III.

Lunch-time at Oxford, and a sunny day. Instead of college and our usual

fare, bread-and-cheese from the buttery, we were looking on the High

Street from Mrs. Everty's rooms, and about to sit down to a snow-white

damasked table with no end of good things upon it. Madam Sophie had

invited four or five of us to lunch with her.

The term had gone on, and Easter was not far off. Tod had not worked

much: just enough to keep him out of hot-water. His mind ran on Sophie

Chalk more than it did on lectures and chapel. He and the other fellows

who were caught by her fascinations mostly spent their spare time there.

Sophie dispersed her smiles pretty equally, but Tod contrived to get the

largest share. The difference was this: they had lost their heads to her

and Tod his heart. The evening card-playing did not flag, and the stakes

played for were high. Tod and Gaiton were the general losers: a run of

ill-luck had set in from the first for both of them. Gaiton might afford

this, but Tod could not.

Tod had his moments of reflection. He'd sit sometimes for an hour

together, his head bent down, whistling softly to himself some slow

dolorous strain, and pulling at his dark whiskers; no doubt pondering

the question of what was to be the upshot of it all. For my part, I

devoutly wished Sophie Chalk had been caught up into the moon before an

ill-wind had wafted her to Oxford. It was an awful shame of her husband

to let her stay on there, turning the under-graduates' brains. Perhaps

he could not help it.

We sat down to table: Sophie at its head in a fresh-looking pink gown

and bracelets and nicknacks. Lord Gaiton and Tod sat on either side of

her; Richardson was at the foot, and Fred Temple and I faced each other.

What fit of politeness had taken Sophie to invite me, I could not

imagine. Possibly she thought I should be sure to refuse; but I did not.

"So kind of you all to honour my poor little table!" said Sophie,

as we sat down. "Being in lodgings, I cannot treat you as I should

wish. It is all cold: chickens, meat-patties, lobster-salad, and

bread-and-cheese. Lord Gaiton, this is sherry by you, I think. Mr.

Richardson, you like porter, I know: there is some on the chiffonier."

We plunged into the dishes without ceremony, each one according to his

taste, and the lunch progressed. I may as well mention one thing--that

there was nothing in Mrs. Everty's manners at any time to take exception

to: never a word was heard from her, never a look seen, that could

offend even an old dowager. She made the most of her charms and her

general fascinations, and flirted quietly; but all in a lady-like way.

"Thank you, yes; I think I will take a little more salad, Mr.

Richardson," she said to him with a beaming smile. "It is my dinner,

you know. I have not a hall to dine in to-night, as you gentlemen

have. I am sorry to trouble you, Mr. Johnny."

I was holding her plate for Richardson. There happened at that moment

to be a lull in the talking, and we heard a carriage of some kind stop

at the door, and a loud peal at the house-bell.

"It's that brother of mine," said Fred Temple. "He bothered me to drive

out to some confounded place with him, but I told him I wouldn't. What's

he bumping up the stairs in that fashion for?"

The room-door was flung open, and Fred Temple put on a savage face, for

his brother looked after him more than he liked; when, instead of Temple

major, there appeared a shining big brown satin bonnet, and an old

lady's face under it, who stood there with a walking-stick.

"Yes, you see I was right, grandmamma; I said she was not gone," piped

a shrill voice behind; and Mabel Smith, in an old-fashioned black silk

frock and tippet, came into view. They had driven up to look after

Sophie.

Sophie was equal to the occasion. She rose gracefully and held out both

her hands, as though they had been welcome as is the sun in harvest. The

old lady leaned on her stick, and stared around: the many faces seemed

to confuse her.

"Dear me! I did not know you had a luncheon-party, ma'am."

"Just two or three friends who have dropped in, Mrs. Golding," said

Sophie, airily. "Let me take your stick."

The old lady, who looked like a very amiable old lady, sat down in the

nearest chair, but kept the stick in her hand. Mabel Smith was regarding

everything with her shrewd eyes and compressing her thin lips.

"This is Johnny Ludlow, grandmamma; you have heard me speak of _him_:

I don't know the others."

"How do you do, sir," said the old lady, politely nodding her brown

bonnet at me. "I hope you are in good health, sir?"

"Yes, ma'am, thank you." For she put it as a question, and seemed to

await an answer. Tod and the rest, who had risen, began to sit down

again.

"I'm sure I am sorry to disturb you at luncheon, ma'am," said the old

lady to Mrs. Everty. "We came in to see whether you had gone home or

not. I said you of course had gone; that you wouldn't stay away from

your husband so long as this; and also because we had not heard of you

for a month past. But Mabel thought you were here still."

"I am intending to return shortly," said Sophie.

"That's well: for I want to send up Mabel. And I brought in a letter

that came to my house this morning, addressed to you," continued the old

lady, lugging out of her pocket a small collection of articles before

she found the letter. "Mabel says it is your husband's handwriting,

ma'am; if so, he must be thinking you are staying with me."

"Thanks," said Sophie, slipping the letter away unopened.

"Had you not better see what it says?" suggested Mrs. Golding to her.

"Not at all: it can wait. May I offer you some luncheon?"

"Much obleeged, ma'am, but I and Mabel took an early dinner before

setting out. And on which day, Mrs. Everty, do you purpose going?"

"I'll let you know," said Sophie.

"What can have kept you so long here?" continued the old lady,

wonderingly. "Mabel said you did not know any of the inhabitants."

"I have found it of service to my health," replied Sophie with charming

simplicity. "Will you take a glass of sherry, Mrs. Golding?"

"I don't mind if I do. Just half a glass. Thank you, sir; not much more

than half"--to me, as I went forward with the glass and decanter. "I'm

sure, sir, it is good of you to be attentive to an old lady like me. If

you had a mind for a brisk walk at any time, of three miles, or so, and

would come over to my house, I'd make you welcome. Mabel, write down

the address."

"And I wish you had come while I was there, Johnny Ludlow," said the

girl, giving me the paper. "I like you. You don't say smiling words to

people with your lips and mock at them in your heart, as some do."

I remembered that she had not been asked to take any wine, and I offered

it.

"_No_, thank you," she said with emphasis. "None for me." And it struck

me that she refused because the wine belonged to Sophie.

The old lady, after nodding a farewell around and shaking hands with

Mrs. Everty, stood leaning on her stick between the doorway and the

stairs. "My servant's not here," she said, looking back, "and these

stairs are steep: would any one be good enough to help me down?"

Tod went forward to give her his arm; and we heard the fly drive away

with her and Mabel. Somehow the interlude had damped the free go of the

banquet, and we soon prepared to depart also. Sophie made no attempt to

hinder it, but said she should expect us in to take some tea with her in

the evening: and the lot of us filed out together, some going one way,

some another. I and Fred Temple kept together.

There was a good-natured fellow at Oxford that term, who had come up

from Wales to take his degree, and had brought his wife with him, a nice

kind of young girl who put me in mind of Anna Whitney. They had become

acquainted with Sophie Chalk, and liked her; she fascinated both. She

meant to do it too: for the companionship of staid irreproachable

people like Mr. and Mrs. Ap-Jenkyns, reflected credit on herself in

the eyes of Oxford.

"I thought we should have met the Ap-Jenkynses, at lunch," remarked

Temple. "What a droll old party that was with the stick! She puts me

in mind of--I say, here's another old party!" he broke off. "Seems to

be a friend of yours."

It was Mrs. Cann. She had stopped, evidently wanting to speak to me.

"I have just been to put little Nanny Tasson in the train for London,

sir," she said; "I thought you might like to know it. Her eldest

brother, the one that's settled there, has taken to her. His wife wrote

a nice letter and sent the fare."

"All right, Mrs. Cann. I hope they'll take good care of her.

Good-afternoon."

"Who the wonder is Nanny Tasson?" cried Temple as we went on.

"Only a little friendless child. Her brother was our scout when we first

came, and he died."

"Oh, by Jove, Ludlow! Look there!"

I turned at Temple's words. A gig was dashing by as large as life; Tod

in it, driving Sophie Chalk. Behind it dashed another gig, containing

Mr. and Mrs. Ap-Jenkyns. Fred Temple laughed.

"Mrs. Everty's unmistakably charming," said he, "and we don't know any

real harm of her, but if I were Ap-Jenkyns I should not let my wife be

quite her bosom companion. As to Todhetley, I think he's a gone calf."

Whitney came to our room as I got in. He had been invited to the

luncheon by Mrs. Everty, but excused himself, and she asked Fred Temple

in his place.

"Well, Johnny, how did it go off?"

"Oh, pretty well. Lobster-salad and other good things. Why did not you

go?"

"Where's Tod?" he rejoined, not answering the question.

"Out on a driving-party. Sophie Chalk and the Ap-Jenkynses."

Whitney whistled through the verse of an old song: "Froggy would

a-wooing go." "I say, Johnny," he said presently, "you had better give

Tod a hint to take care of himself. That thing will go too far if he

does not look out."

"As if Tod would mind me! Give him the hint yourself, Bill."

"I said half a word to him this morning after chapel: he turned on me

and accused me of being jealous."

We both laughed.

"I had a letter from home yesterday," Bill went on, "ordering me to keep

clear of Madam Sophie."

"No! Who from?"

"The mother. And Miss Deveen, who is staying with them, put in a

postscript."

"How did they know Sophie Chalk was here?"

"Through me. One wet afternoon I wrote a long epistle to Harry, telling

him, amidst other items, that Sophie Chalk was here, turning some of our

heads, especially Todhetley's. Harry, like a flat, let Helen get hold of

the letter, and she read it aloud, pro bono publico. There was nothing

in it that I might not have written to Helen herself; but Mr. Harry

won't get another from me in a hurry. Sophie seems to have fallen to a

discount with the mother and Miss Deveen."

Bill Whitney did not know what I knew--the true story of the emeralds.

"And that's why I did not go to the lunch to-day, Johnny. Who's this?"

It was the scout. He came in to bring in a small parcel, daintily done

up in white paper.

"Something for you, sir," he said to me. "A boy has just left it."

"It can't be for me--that I know of. It looks like wedding-cake."

"Open it," said Bill. "Perhaps one of the grads has gone and got

married."

We opened it together, laughing. A tiny paste-board box loomed out with

a jeweller's name on it; inside it was a chased gold cross, attached to

a slight gold chain.

"It's a mistake, Bill. I'll do it up again."

Tod came back in time for dinner. Seeing the little parcel on the

mantelshelf, he asked what it was. So I told him--something that the

jeweller's shop must have sent to our room by mistake. Upon that, he

tore the paper open; called the shop people hard names for sending it

into college, and put the box in his pocket. Which showed that it was

for him.

I went to Sophie's in the evening, having promised her, but not as soon

as Tod, for I stayed to finish some Greek. Whitney went with me, in

spite of his orders from home. The luncheon-party had all assembled

there with the addition of Mr. and Mrs. Ap-Jenkyns. Sophie sat behind

the tea-tray, dispensing tea; Gaiton handed the plum-cake. She wore

a silken robe of opal tints; white lace fell over her wrists and

bracelets; in her hair, brushed off her face, fluttered a butterfly

with silver wings; and on her neck was the chased gold cross that had

come to our rooms a few hours before.

"Tod's just a fool, Johnny," said Whitney in my ear. "Upon my word, I

think he is. And she's a syren!--and it was at our house he met her

first!"

After Mr. and Mrs. Ap-Jenkyns left, for she was tired, they began cards.

Sophie was engrossing Gaiton, and Tod sat down to écarté. He refused at

first, but Richardson drew him on.

"I'll show Tod the letter I had from home," said Whitney to me as we

went out. "What can possess him to go and buy gold crosses for her?

She's married."

"Gaiton and Richardson buy her things also, Bill."

"They don't know how to spend their money fast enough. I wouldn't: I

know that."

Tod and Gaiton came in together soon after I got in. Gaiton just looked

in to say good-night, and proposed that we should breakfast with him

on the morrow, saying he'd ask Whitney also: and then he went up to

his own rooms.

Tod fell into one of his thinking fits. He had work to do, but he sat

staring at the fire, his legs stretched out. With all his carelessness

he had a conscience and some forethought. I told him Bill Whitney had

had a lecture from home, touching Sophie Chalk, and I conclude he heard.

But he made no sign.

"I wish to _goodness_ you wouldn't keep up that tinkling, Johnny," he

said by-and-by, in a tone of irritation.

The "tinkling" was a bit of quiet harmony. However, I shut down the

piano, and went and sat by the fire, opposite to him. His brow looked

troubled; he was running his hands through his hair.

"I wonder whether I could raise some money, Johnny," he began, after a

bit.

"How much money?"

"A hundred, or so."

"You'd have to pay a hundred and fifty for doing it."

"Confound it, yes! And besides----"

"Besides what?"

"Nothing."

"Look here, Tod: we should have gone on as straightly and steadily as

need be but for _her_. As it is, you are wasting your time and getting

out of the way of work. What's going to be the end of it?"

"Don't know myself, Johnny."

"Do you ever ask yourself?"

"Where's the use of asking?" he returned, after a pause. "If I ask it of

myself at night, I forget it by the morning."

"Pull up at once, Tod. You'd be in time."

"Yes, now: don't know that I shall be much longer," said Tod candidly.

He was in a soft mood that night; an unusual thing with him. "Some awful

complication may come of it: a few writs or something."

"Sophie Chalk can't do you any good, Tod."

"She has not done me any harm."

"Yes she has. She has unsettled you from the work that you came to

Oxford to do; and the play in her rooms has caused you to run into debt

that you don't know how to get out of: it's nearly as much harm as she

can do you."

"Is it?"

"As much as she can do any honest fellow. Tod, if you were to lapse into

crooked paths, you'd break the good old pater's heart. There's nobody in

the world he cares for as he cares for you."

Tod sat twitching his whiskers. I could not understand his mood: all the

carelessness and the fierceness had quite gone out of him.

"It's the thought of the father that pulls me up, lad. What a

cross-grained world it is! Why should a bit of pleasure be hedged in

with thorns?"

"If we don't go to bed we shall not be up for chapel."

"_You_ can go to bed."

"Why do you drive her out, Tod?"

"Why does the sun shine?" was the lucid answer.

"I saw you with her in that gig to-day."

"We only went four miles. Four out and four in."

"You may be driving her rather too far some day--fourteen, or so."

"I don't think she'd be driven. With all her simplicity, she knows how

to take care of herself."

Simplicity! I looked at him; and saw he spoke the word in good faith.

_He_ was simple.

"She has a husband, Tod."

"Well?"

"Do you suppose he would like to see you driving her abroad?--and all

you fellows in her rooms to the last minute any of you dare stop out?"

"That's not my affair. It's his."

"Any way, Everty might come down upon the lot of you some of these fine

days, and say things you'd not like. _She's_ to blame. Why, you heard

what that old lady in the brown bonnet said--that her husband must

think Sophie was staying with her."

"The fire's low, and I'm cold," said Tod. "Good-night, Johnny."

He went into his room, and I to mine.

A few years ago, there appeared a short poem called "Amor Mundi."[1]

While reading it, I involuntarily recalled this past experience at

Oxford, for it described a young fellow's setting-out on the downward

path, as Tod did. Two of life's wayfarers start on their long life

journey: the woman first; the man sees and joins her; then speaks to

her.

[1] Christina G. Rossetti.

"Oh, where are you going, with your love-locks flowing,

And the west wind blowing along the narrow track?"

"This downward path is easy, come with me, an it please ye;

We shall escape the up-hill by never turning back."

So they two went together in the sunny August weather;

The honey-blooming heather lay to the left and right:

And dear she was to dote on, her small feet seemed to float on

The air, like soft twin-pigeons too sportive to alight.

And so they go forth, these two, on their journey, revelling in the

summer sunshine and giving no heed to their sliding progress; until he

sees something in the path that startles him. But the syren accounts for

it in some plausible way; it lulls his fear, and onward they go again.

In time he sees something worse, halts, and asks her again:

"Oh, what's that in the hollow, so pale I quake to follow?"

"Oh, that's a thin dead body that waits the Eternal term."

The answer effectually arouses him, and he pulls up in terror, asking

her to turn. She answers again, and he knows his fate.

"Turn again, oh my sweetest! Turn again, false and fleetest!

This way, whereof thou weetest, is surely Hell's own track!"

"Nay, too late for cost counting, nay too steep for hill-mounting,

This downward path is easy, but there's no turning back."

Shakespeare tells us that there is a tide in the affairs of man, which,

taken at the flood, leads on to fortune: omitted, all the voyage of the

after life is spent in shoals and miseries. That will apply to other

things besides fortune. I fully believe that after a young fellow has

set out on the downward path, in almost all cases there's a chance given

him of pulling up again, if he only is sufficiently wise and firm to

seize upon it. The opportunity was to come for Tod. He had started;

there was no doubt of that; but he had not got down very far yet and

could go backward almost as easily as forward. Left alone, he would

probably make a sliding run of it, and descend into the shoals. But the

chance for him was at hand.

Our commons and Whitney's went up to Gaiton's room in the morning, and

we breakfasted there. Lecture that day was at eleven, but I had work to

do beforehand. So had Tod, for the matter of that; plenty of it. I went

down to mine, but Tod stayed up with the two others.

Bursting into our room, as a fellow does when he is late for anything,

I saw at the open window somebody that I thought must be Mr. Brandon's

ghost. It took me aback, and for a moment I stood staring.

"Have you no greeting for me, Johnny Ludlow?"

"I was lost in surprise, sir. I am very glad to see you."

"I dare say you are!" he returned, as if he doubted my word.

"It's a good half-hour that I have waited here. You've been at a

breakfast-party!"

He must have got that from the scout. "Not at a party, sir. Gaiton asked

us to take our commons up, and breakfast with him in his room."

"Who is Gaiton?"

"He is Lord Gaiton. One of the students at Christchurch."

"Never mind his being a lord. Is he any good?"

I could not say Gaiton was particularly good, so passed the question

over, and asked Mr. Brandon when he came to Oxford.

"I got here at mid-day yesterday. How are you getting on?"

"Oh, very well, sir."

"Been in any rows?"

"No, sir."

"And Todhetley? How is he getting on?"

I should have said very well to this; it would never have done to say

very ill, but Tod and Bill Whitney interrupted the answer. They looked

just as much surprised as I had been. After talking a bit, Mr. Brandon

left, saying he should expect us all three at the Mitre in the evening

when dinner in Hall was over.

"What the deuce brings him at Oxford?" cried Tod.

Whitney laughed. "I'll lay a crown he has come to look after Johnny and

his morals."

"After the lot of us," added Tod, pushing his books about. "Look here,

you two. I'm not obliged to go bothering to that Mitre in the evening,

and I shan't. You'll be enough without me."

"It won't do, Tod," I said. "He expects you."

"What if he does? I have an engagement elsewhere."

"Break it."

"I shall not do anything of the kind. There! Hold your tongue, Johnny,

and push the ink this way."

Tod held to that. So when I and Whitney reached the Mitre after dinner,

we said he was unable to get off a previous engagement, putting the

excuse as politely as we could.

"Oh," said old Brandon, twitching his yellow silk handkerchief off his

head, for he had been asleep before the fire. "Engaged elsewhere, is he!

With the lady I saw him driving out yesterday, I suppose: a person with

blue feathers on her head."

This struck us dumb. Bill said nothing, neither did I.

"It was Miss Sophie Chalk, I presume," went on old Brandon, ringing the

bell. "Sit down, boys; we'll have tea up."

The tea and coffee must have been ordered beforehand, for they came

in at once. Mr. Brandon drank four cups of tea, and ate a plate of

bread-and-butter and some watercress.

"Tea is my best meal in the day," he said. "You young fellows

all like coffee best. Don't spare it. What's that by you, William

Whitney?--anchovy toast? Cut that pound-cake, Johnny."

Nobody could say, with all his strict notions, that Mr. Brandon was not

hospitable. He'd have ordered up the Mitre's whole larder had he thought

we could eat it. And never another word did he say about Tod until the

things had gone away.

Then he began, quietly at first: he sitting on one side the fire, I and

Bill on the other. Touching gently on this, alluding to that, our eyes

opened in more senses than one; for we found that he knew all about

Sophie Chalk's sojourn in the town, the attention she received from

the undergraduates, and Tod's infatuation.

"What's Todhetley's object in going there?" he asked.

"Amusement, I think, sir," hazarded Bill.

"Does he gamble there for amusement too?"

Where on earth had old Brandon got hold of all this?

"How much has Todhetley lost already?" he continued. "He is in debt, I

know. Not for the first time from the same cause."

Bill stared. He knew nothing of that old episode in London with the

Clement-Pells. I felt my face flush.

"Tod does not care for playing really, sir. But the cards are there, and

he sees others play and gets drawn in to join."

"Well, what amount has he lost this time, Johnny?"

"I don't know, sir."

"But you know that he is in debt?"

"I--yes, sir. Perhaps he is a little."

"Look here, boys," said old Brandon. "Believing that matters were not

running in a satisfactory groove with some of you, I came down to Oxford

yesterday to look about me a bit--for I don't intend that Johnny Ludlow

shall lapse into bad ways, if I can keep him out of them. Todhetley may

have made up his mind to go to the deuce, but he shall not take Johnny

with him. I hear no good report of Todhetley; he neglects his studies

for the sake of a witch, and is in debt over his head and shoulders."

"Who could have told you that, sir?"

"Never you mind, Johnny Ludlow; I dare say you know it's pretty true.

Now look here--as I said just now. I mean to see what I can do towards

saving Todhetley, for the sake of my good old friend, the Squire, and

for his dead mother's sake; and I appeal to you both to aid me. You can

answer my questions if you will; and you are not children, that you

should make an evasive pretence of ignorance. If I find matters are

too hard for me to cope with, I shall send for the Squire and Sir John

Whitney; their influence may effect what mine cannot. If I can deal with

the affair successfully, and save Todhetley from himself, I'll do so,

and say nothing about it anywhere. You understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well. To begin with, what amount of debt has Todhetley got into?"

It seemed to be a choice of evils: but the least of them was to speak.

Bill honestly said he would tell in a minute if he knew. I knew little

more than he; only that Tod had been saying the night before he wished

he could raise a hundred pounds.

"A hundred pounds!" repeated old Brandon, nodding his head like a

Chinese mandarin. "Pretty well, that, for a first term at Oxford. Well,

we'll leave that for the present, and go to other questions. What snare

and delusion is drawing him on to make visits to this person, this

Sophie Chalk? What does he purpose? Is it marriage?"

Marriage! Bill and I both looked up at him.

"She is married already, sir. Did you not know it?"

"Married already! Who says so?"

So I told him all about it--as much as I knew--and that her husband,

Mr. Everty, had been to Oxford once or twice to see her.

"Well, that's a relief," cried Mr. Brandon, drawing a deep breath, as

though a fear of some kind had been lifted from his mind. And then

he fell into a reverie, his head nodding incessantly, and his yellow

handkerchief in his hand keeping time to it.

"If it's better in one sense, it's worse in another," he squeaked.

"Todhetley's in love with her, I suppose!"

"Something like it, sir," said Bill.

"What brainless fools some of you young men can be!"

But it was then on the stroke of nine, when Old Tom would peal out.

Mr. Brandon hurried us away: he seemed to understand the notions of

University life as well as we did: ordering us to say nothing to Tod,

as he intended to speak to him on the morrow.

And we concluded that he did. Tod came stalking in during the afternoon

in a white rage with somebody, and I thought it might be with old

Brandon.

* * * * *

The time passed. Mr Brandon stayed on at the Mitre as though he meant to

make it his home for good, and was evidently watching. Tod seemed to be

conscious of it, and to exist in a chronic state of irritation. Sophie

Chalk stayed on also, and Tod was there more than ever. The affair had

got wind somehow--I mean Tod's infatuation for her--and was talked of

in the colleges. Richardson fell ill about that time: at least, he met

with an accident which confined him to his bed: and the play at Mrs.

Everty's was not much to speak of: I did not go, Mr. Brandon had

interdicted it. Thus the time went on, and Passion Week was coming in.

"Are you running for a wager, Johnny Ludlow?"

I was running down to the river and had nearly run over Mr. Brandon, who

was strolling along with his hands under his coat-tails. It was Saturday

afternoon, and some of us were going out rowing. Mr. Brandon came down

to see us embark.

As we all stood there, who should loom into sight but Sophie Chalk. She

was leading a little mouse-coloured dog by a piece of red tape, one that

Fred Temple had given her; and her shining hair was a sight to be seen

in the sunlight; Tod walked by her with his arms folded. They halted to

talk with some of us for a minute, and then went on, Madam Sophie giving

old Brandon a saucy stare from her wide-open blue eyes. He had stood as

still as a post, giving never a word to either of them.

That same night, when Tod and I were in our room alone, Mr. Brandon

walked in. It was pretty late, but Tod was about to depart on his visit

to High Street. As if the entrance of Mr. Brandon had been the signal

for him to bolt, he put on his trencher and turned to the door. Quick as

thought, Mr. Brandon interposed himself.

"If you go out of this room, Joseph Todhetley, it shall be over my

body," cried he, a whole hatful of authority in his squeaky voice. "I

have come in to hold a final conversation with you; and I mean to do

it."

I thought an explosion was inevitable, with Tod's temper. He controlled

it, however; and after a moment's hesitation put off his cap. Mr.

Brandon sat down in the old big chair by the fire; Tod stood on the

other side, his arm on the mantelpiece.

In a minute or two, they were going at it kindly. Old Brandon put Tod's

doings before him in the plainest language he could command; Tod

retorted insolently in his passion.

"I have warned you enough against your ways and against that woman,"

said Mr. Brandon. "I am here to do it once again, and to bid you for the

last time give up her acquaintanceship. Yes, sir, _bid_ you: I stand in

the light of your unconscious father."

"I wouldn't do it for my father," cried Tod, in his fury.

"She is leading you into a gulf of--of brimstone," fired old Brandon.

"Day by day you creep down a step lower into it, sir, like a calf that

is being wiled to the shambles. Once fairly in, you'll be smothered: the

whole world won't be able to pull you out again."

Tod answered with a torrent of words. The chief burden of them was--that

if he chose to walk into the brimstone, it was not Mr. Brandon who

should keep him out of it.

"Is it not?" retorted Mr. Brandon--and though he was very firm and hard,

he gave no sign of losing his temper. "We'll see that. I am in this town

to strive to save you, Joseph Todhetley; and if I can't do it by easy

means, I'll do it by hard ones. I got you out of one scrape, thanks to

Johnny here, and now I'm going to get you out of another."

Tod held his peace. That past obligation was often on his conscience.

"You ought to take shame to yourself, sir," continued old Brandon. "You

were placed at Oxford to study, to learn to be a man and a gentleman,

to prepare yourself to fight well the battle of life, not to waste the

talents God has given you, and fritter away your best days in sin."

"In sin?" retorted Tod, jerking his head fiercely.

"Yes, sir, in sin. What else do you call it--this idleness that you are

indulging in? The short space of time that young men spend at the

University must be used, not abused. Once it has passed, it can never

again be laid hold of. What sort of example are you setting my ward

here, who is as your younger brother? Stay where you are, Johnny Ludlow.

I choose that you shall be present at this."

"Johnny need not fret himself that he'll catch much harm from my

iniquities," said Tod with a sneer.

"Now listen to me, young man," spoke Mr. Brandon. "If you persist in

this insane conduct and refuse to hear reason, I'll keep you out of

danger by putting you in prison."

Tod stared.

"You owe me a hundred pounds."

"I am quite conscious of that, sir: and of my inability hitherto to

repay it."

"For that debt I will shut you up in prison. Headstrong young idiots

like you must be saved from themselves."

Tod laughed slightly in his insolence. A defiant, mocking laugh.

"I should like to see you try to shut me up in prison! You have no power

to do it, Mr. Brandon: you have never proved the debt."

Mr. Brandon rose, and took a step towards him. "You dare to tell _me_ I

cannot do a thing that I say I will do, Joseph Todhetley! I shall make

an affidavit before a judge in chambers that you are about to leave the

country, and obtain the warrant that will lock you up. And I say to you

that I believe you are going to leave it, sooner or later; and that

Chalk woman with you!"

"What an awful lie," cried Tod, his face all ablaze.

"Lie or no lie, I believe it. I believe it is what she will bring you

to, unless you are speedily separated from her. And if there be no other

way of saving you, why, I'll save you by force."

Tod ran his hands through his damp hair: what with wrath and emotion he

was in a fine heat. Knowing nothing of the law himself, he supposed old

Brandon could do as he said, and it sobered him.

"I am your father's friend, Joseph Todhetley, and I'll take care of you

for his sake if I can. I have stayed on here, putting myself, as it

were, into his place to save him pain. As his substitute, I have a right

to be heard; ay, and to act. Do you know that your dead mother was very

dear to me? I will tell you what perhaps I never should have told you

but for this crisis in your life, that her sister was to me the dearest

friend a man can have in this life; she would have been my wife but that

death claimed her. Your mother was nearly equally dear, and loved me to

the last. She took my hand in dying, and spoke of you; of you, her only

child. 'Should it ever be in your power to shield him from harm or

evil, do so, John,' she said, 'do it for my sake.' And with Heaven's

help, I will do it now."

Tod was moved. The mention of his mother softened him at all times. Mr.

Brandon sat down again.

"Don't let us play at this pitched battle, Joe. Hear a bit of truth from

me, of common sense: can't you see that I have your interest at heart?

There are two roads that lie before a young man on his setting out in

life, either of which he can take: you can take either, even yet. The

one leads to honour, to prosperity, to a clear conscience, to a useful

career, to a hale and happy old age--and, let us hope, to heaven. The

other leads to vice, to discomfort, to miserable self-torment, to a

waste of talent and energies; in short, to altogether a lost life. Lost,

at any rate, for this world: and--we'll not speculate upon what it may

be in the other. Are you attending?"

Tod just lifted his eyes in answer. I sat at the table by my books,

silently turning some of their leaves, ready to drop through the floor

with annoyance. Mr. Brandon resumed.

"You have come to the Oxford University to perfect your education; to

acquire self-reliance, experience, and a tone of good manners; to keep

upright ways, to eschew bad company, and to train yourself to be a

Christian gentleman. Do this, and you will go home with satisfaction and

a sound conscience. In time you will marry, and rear your children to

good, and be respected of all men. This is the career expected of you;

this is the road you ought to take."

He paused slightly, and then went on.

"I will put the other road before you; the one you seem so eager to rush

upon. Ah, boy! how many a one, with as hopeful a future before him as

you have, has gone sliding, sliding down unconsciously, never meaning,

poor fellow, to slide too far, and been lost in the vortex of sin and

shame! You are starting on well for it. Wine, and cards, and betting,

and debt; and a singing mermaid to lure you on! That woman, with the

hard light eyes, and the seductive airs, has cast her spell upon you.

You think her an angel, no doubt; I say she's more of an angel's

opposite----"

"Mr. Brandon!"

"There are women in the world who will conjure a man's coat off his

back, and his pockets after it," persisted Mr. Brandon, drowning the

interruption. "She is one of them. They are bad to the core. They are;

and they draw a man into all kinds of irretrievable entanglements. She

will draw you: and the end may be that you'd find her saddled on you for

good. Who will care to take your hand in friendship then? Will you dare

to clasp that of honest people, or hold up your face in the light of

day? No: not for very shame. That's what gambling and evil courses will

bring a man to: and, his self-respect once gone, it's gone for ever.

You will feel that you have raised a barrier between you and your kind:

remembrance will be a sting, and your days will be spent in one long cry

of too late repentance, 'Oh, that I had been wise in time!'"

"You are altogether mistaken in her," burst out Tod. "There's no harm in

her. She is as particular as--as any lady need be."

"No harm in her!" retorted Mr. Brandon. "Is there any good in her? Put

it at its best: she induces you to waste your time and your substance.

How much money has the card-playing and the present-giving taken out of

you, pray? What amount of debt has it involved you in? More than you

know how to pay."

Tod winced.

"Be wise in time, lad, now, without further delay, and break off this

dangerous connection. I know that in your better moments you must see

how fatal it may become. It is a crisis in your life; it may be its

turning-point; and, as you choose the evil or the good, so may you be

lost or saved in this world and in eternity."

Tod muttered something about his not deserving to be judged so harshly.

"I judge you not harshly yet: I say that evil will come unless you flee

from it," said Mr. Brandon. "Don't you care for yourself?--for your good

name? Is it nothing to you whether you turn out a scamp or a gentleman?"

To look at Tod just then, it was a great deal.

"Have you any reverence for your father?--for the memory of your mother?

Then you will do a little violence to your own inclinations, even though

it be hard and difficult--more difficult than to get a double first;

harder than having the best tooth in your head drawn--and take your

leave of that lady for ever. For your own sake, Joe; for your own sake!"

Tod was pulling gently at his whiskers.

"Send all folly to the wind, Joseph Todhetley! Say to yourself, for

God and myself will I strive henceforth! It only needs a little steady

resolution; and you can call it up if you choose. You shall always find

a friend in me. Write down on a bit of paper the sums you owe, and I'll

give you a cheque to cover them. Come, shake hands upon it."

"You are very kind, sir," gasped Tod, letting his hand meet old

Brandon's.

"I hope you will let me be kind. Why, lad, you should have had more

spirit than to renew an acquaintanceship with a false girl; an

adventurer, who has gone about the country stealing jewels."

"Stealing jewels!" echoed Tod.

"Stealing jewels, lad. Did you never know it? She took Miss Deveen's

emeralds at Whitney Hall."

"Oh, that was a mistake," said Tod, cheerfully. "She explained it to

me."

"A mistake, was it! Explained it to you, did she! When?"

"At Oxford: before she had been here above a day or two. She introduced

the subject herself, sir, saying she supposed I had heard something

about it, and what an absurd piece of business the suspecting her was;

altogether a mistake."

"Ah, she's a wily one, Joe," said Mr. Brandon. "Johnny Ludlow could have

told you whether it was a mistake or not. Why, boy, she stole the stones

out of Miss Deveen's own dressing-room, and went up to London the

next day, or the next but one, and pledged them the same night at a

pawnbroker's, in a false name, and gave a false account of herself.

Moreover, when it was brought home to her, she confessed all upon her

knees to Miss Deveen, and sued for mercy."

Tod looked from Mr. Brandon to me. At the time of the discovery, he

had had a hint given him of the fact, with a view of more effectually

weaning him from Sophie Chalk, but not the particulars.

"It's true, Todhetley," said Mr. Brandon, nodding his head. "You may

judge, therefore, whether she is a nice kind of person for you to be

seen beauing about Oxford streets in the face and eyes of the dons." And

Tod winced again, and bit his lips.

Mr. Brandon rose, taking both Tod's hands in his, and said a few solemn

words in the kindest tone I had ever heard him speak; wrung his hands,

nodded good-night to me, and was gone. Tod walked about the room a bit,

whistling softly to make a show of indifference, and looking miserably

cut up.

"Is what he said true?" he asked me presently, stopping by the

mantelpiece again: "about the emeralds?"

"Every word of it."

"Then why on earth could you not open your mouth and tell me, Johnny

Ludlow?"

"I thought you knew it. I'm sure you were told of it at the time. Had I

brought up the matter again later, you'd have been fit to punch me into

next week, Tod."

"Let's hear the details--shortly."

I went over them all; shortly, as he said; but omitting none. Tod stood

in silence, never once interrupting.

"Did the Whitneys know of this?"

"Anna did."

"Anna!"

"Yes. Anna had suspected Sophie from the first. She saw her steal out

of Miss Deveen's room, and saw her sewing something into her stays at

bed-time. But Anna kept it to herself until discovery had come."

Tod could frown pretty well on ordinary occasions, but I never saw

a frown like the one on his brow as he listened. And I thought--I

thought--it was meant for Sophie Chalk.

"Lady Whitney, I expect, knows it all now, Tod. Perhaps Helen also.

Old Brandon went over to the Hall to spend the day, and it was in

consequence of what he heard from Lady Whitney and Miss Deveen that he

came down here to look us up."

"Meaning _me_," said Tod. "Not us. Use right words, Johnny."

"They did not know, you see, that Sophie Chalk was married. And they

must have noticed that you cared for her."

Tod made no comment. He just leaned against the shelf in silence. I was

stacking my books.

"Good-night, Johnny," he quietly said, without any appearance of

resentment; and went into his room.

The next day was Palm Sunday. Tod lay in bed with a splitting headache,

could not lift his head from the pillow, and his skin was as sallow as

an old gander's. "Glad to hear it," said Mr. Brandon, when I told him;

"it will give him a quiet day for reflection."

A surprise awaited me that morning, and Mr. Brandon also. Miss Deveen

was at Oxford, with Helen and Anna Whitney. They had arrived the evening

before, and meant to stay and go up with Bill and with us. I did not

tell Tod: in fact, he seemed too ill to be spoken to, his head covered

with the bedclothes.

You can't see many a finer sight than the Broad Walk presents on the

evening of Palm Sunday. Every one promenades there, from the dean

downwards. Our party went together: Miss Deveen, Helen, and Anna; Bill,

I, and Mr. Brandon.

We were in the middle of the walk; and it was at its fullest, when Tod

came up. He was better, but looked worn and ill. A flush of surprise

came into his face when he saw who we had with us, and he shook hands

with the ladies nearly in silence.

"Oxford has not mended your looks, Mr. Todhetley," said Miss Deveen.

"I have one of my bad headaches to-day," he answered. "I get them now

and then."

The group of us were turning to walk on, when in that moment there

approached Sophie Chalk. Sophie in a glistening blue silk, and flowers,

and jingling ornaments, and kid gloves. She was coming up to us as bold

as brass with her fascinating smile, when she saw Miss Deveen, and

stopped short. Miss Deveen passed on without notice of any kind; Helen

really did not see her; Anna, always gentle and kind, slightly bowed.

Even then Madam Sophie's native impudence came to her aid. She saw they

meant to shun her, and she nodded and smiled at Tod, and made as though

she would stop him for a chat. He took off his cap to her, and went on.

Anna's delicate face had flushed, and his own was white enough for its

coffin.

Miss Deveen held Tod's hand in parting. "I am so glad to have met you

again," she cordially said; "we are all glad. We shall see you often, I

hope, until we go up together. And all you young people are coming to

me for a few days in the Easter holidays. Friends cannot afford too long

absences from one another in this short life. Good-bye; and mind you get

rid of your headache for to-morrow. There; shake hands with Helen and

Anna."

He did as he was bid. Helen was gay as usual; Anna rather shy. Her

pretty blue eyes glanced up at Tod's, and he smiled for the first time

that day. Sophie Chalk might have fascinated three parts of his heart

away, but there was a corner in it remaining for Anna Whitney.

I did not do it intentionally. Going into our room the next day, a sheet

of paper with some writing on it lay on the table, the ink still wet.

Supposing it was some message just left for me by Tod, I went up to read

it, and caught the full sense of the lines.

"DEAR MRS. EVERTY,

"I have just received your note. I am sorry that I cannot drive you

out to-day--and fear that I shall not be able to do so at all. Our

friends, who are staying here, have to receive the best part of my

leisure time.

"Faithfully yours,

"J. TODHETLEY."

And I knew by the contents of the note, by its very wording even, that

the crisis was past, and Tod saved.

"Thank you, Johnny! Perhaps you'll read your own letters another time.

That's mine."

He had come out of his room with the envelopes and sealing-wax.

"I beg your pardon, Tod. I thought it was a message you had left for me,

seeing it lie open."

"You've read it, I suppose?"

"Yes, or just as good. My eyes seemed to take it all in at once; and I

am as glad as though I had had a purse of gold given to me."

"Well, it's no use trying to fight against a stream," said he, as he

folded the note. "And if I had known the truth about the emeralds,

why--there'd have been no bother at all."

"Putting the emeralds out of the question, she is not a nice person to

know, Tod. And there's no telling what might have come of it."

"I suppose not. When the two paths, down-hill and up-hill, cross each

other, as Brandon put it, and the one is pleasant and the other is not,

one has to do a bit of battle with one's self in choosing the right."

And something in his face told me that in the intervening day and

nights, he had battled with himself as few can battle; fought

strenuously with the evil, striven hard for the good, and come out a

conqueror.

"It has cost you pain."

"Somewhat, Johnny. There are few good things in the way of duty but what

do cost man pain--as it seems to me. The world and a safe conscience

will give us back our recompense."

"And heaven too, Tod."

"Ay, lad; and heaven."