
replied I; ‘and before I can agree to anything I must understand clearly
what benefit my friend is likely to derive from the information hinted
at in your letter.’
“‘May I inquire, Mr. Frere, sir, whether you are a professional man?’
asked Jones.
“‘If you mean a lawyer, Mr. Jones,’ replied I, ‘I am thankful to say I
am not.’
“I suppose he did not exactly relish my remark, for he resumed, in a
less amicable tone than he had used before--
“‘I believe the letter to which I have already referred contained a
clear statement of the _only_’ (he emphasised the word strongly) ‘terms
upon which we should be disposed to communicate the information,’ and he
glanced towards his partner, who echoed--
“‘De _only_ turmsh.”
“‘Then, gentlemen,’ said I (gentlemen, indeed!), ‘I beg most distinctly
to inform you that my friend shall never, with my consent, pay £10
down and become liable for £200 more, this liability depending on a
contingency which you have no doubt provided against, on the mere chance
that some information in your possession may refer to the exciting cause
of his father’s death and prove valuable to him.’
“‘De informationsh ish mosht faluaple,’ broke in Levi.
“‘I beg pardon, Mr. Levi,’ exclaimed Jones quickly, ‘but I believe we
agreed this matter was to be left to my management?’
“Levi nodded his large head and looked contrite, while Jones continued:
‘In that case, Mr. Frere, sir, I have only to add that if Mr. Arundel
refuses to comply with our terms we shall not part with the information
on any others. At the same time, I should advise him to reconsider the
matter, for I do not hesitate to say that I quite coincide with Mr. Levi
in his opinion concerning the importance of the information which is in
our possession.’
“As he said this an idea occurred to me, and I replied--
“‘Suppose, instead of the bond for £200 in the event of some contingency
which may never occur, Mr. Arundel were willing to pay £20 down for the
information, would you agree to that?’
“‘Say vive and dirtysh,’ put in the Jew, his dull eyes brightening
at the prospect of money. ‘Say vive and dirtysh, and it shall pe von
pargainsh.’
“‘Would you agree to take that sum, Mr. Jones?’ asked I.
“He glanced at his partner with a slight contraction of the brow and
shook his head; but the spirit of avarice aroused in the Jew was not so
easily to be put down, and he continued, in a more positive tone than he
had yet ventured to use--
“‘Yesh, he dosh agree. Me and my bardner ve vill take the vive and
dirtysh poundsh, ready monish, Mr. Vreer.’
“‘Not quite so fast, my good sir,’ returned I. ‘If you are so very ready
to give up the bond for £200, to be paid in case the information should
prove as valuable as you assert it to be, the natural inference is that
you yourself have mighty little faith in the truth of your assertion;
and as I happen to be pretty much of that way of thinking also, I shall
wish you both good morning.’
“So saying, I put on my hat and walked out of the room, leaving the Jew
and the Gentile to fight it out to their own satisfaction.
“I had not a very strong affection for lawyers before, and I can’t say
this visit has served to endear the profession to me particularly. You
know the old story of the man who defined the difference between
an attorney and a solicitor to be much the same as that between an
alligator and a crocodile. Well, Messrs. Jones & Levi realised such a
definition to the life, for a more detestable brace of rascals I never
encountered; and depend upon it, the less you have to do with them
the better; at least, such is the opinion of yours for ever and a day
(always supposing such an epoch of time may exist),
“Richard Frere.”
“So,” exclaimed Lewis, refolding the letter, “that chance has failed
me. Well, I never expected anything would come of it; and yet--heigho!
I certainly was born under an unlucky star. I think Frere was rather
precipitate. According to his account of his proceedings, he seems to
have felt such an intense conviction that the men were rascals that
he called on them rather for the purpose of exposing them than to
investigate the matter. He prejudged the question. However, I have no
doubt the result would have been the same in any case. What a bore it
is that men will be rogues! I shall have out those horses again after
Walter has got through his lesson. If they go quietly I shall take him
with me for a drive to-morrow.” And thus communing with himself, he
summoned Walter and commenced the usual morning routine.
Miss Livingstone had, by Lewis’s advice, ordered post-horses to the
carriage, and was in that way enabled to accomplish her round of visits.
Lewis carried out his intention of driving the iron-greys, who conducted
themselves with so much propriety that on the following day he took his
pupil with him, and finding the drive pleased and amused the poor boy he
repeated it every fine day. Thus a week slipped away, and the time for
the General’s return arrived. It was late on the afternoon of the day
on which he was expected, and Lewis was wearily assisting poor Walter to
spell through a page of dissyllables, when that peculiar gravel-grinding
sound became audible which, in a country house, necessarily precedes
an arrival. Then there was a great bustle as of excited servants, a
Babel-like confusion of tongues, bumps and thumps of heavy luggage,
much trampling of feet, ringing of bells and slamming of doors; then
the sounds grew fainter, were remitted at intervals, and at last ceased
altogether. The house was no longer masterless--General Grant had
returned. Walter’s attention, by no means easy to command for five
minutes together at the best of times, became so entirely estranged by
the commotion above alluded to, that Lewis closed the book in despair
and told him to go and play with Faust, who, sitting upright on a rug in
front of the fire, was listening with the deepest interest to all that
passed in the hall, and was only restrained from barking by a strict
sense of propriety operating on a well-disciplined mind. The boy gladly
obeyed, and Lewis, resting his aching head on his hand, fell into deep
thought--he thought of old times, when, head of his class at a public
school, alike leader and idol of the little world in which he moved, his
young ambition had shaped out for itself a career in which the bar, the
bench, the senate, were to be but stepping-stones to the highest honours
to which energy and talent might attain; and he contrasted his present
position with the ideal future his boyish fancy had depicted. Then he
bethought him of the tyrant who commanded that a living man should be
chained to a corpse, and considered how the cold and numbing influence
of the dead, gradually paralysing the vital energy of the living, was,
as it were, typical of his own fate. He could not but be conscious
of unusual powers of mind, for he had tested them in the struggle for
honours with the deep and subtile thinkers of Germany, and had come off
victorious; and to reflect that these talents, which might have ensured
him success in the game of life, were condemned to be wasted in the
wearying attempt to call forth the faint germs of reason in the mind
of an almost childish idiot! The thought was a bitter one! and yet for
months past he had felt resigned to his fate; and the deep interest he
took in his pupil’s improvement, together with the time such a quiet
life afforded for reflection and self-knowledge, had rendered him
contented, if not what is conventionally termed happy. To what then
should he attribute his present frame of mind? At this moment a tap at
the study door interrupted his meditations, and he was unable to pursue
his self-analysis further. Had he done so, he might possibly have
discovered that pride, his besetting sin, lay at the root of the evil.
As long as he lived in comparative seclusion his duties sat easily upon
him; but now that he was again about to mix in society, his position as
tutor became galling in the extreme to his haughty nature. As he heard
the summons above mentioned he started from his reverie, and sweeping
his hair from his forehead by a motion of his hand, exclaimed, “Come
in.” As he spoke the door opened, and our old acquaintance, Charley
Leicester, lounged into the room.
“Ah! how do you do, Arundel?” he began in his usual languid tone. “I
know all the ins and outs of this place, and I thought I should find you
here--this used to be _my_ den once upon a time; many a holiday’s task
have I groaned over in this venerable apartment. Is that your incubus?”
he continued in a lower tone, glancing towards Walter. “Handsome
features, poor fellow! Does he understand what one says?”
“Scarcely, unless you speak to him individually,” returned Lewis. “You
may talk as you please before him, the chances are he will not attend;
but if he does, he will only understand a bit here and there, and even
that he will forget the next moment, when some trifle occurs to put it
out of his head. Walter, come and shake hands with this gentleman!”
Thus spoken to, Walter turned sheepishly away, and stooping down, hid
his face behind Faust. Lewis’s mouth grew stern. “Faust, come here,
sir!” The dog arose, looked wistfully at his playfellow, licked his hand
lovingly, then walking across the room, crouched down at his master’s
feet.
“Now, Walter, look at me.” At this second appeal the boy raised his eyes
to Lewis’s face. “Go and shake hands with Mr. Leicester.”
“Don’t worry him on my account, pray, my dear Arundel,” interposed
Leicester good-naturedly.
“The General makes a great point of his being introduced to every one;
and I make a great point of his doing as I bid him,” returned Lewis with
marked emphasis.
But it was unnecessary, if meant as a hint to Walter, for his tutor’s
eye appeared to possess a power of fascination over him. No sooner did
he meet his glance than he arose from his kneeling position, and going
up to Leicester held out his hand saying, “How do you do?”
Charley shook hands with him kindly, asked him one or two simple
questions, to which he replied with tolerable readiness; then observing
that his eyes were fixed on a silver-mounted cane he held in his hand,
he inquired whether he thought it pretty, and receiving an answer in the
affirmative, added, “Then you may take it to amuse yourself with, if you
like.”
A smile of childish delight proved that the offer was an acceptable one;
and carrying off his treasure with him and calling Faust, who on a sign
from his master gladly obeyed the summons, he betook himself to the
farther end of the room, which was a very large one, and began playing
with his canine associate. Leicester gazed at him for a moment or two,
and then observed--
“What a sad pity! Such a fine-grown, handsome lad, too! Why, in a year
or two he will be a man in appearance, with the mind of a child. Does he
improve much?”
“Yes, he improves steadily, but very slowly,” returned Lewis.
Leicester wandered dreamily up to a chimney-glass, arranged his hair
with an air of deep abstraction, pulled up his shirt-collars, caressed
his whiskers, then separating the tails of a nondescript garment,
which gave one the idea of a cut-away coat trying to look like a
shooting-jacket, he extended his legs so as to form two sides of a
triangle, and subjecting his frigid zone to the genial influence of
the fire, he enjoyed for some minutes in silence the mysterious delight
afforded to all true-born Englishmen by the peculiar position above
indicated. At length he sighed deeply and muttered, “Heigho! it’s no use
thinking about it.”
“That depends on what it is, and how you set to work to think,” returned
Lewis.
“That may do as a general rule,” continued Leicester, “but it won’t
apply to the case in point. The thing I was trying to cipher out, as
the Yankees call it, is the incomprehensible distribution of property in
this sublunary life. Now look at that poor boy--a stick for a plaything
and a dog for a companion make him perfectly happy. Those are his
only superfluous requirements, which together with eating, drinking,
clothing, and lodging might be provided for £300 a year.
Instead of that, when he is twenty-one he will come into from £8000 to
£10,000 per annum, besides no end of savings during his minority. Well,
to say nothing of your own case” (Lewis’s cheek kindled and his eye
flashed, but Leicester, absorbed in his own thoughts, never noticed it,
and continued), “though with your talents a little loose cash to give
you a fair start might be the making of you---just look at my wretched
position,--the son of a peer, brought up in all kinds of expensive
habits, mixing in the best set at Eton and at Oxford, the chosen
associate of men of large property, introduced into the highest society
in London--of course I must do as others do, I can’t help myself.
There are certain things necessary to a young man about town just
as indispensable as smock-frocks and bacon are to a ploughman. For
instance, to live one must dine--to dine one must belong to a club. Then
London is a good large place, even if one ignores everything east
of Temple Bar; one must keep a cab if but to save boot-leather--that
entails a horse and a tiger. Again, for four months in the year people
talk about nothing but the opera--one can’t hold one’s tongue for four
months, you know--that renders a stall indispensable. It’s the fashion
to wear white kid gloves, and the whole of London comes off black on
everything, so there’s a fine of 3s. 6d. a night only for having hands
at the end of one’s arms. The atmosphere of the metropolis is composed
chiefly of smoke--the only kind of smoke one can inhale without being
choked is tobacco smoke; besides, life without cigars would be a desert
without an oasis--but unfortunately Havannahs don’t hang on every
hedge. I might multiply instances _ad infinitum_, but the thing is
self-evident--to provide all these necessaries a man must possess money
or credit, and I unfortunately have more of the latter than the former
article. It is, as I have explained to you, utterly impossible for me to
exist on less than--say £1500 a year; and even with my share of my poor
mother’s fortune and the Governor’s allowance, my net income doesn’t
amount to £800; _ergo_, half the London and all the Oxford tradesmen
possess little manuscript volumes containing interesting reminiscences
of my private life. It’s no laughing matter, I can assure you,” he
continued, seeing Lewis smile; “there’s nothing cramps a man’s”--here
he released a coat-tail in order to raise his hand to conceal a
yawn--“augh! what do you call ’em?--energies--so much as having a load
of debt hanging round his neck. If it hadn’t been for those confounded
Oxford bills checking me at first starting, ’pon my word I don’t know
that I might not have done something. I had ideas about a parliamentary
career at one time, I can assure you, or diplomacy--any fool’s good
enough for an _attaché_. Now, if I had that poor boy’s fortune, and he
had my _mis_fortune, what an advantage it would be to both of us; he’ll
never know what to do with his money, and I should--rather! Just fancy
me with £10,000 a year, and a coat on my back that was paid for. By
Jove, I should not know myself. Ah, well! it’s no use talking about it;
all the same, I am an unlucky beggar.”
“But,” interposed Lewis eagerly, “if you really dislike the life
you lead so much, why don’t you break through all these trammels of
conventionality and strike out some course for yourself? With £800 a
year to ward off poverty, and the interest you might command, what a
splendid career lies before you! Were I in your position, instead of
desponding I should deem myself singularly fortunate.”
“So you might, my dear fellow,” returned Leicester, after pausing for
a minute to regard Lewis with a smile of languid wonder. “So you might
with your talents, and--and wonderful power of getting up the steam
and keeping it at high pressure. I dare say we should see you a Field
Marshal if you took to the red cloth and pipe-clay trade; or on the
woolsack if you preferred joining the long-robed gentlemen. Now,
I haven’t got that sort of thing in me: I was born to be a man of
property, and nothing else; and the absurdity of the thing is the
bringing a man into the world fit only for one purpose, and then placing
him in a position in which, to use the cant of the day, he can’t
‘fulfil his mission’ at any price. It’s just as if nature were to form
a carnivorous animal, and then turn it out to grass.” Having delivered
himself of this opinion with the air of a deeply injured man, the
Honourable Charles Leicester consulted a minute Geneva watch with an
enamelled back, and replacing it in his waistcoat pocket, continued,
“Five o’clock; I shall just have time to smoke a cigar before it is
necessary to dress for dinner. I presume tobacco is a contraband article
in the interior of this respectable dwelling-house?”
“A salutary dread of Miss Livingstone’s indignation has prevented me
from ever trying such an experiment,” returned Lewis.
“Well, I won’t run the risk of offending the good lady,” replied
Leicester. “Aunt Martha has a wonderful knack of blighting the whole
family for the rest of the day if one happens to run against one of her
pet prejudices. By the way, you must have found her a most interesting
companion?”
“We are great friends, I can assure you,” rejoined Lewis. “She
condescends to patronise me most benignantly; but I have not spoken
half-a-dozen times with her in as many months.”
“I suppose she has enlightened you as to the events about to come off
during the next three weeks.”
“By no means. Beyond the fact of the General’s return, and the
information that the house was to be filled with people, Miss
Livingstone has allowed me to remain in a state of the most lamentable
ignorance.”
“What! have not you heard that the county is vacant, and the General has
been persuaded to allow himself to be nominated as a candidate on the
conservative interest?”
“But I thought he was already member for the borough of A--------?”
“Yes; he will resign that if he succeeds for the county. Oh, you’re
quite in the dark, I see; we mean to stir heaven and earth to get him
in. My father gives him all his interest--Bellefield is coming down
to look up the tenantry. You know we (that is, Belle and the Governor,
worse luck) have large estates in the county. Belle can do a little bit
of love-making in between whiles, and so kill two birds with one stone.
And who else do you think is coming?--a very great man, I can assure
you; no less a personage, in fact, than--ar--_the_ De Grandeville!
He has been induced to--ar--” (and here he mimicked De Grandeville’s
pompous manner inimitably) “throw his little influence--ar--into the
scale, and--ar--show himself on the hustings, and--ar--arrange one or
two matters which will in fact--ar--render the thing secure! The plain
truth being that he really is a good man of business, and the General
has engaged him as an electioneering agent. Well, then, there are a lot
of people coming besides; and balls and dinners will be given to half
the county. In short, the General means to do the thing in style, and
spend as much money as would keep me out of debt for the next three
years. Several parties are to arrive to-morrow, so the General brought
Annie and me down with him as a sort of advanced guard. There will be
some fun, I dare say; but an awful deal of trouble to counterbalance it.
I shall lose my cigar, though, if I stand gossiping here any longer.
Let me see, the nearest way to the stables will be to jump out of
that window; deduct the distance saved from the amount of exertion in
leaping, and the remainder will be the gain of a minute and a half.
Well, time is precious, so off we go. I suppose you appear in the course
of the evening? Take care, Walter; that is right.”
Thus saying, he flung open the window, sprang out with more agility than
from his usual listless movements might have been expected, pulled
the sash down again, and having nodded good-naturedly to Walter,
disappeared.
General Grant felt and expressed himself greatly delighted at the marked
improvement which had taken place in his ward’s manner and appearance,
and attributing it with justice to Lewis’s judicious management, that
young gentleman rose many degrees in his employer’s favour. The General
was essentially a practical man--he was endowed with a clear head, and
(save where prejudice interfered) a sound judgment, and being happily
devoid of that inconvenient organ, a heart (whence proceed, amongst
other reprehensible emigrants, the whole host of amiable weaknesses,
which merely gain for their proprietor that most useless, because
unsaleable, article--affection), he looked upon his fellow-creatures as
machines, and weighing them in the balance, patronised those only
who were not found wanting. Lewis had proved himself a good teaching
machine, and the General valued him accordingly.
“The great point now, Mr. Arundel,” he said, “is to endeavour to expand
your pupil’s mind. You have developed in him (and I give you great
credit for the degree of success you have attained) powers of acquiring
knowledge,--those powers must be cultivated; he must have opportunities
afforded him of seeing people and amassing facts for himself; and
to this end it is my wish that he should mix as much as possible in
society. I am about to entertain a large party at Broad-hurst, and I
conceive that it will be a desirable opportunity to accustom Sir Walter
to the presence of strangers, and to enable him, by the force of example
acting on his imitative powers, to acquire the manners and habits of
those of his own rank. I therefore propose that after two o’clock on
each day your pupil and yourself should join the family circle and enter
into any schemes for amusement or exercise which may be arranged. I
consider myself most fortunate,” continued the General, with a little
patronising inclination of the head towards Lewis, “in having secured
the services of a gentleman whom I can with such entire satisfaction
present to my friends.”
In compliance with this injunction Lewis was forced, much against his
will, to withdraw from the retirement under the shadow of which he had
hitherto contrived to screen himself from those annoyances to which his
dependent situation exposed him, and which his sensitive nature led him
especially to dread. On the following day arrivals succeeded one another
with great rapidity, and when Lewis joined the party after luncheon
there were several faces with which he was unacquainted. One, however,
immediately arrested his attention, and turning to Leicester, he
inquired the name of the person in question.
“Eh! who is the man with moustaches, did you say? What! don’t you know
him?” exclaimed Leicester, if, indeed, the slow, languid manner in which
that young gentleman was accustomed to promulgate his sentiments can
be properly so termed. “How very odd! I thought everybody knew _him_;
that’s my _frère aîné_ Bellefield; come with me, and I’ll introduce
you.”
“Excuse me,” returned Lewis, drawing back with a flushed cheek as the
recollection of the scene on the banks of the Serpentine came vividly
before him. “I had no idea it was your brother; I never imagined for a
moment----”
“My dear Arundel, don’t excite yourself; as a general rule, there’s
nothing in this life worth getting up the steam about,” returned
Leicester, drawing on a kid glove. “Bellefield will be extremely happy
to make your acquaintance--in fact, he is always extremely happy. If
you were to cut your throat before his very eyes he would be extremely
happy, and if he thought you did it well, probably fold his arms, ask
what you would take for the razor, and be extremely happy to buy it of
you. But as he’ll be constantly here, there exists a positive necessity
for you to know him--so come along.”
Thus saying, Charley Leicester linked his arm in that of Lewis and
carried him off, _nolens volens_, to be introduced to his brother.
Lord Bellefield having seen Lewis only once before, and under very
peculiar circumstances, did not immediately recognise him; and having
made up his mind that for electioneering purposes it was necessary to
bear all species of social martyrdom amiably, underwent his introduction
to Lewis with great resignation, curling up his moustaches and showing
his white teeth in a ready-made smile--of which article he had always a
stock on hand--most condescendingly.
Lewis’s was, however, a face that once seen it was not easy to forget.
Moreover, there was at that moment an expression gleaming in his dark
eyes not altogether consistent with the conventional indifference
befitting a mere social introduction, and Lord Bellefield was too close
an observer not to notice it.
“I’ve a strange idea I’ve seen you somewhere before, Mr. Arundel,” he
remarked.
“If I am not much mistaken,” returned Lewis, “your lordship once did me
the honour,” and he laid a slightly sarcastic emphasis on the words, “to
offer me a sum of money for a favourite dog.”
There was something in Lewis’s manner as he uttered these words which
showed that he had neither forgotten nor forgiven the insult that had
been offered him. Lord Bellefield perceived it, and replied, with a
half-sneer--
“Ay, I recollect now--you jumped into the water to fish him out; and I
naturally imagined that, as you appeared to set such store by him, you
must expect to make money of him. Have you got him still?”
Lewis replied in the affirmative, and his lordship continued--
“Well, I’ll give you your own price for him any day you like to name the
sum.”
Without waiting for an answer he turned away and began conversing in an
undertone with his cousin Annie.