When Harcourt was aroused from his sound sleep by Upton, and requested
in the very blandest tones of that eminent diplomatist to lend him every
attention of his “very remarkable faculties,” he was not by any
means certain that he was not engaged in a strange dream; nor was the
suspicion at all dispelled by the revelations addressed to him.
“Just dip the end of that towel in the water, Upton, and give it to me,”
cried he at last; and then, wiping his face and forehead, said, “Have I
heard you aright,--there was no marriage?”
Upton nodded assent.
“What a shameful way he has treated this poor boy, then!” cried the
other. “I never heard of anything equal to it in cruelty, and I conclude
it was breaking this news to the lad that drove him out to sea on that
night, and brought on this brain fever. By Jove, I 'd not take _his_
title, and _your_ brains, to have such a sin on my conscience!”
“We are happily not called on to judge the act,” said Upton, cautiously.
“And why not? Is it not every honest man's duty to reprobate whatever
he detects dishonorable or disgraceful? I do judge him, and sentence him
too, and I say, moreover, that a more cold-blooded piece of cruelty
I never heard of. He trains up this poor boy from childhood to fancy
himself the heir to his station and fortune; he nurses in him all the
pride that only a high rank can cover; and then, when the lad's years
have brought him to the period when these things assume all their value,
he sends for him to tell him he is a bastard.”
“It is not impossible that I think worse of Glencore's conduct than you
do yourself,” said Upton, gravely.
“But you never told him so, I'll be sworn,--you never said to him it
was a rascally action. I'll lay a hundred pounds on it, you only
expostulated on the inexpediency, or the inconvenience, or some such
trumpery consideration, and did not tell him, in round numbers, that
what he had done was an infamy.”
“Then I fancy you'd lose your money, pretty much as you are losing your
temper,--that is, without getting anything in requital.”
“What did you say to him, then?” said Harcourt, slightly abashed.
“A great deal in the same strain as you have just spoken in, doubtless
not as warm in vituperation, but possibly as likely to produce an
effect; nor is it in the least necessary to dwell upon that. What
Glencore has done, and what I have said about it, both belong to the
past. They are over,--they are irrevocable. It is to what concerns the
present and the future I wish now to address myself, and to interest
you.”
“Why, the boy's name was in the Peerage,--I read it there myself.”
“My dear Harcourt, you must have paid very little attention to me a
while ago, or you would have understood how that occurred.”
“And here were all the people, the tenantry on the estate, calling
him the young lord, and the poor fellow growing up with the proud
consciousness that the title was his due.”
“There is not a hardship of the case I have not pictured to my own mind
as forcibly as you can describe it,” said Upton; “but I really do not
perceive that any reprobation of the past has in the slightest assisted
me in providing for the future.”
“And then,” murmured Harcourt,--for all the while he was pursuing his
own train of thought, quite irrespective of all Upton was saying,--“and
then he turns him adrift on the world without friend or fortune.”
“It is precisely that he may have both the one and the other that I
have come to confer with you now,” replied Upton. “Glencore has made a
liberal provision for the boy, and asked me to become his guardian. I
have no fancy for the trust, but I did n't see how I could decline
it. In this letter he assigns to him an income, which shall be legally
secured to him. He commits to me the task of directing his education,
and suggesting some future career, and for both these objects I want
your counsel.”
“Education,--prospects,--why, what are you talking about? A poor fellow
who has not a name, nor a home, nor one to acknowledge him,--what need
has he of education, or what chance of prospects? I'd send him to sea,
and if he wasn't drowned before he came to manhood, I'd give him his
fortune, whatever it was, and say, 'Go settle in some of the colonies.'
You have no right to train him up to meet fresh mortifications and
insults in life; to be flouted by every fellow that has a father, and
outraged by every cur whose mother was married.”
“And are the colonies especially inhabited by illegitimate offspring?”
said Upton, dryly.
“At least he'd not be met with a rebuff at every step he made. The rude
life of toil would be better than the polish of a civilization that
could only reflect upon him.”
“Not badly said, Harcourt,” said Upton, smiling; “but as to the boy, I
have other prospects. He has, if I mistake not, very good faculties. You
estimate them even higher. I don't see why they should be neglected.
If he merely possess the mediocrity of gifts which make men tolerable
lawyers and safe doctors, why, perhaps, he may turn them into some
channel. If he really can lay claim to higher qualities, they must not
be thrown away.”
“Which means that he ought to be bred up to diplomacy,” said Harcourt.
“Perhaps,” said the other, with a bland inclination of the head.
“And what can an old dragoon like myself contribute to such an object?”
asked Harcourt.
“You can be of infinite service in many ways,” said Upton; “and for the
present I wish to leave the boy in your care, till I can learn something
about my own destiny. This, of course, I shall know in a few days.
Meanwhile you 'll look after him, and as soon as his removal becomes
safe you 'll take him away from this,--it does not much matter whither;
probably some healthy, secluded spot in Wales, for a week or two, would
be advisable. Glencore and he must not meet again; if ever they are to
do so, it must be after a considerable lapse of time.”
“Have you thought of a name for him, or is his to be still Massy?” asked
Harcourt, bluntly.
“He may take the maternal name of Glencore's family, and be called
Doyle, and the settlements could be drawn up in that name.”
“I'll be shot if I like to have any share in the whole transaction! Some
day or other it will all come out, and who knows how much blame may be
imputed to us, perhaps for actually advising the entire scheme,” said
Harcourt.
“You must see, my dear Harcourt, that you are only refusing aid to
alleviate an evil, and not to devise one. If this boy--”
“Well--well--I give in. I'd rather comply at once than be preached into
acquiescence. Even when you do not convince me, I feel ashamed to oppose
myself to so much cleverness; so, I repeat, I 'm at your orders.”
“Admirably spoken,” said Upton, with a smile.
“My greatest difficulty of all,” said Harcourt, “will be to meet
Glencore again after this. I know--I feel--I never can forgive him.”
“Perhaps he will not ask forgiveness, Harcourt,” said the other, with
one of his slyest of looks. “Glencore is a strange, self-opinionated
fellow, and has amongst other odd notions that of going the road he
likes best himself. Besides, there is another consideration here, and
with no man will it weigh more than with yourself. Glencore has been
dangerously ill,--at this moment we can scarcely say that he has
recovered; his state is yet one of anxiety and doubt. You are the last
who would forget such infirmity; nor is it necessary to secure your pity
that I should say how seriously the poor fellow is now suffering.”
“I trust he'll not speak to me about this business,” said Harcourt,
after a pause.
“Very probably he will not. He will know that I have already told you
everything, so that there will be no need of any communication from
him.”
“I wish from my heart and soul I had never come here. I would to Heaven
I had gone away at once, as I first intended. I like that boy; I feel he
has fine stuff in him; and now--”
“Come, come, Harcourt, it's the fault of all soft-hearted fellows, like
yourself, that their kindliness degenerates into selfishness, and they
have such a regard for their own feelings that they never agree to
anything that wounds them. Just remember that you and I have very small
parts in this drama, and the best way we can do is to fill them without
giving ourselves the airs of chief characters.”
“You're at your old game, Upton; you are always ready to wet yourself,
provided you give another fellow a ducking.”
“Only if he get a worse one, or take longer to dry after it,” remarked
Upton, laughing.
“Quite true, by Jove!” chimed in the other; “you take special care
to come off best. And now you 're going,” added he, as Upton rose to
withdraw, “and I'm certain that I have not half comprehended what you
want from me.”
“You shall have it in writing, Harcourt; I'll send you a clear despatch
the first spare moment I can command after I reach town. The boy will
not be fit to move for some time to come, and so good-bye.”
“You don't know where they are going to send you?”
“I cannot frame even a conjecture,” sighed Upton, languidly. “I ought to
be in the Brazils for a week or so about that slave question; and then
the sooner I reach Constantinople the better.”
“Sha' n't they want you at Paris?” asked Harcourt, who felt a kind of
quiet vengeance in developing what he deemed the weak vanity of the
other.
“Yes,” sighed he again; “but I can't be everywhere.” And so saying, he
lounged away, while it would have taken a far more subtle listener than
Harcourt to say whether he was mystifying the other, or the dupe of his
own self-esteem.