One man has one way of talking, and another man has another,
that's all the difference between them.
GOOD-NATURED MAN.
Winthrop found he could go. So according to his promise he
dressed himself, and was looking out a pockethandkerchief from
the small store in his trunk, when the door opened.
"Rufus! --"
"Ah! -- you didn't expect to see me, did you?" said that
gentleman, taking off his hat and coming in and closing the
door with a face of great life and glee. -- "Here I am,
Governor!"
"What brought you here?" said his brother shaking his hand.
"What brought me here? -- why, the stage-coach, to be sure;
except five miles, that I rode on horseback. What should bring
me?"
"Something of the nature of a centrifugal force, I should
judge."
"Centrifugal! -- _You_ are my centre, Governor, -- don't you know
that? I tend to you as naturally as the poor earth does to the
sun. That's why I am here -- I couldn't keep at a distance any
longer."
"My dear sir, at that rate you are running to destruction."
"No, no," said Rufus laughing, -- "there's a certain degree of
license in our moral planetary system -- I'm going away again
as soon as I am rightly refreshed with the communication of
your light and warmth."
"Well," said Winthrop untying his neckcloth, "it would seem
but courtesy in the sun to stand still to receive his visitor
-- I'm very glad to see you, Will."
"What's the matter?"
"The sun was going out to dinner -- that's all, -- but you are a
sufficient excuse for me."
"Going to dinner? -- where?"
"No. 11, on the Parade."
"No. 11? -- Mr. Haye's? were you? I'll go too. I won't hinder
you."
"I am not sorry to be hindered," said Winthrop.
"But I am! -- at least, I should be. We'll both go. How soon,
Governor?"
"Presently."
"I'll be ready," said Rufus, -- "here's my valise -- but my
shirt ruffles, I fear, are in a state of impoverished
elegance. -- I speak not in respect of one or two holes, of
which they are the worse, -- but solely in reference to the
coercive power of narrow circumstances -- which nobody knows
anything of that hasn't experienced it," said Rufus, looking
up from his valise to his brother with an expression half
earnest, half comical.
"You are not suffering under it at this moment," said
Winthrop.
"Yes I am -- in the form of my frills. Look there! -- I'll tell
you what I'll do -- I'll invoke the charities of my good
friend, Mrs. Nettley. Is she down stairs? -- I'll be back in a
moment, Winthrop."
Down stairs, shirt in hand, went Rufus, and tapped at Mrs.
Nettley's door. That is, the door of the room where she
usually lived, a sort of better class kitchen, which held the
place of what in houses of more pretension is called the 'back
parlour.' Mrs. Nettley's own hand opened the door at his tap.
She was a strong contrast to her brother, with her rather
small person and a face all the lines of which were like a
cobweb set to catch every care that was flying; but woven by
no malevolent spider; it was a very nest of kindliness and
good-will.
"How d'ye do, Mrs. Nettley," said Rufus softly.
"Why, Mr. Landholm! -- are you there? Come in -- how good it is
to see you again! but I didn't expect it."
"Didn't expect to see me again?"
"No -- O yes, of course, Mr. William," said Mrs. Nettley
laughing, -- "I expected to see you again; but not now -- I
didn't expect to see you when I opened the door."
"I had the advantage, for I did expect to see you."
"How do you do, Mr. Landholm?"
"Why, as well as a man can do, in want of a shirt," said Rufus
comically.
"Mr. Landholm? --"
"You see, Mrs. Nettley," Rufus went on, "I have come all the
way from North Lyttleton to dine with a friend and my brother
here; and now I am come, I find that without your good offices
I haven't a ruffle to ruffle myself withal; or in other words,
I am afraid people would think I had packed myself bodily into
my valise, and thereby conclude I was a smaller affair than
they had thought me."
"Mr. Landholm! -- how you do talk! --but can I do anything?"
"Why yes, ma'am, -- or your irons can, if you have any hot."
"O that's it!" exclaimed Mrs. Nettley as Rufus held out the
crumpled frills, -- "It's to smooth them, -- yes sir, my fire is
all out a'most, but I can iron them in the oven. I'll do it
directly, Mr. Landholm."
"Well," said Rufus with a quizzical face, -- "any way -- if
you'll ensure them against damages, Mrs. Nettley -- I don't
understand all the possibilities of an oven."
"We are very glad to have your brother in your room, Mr.
Landholm," the good lady went on, as she placed one of her
irons in the oven's mouth, where a brilliant fire was at work.
"I should think you would, ma'am; he can fill it much better
than I."
"Why Mr. Landholm! -- I should think -- I shouldn't think, to
look at you, that your brother would weigh much more than you
-- he's broader shouldered, something, but you're the tallest,
I'm sure. But you didn't mean that."
"I won't dispute the palm of beauty with him, Mrs. Nettley,
nor of ponderosity. I am willing he should exceed me in both."
"Why Mr. Landholm! -- dear, I wish this iron would get hot; but
there's no hurrying it; -- I think it's the wood -- I told
George I think this wood does _not_ give out the heat it ought
to do. It makes it very extravagant wood. One has to burn so
much more, and _then_ it doesn't do the work -- Why Mr. Landholm
-- you must have patience, sir -- Your brother is excellent,
every way, and he's very good looking, but you are the
handsomest."
"Everybody don't think so," Rufus said, but with a play of lip
and brow that was not on the whole unsatisfied. Mrs. Nettley's
attention however was now fastened upon the frills. And then
came in Mr. Inchbald; and they talked, a sort of whirlwind of
talk, as his sister not unaptly described it; and then, the
ruffles being in order Rufus put himself so, and Winthrop and
he talked themselves all the way down to No. 11, on the
Parade.
Their welcome was most hearty, though the company were already
at table. Place was speedily made for them; and Rufus hardly
waited to take his before he became the life and spirit of the
party. He continued to be that through the whole
entertainment, delighting everybody's eye and ear. Winthrop
laughed at his brother and with him, but himself played a very
quiet part; putting in now and then a word that told, but
doing it rarely and carelessly; the flow and freshness of the
conversation calling for no particular help from him.
Mr. Herder was there; also Mr. Satterthwaite, who sat next to
Winthrop and addressed several confidential and very
unimportant remarks to him, and seemed to look upon his
brother as a sort of meteoric phenomenon. President Darcy, of
Mr. Herder's College, was the only other guest. Elizabeth sat
next to Winthrop, but after the first formal greeting
vouchsafed not a single look his way; she was in a dignified
mood for all the company generally, and Rose's were the only
feminine words that mixed with the talk during dinner. Very
feminine they were, if that word implies a want of strength;
but coming from such rosy lips, set round about with such
smiles of winningness, they won their way and made easy
entrance into all the ears at table. With the trifling
exception of a pair or two.
"What is the matter with you?" said Rose, when she and her
cousin had left the gentlemen and were alone in the drawing-
room.
"Nothing at all."
"You don't say a word."
"I will, when I have a word to say."
"I thought you always had words enough," said Rose.
"Not when I haven't time too."
"Time? what, for words?"
"Yes."
"What was the matter with the time?"
"It was filled up."
"Well, you might have helped fill it."
"Nothing can be more than full, very well," said Elizabeth
contemptuously. "I never want _my_ words to be lost on the
outside of a conversation."
"You think a great deal of your words," said her cousin.
"I want other people should."
"You do! Well -- I never expect them to think much of mine."
"That's not true, Rose."
"It isn't?"
"No; and your smile when you said it spoke that it wasn't."
"Well, I don't care, they _are_ thought enough of," said Rose,
half crying.
Elizabeth walked to the window and stood within the curtain,
looking out into the street; and Rose bestowed her pouting
lips and brimful eyes upon the full view of the fire.
"What's made you so cross?" she said after a quarter of an
hour, when the tears were dried.
"I am not cross."
"Did you ever see anybody so amusing as Rufus Landholm?"
"Yes, he's amusing. -- I don't like people that are too
amusing."
"How can anybody be _too_ amusing?"
"He can make it too much of his business."
"Who? -- Rufus?"
"No, anybody. You asked how _anybody_ could."
"Well I dont see how you can think he is too amusing."
"Why, that is all you care for in a man."
"It isn't! I care for a great deal else. What do _you_ care
for?"
"I don't know, I am sure," said Elizabeth; "but I should say,
everything else."
"Well, I think people are very stupid that aren't amusing,"
said Rose.
Which proposition the ladies illustrated for another quarter
of an hour.
The gentlemen came in then, one after another, but Elizabeth
did not move from her window.
"I have something of yours in my possession, Miss Haye," said
Rufus, coming to the outside of the curtain within which she
stood.
"What?" said Elizabeth unceremoniously.
"Your father."
"What are you going to do with him?"
Rufus laughed a little; and Winthrop remarked there was
nothing like straightforward dealing to confound a manoeuvrer.
"I have a desire to put him out of my hands, into yours," said
Rufus; -- "but then, I have also a desire to make him fast
there."
"My bracelet!" said Elizabeth.
It had a likeness of Mr. Haye in cameo.
"Where did you get it?"
"Where you left it."
"Where was that?"
"On the table, at the left hand of your plate, covered by your
napkin."
Elizabeth stretched out her hand for it.
"Not so fast -- I have it in my possession, as I told you, and
I claim a reward for recovering it from its ignoble
condition."
"I shall set my own conditions then," said Elizabeth. "I will
let anybody put it on, who will do me the pleasure to explain
it first."
"Explain?" said Rufus, looking in a sort of comical doubt at
the cameo; -- "I see the features of Mr. Haye, which never need
explanation to me."
"Not in nature; but do you understand them when they look so
brown on a white ground?"
"They look very natural!" said Rufus eyeing the cameo.
"That is to say, you do not understand them?"
"Pardon me, _you_ are the person most difficult to understand."
"I don't ask that of you," said Elizabeth. "I want to know
about this cameo, for I confess I don't."
"And I confess I don't," said Rufus. "I didn't even know it
had any other name but Mr. Haye."
"What's all this?" said Rose, -- "what are you talking about
here?"
"We are talking about, we don't know what," said Rufus.
"What is it?"
"That's the question; -- nobody knows."
"_What_ is the question?"
"Who shall put on Miss Elizabeth's bracelet."
"Give it to me -- I'll do it."
"Pardon me -- there is said to be reason in the roasting of
eggs, and there must be a good deal of reason before this
bracelet goes on."
"I want somebody to tell me about the cameo," said Elizabeth.
"Well, won't somebody do it?"
"Mr. Landholm can't -- I haven't asked Mr. Winthrop."
"Will you?" said Rose turning to him.
"I wasn't asked," said Winthrop.
"But I asked you."
"Do you wish to know, Miss Cadwallader?"
"No I don't. What's the use of knowing about everything? Do
leave the cameos, and come over here and sit down and talk and
be comfortable!"
"It's impossible for me to be comfortable," said Rufus. "I've
got Mr. Haye on my hands and I don't know what to do with
him."
"Mr. Herder!" -- Rose called out to him, -- "do come here and
tell us about cameos, that we can sit down and be
comfortable."
Very good-humouredly the naturalist left Mr. Haye and came to
them, and presently was deep in quartz and silica, and onyx
and chalcedony, and all manner of stones that are precious. He
told all that Elizabeth wanted to know, and much more than she
had dreamed of knowing. Even Rose listened; and Rufus was
eagerly attentive; and Elizabeth after she had asked questions
as far as her knowledge allowed her to push them, sighed and
wished she knew everything.
"Then you would be more wise than anybody, Miss Elisabet' --
you would be too wise. The man who knows the most, knows that
he knows little."
"Is that your opinion of yourself, Mr. Herder?" said Rufus.
"Certainly. I do know very little; -- I will know more, I
hope."
"O Mr. Herder, you know enough," said Rose. "I shouldn't think
you would want to study any more."
"If I was to say, I know enough, -- that would be to say that I
do not know nozing at all."
"Mr. Winthrop, you don't seem as interested as the rest of
us," said Elizabeth, perhaps with a little curiosity; for he
had stood quietly by, letting even Mr. Satterthwaite push
himself in between.
"O he," said the naturalist, -- "he knows it all before."
"Then why didn't you tell me!" said Elizabeth.
"I wasn't asked," said Winthrop smiling.
"Wint'rop comes to my room the nights," Mr. Herder went on, --
"and he knows pretty well all what is in it, by this time.
When he is tired himself wiz work at his books and his
writings, he comes and gets rested wiz my stones and my
preparations. If you will come there, Miss Elisabet', I will
shew you crystals of quartz, and onyx, and all the kinds of
chalcedony, and ozer things."
"And I too, Mr. Herder?" said Rose.
"Wiz pleasure, Miss Rose, -- if you like."
"Mr. Herder," said the young lady, "don't you love everything
very much?"
"I love you very much, Miss Rose," said the naturalist,
turning his good-humoured handsome face full upon her, -- "I do
not know about everyzing."
"No, but I mean all animals and insects, and everything that
lives?"
"I do not love everyzing that lives," said the naturalist
smiling. "I do not love Mr. Heinfelt."
"Who is Mr. Heinfelt?" said Rose.
"He is a man what I do not love."
"No, but Mr. Herder, I mean, don't you love other things very
much -- animals, and such things? You have so much to do with
them."
"No -- I have no love to spare for animals," he said with a
grave face.
"Don't you love birds and animals, that you are always after
and busy with?"
"No," said the naturalist, -- "I do not love them -- I love what
is _back_ of all that -- not the animals. I keep my love for
men."
"Do you think you have any more in that direction, for keeping
it from the others?" said Elizabeth.
"I do not understand --"
"Do you think you love men any better because you don't give
animals any love at all?"
"I do love some animals," said Mr. Herder. "I had a horse
once, when I lived in Germany, that I did love. I loved him so
well, that when a man did insult my horse, I made him fight
me."
Rose exclaimed; Elizabeth smiled significantly; and Winthrop
remarked,
"So that's the way your love for men shews itself!"
"No," said the naturalist, -- "no, -- I never did ask a man to
meet me more than that one time. And I did not hurt him much.
I only want to punish him a little."
"Why, Mr. Herder!" Rose repeated. "I didn't think you would do
such a thing."
"Everybody fight in Germany," said the naturalist; "they all
fight at the Universités -- they _must_ fight. I found the only
way was to make myself so good swordsman that I should be
safe."
"And have you fought many duels?" said Elizabeth.
"Yes -- I have fought -- I have been obliged by circumstances to
fight a good many. -- I have seen two hundred."
"Two hundred duels, Mr. Herder!"
"Yes. -- I have seen four men killed."
"Were _you_ ever hurt, Mr. Herder?" said Rose.
"No -- I never was wounded. I saw how it was -- that the only
thing to do was to excel ozers; so as in ozer things, I did in
this."
"But how came you, who love men so well, to have so much to do
with hurting them, Mr. Herder?"
"You cannot help it, Miss Elisabet'," said the naturalist.
"They fight for _nozing_ -- they fight for _nozing_. I never asked
one, but I have been oblige to fight a good many. The students
make themselves into clubs; and the way is, when two students
of different clubs, get in a quarrel, their presidents must
fight it out; -- so they meet people in duels that they have
never spoken to, nor seen. I will give you an instance. -- One
of these fellows -- a great fighter -- he had fought perhaps
forty times, -- he was bragging about it; 'he had fought such
one and such one,' he said; -- 'perhaps he ought to have fought
Herder, in order to say that he was the best man with the
sword of all the German students, -- perhaps he ought to have
met Herder, but he didn't care about it!' And a young fellow
that heard him, that was by, he took it up; 'Sir,' said he,
'Herder is my friend -- you must fight him -- come to my room
to-morrow morning at seven o'clock -- he will meet you;' --
'very well,' they agree upon the matter togezer. The next
morning he come bouncing into my room at a quarter after seven
-- 'Herder! Herder! come on! -- Lessing is waiting to fight you
in my room.' -- 'What is the matter?' -- 'O, Lessing said so and
so, and I told him you would fight him at seven, and it is a
quarter past' -- 'Well, you tell him I didn't know of this, I
am not keeping him waiting; I will come directly.' -- I was not
up. So I got myself dressed, and in ten minutes I was there. A
duel is finished when they have given twelve blows" --
"Twelve on each side, Mr. Herder?"
"Yes -- when they have both of them given twelve blows apiece.
Before we begun, Lessing and me, I whispered to somebody who
stood there, that I would not touch him unless he touched me;
and then I would give it to him in the ribs. I received ten
blows on my arm, which is covered wiz a long glove; the
eleven, he cut my waistcoat -- I had one blow left, and I gave
it to him in the ribs so long --"
Mr. Herder's words were filled out by the position of his fore
fingers, which at this juncture were held some seven or eight
inches apart.
"O Mr. Herder! -- did you kill him!" exclaimed Rose.
"Not at all -- I did not kill him -- he was very good friend of
mine, -- he was not angry wiz me. He said, 'when I get well,
Herder, you come to breakfast wiz me in my room;' and I said,
'yes!'"
"Is that kind of thing permitted in the Universities, Mr.
Herder?" said Elizabeth.
"Permit? -- No, it is not permitted. They would hinder it if
they could."
"What would have been done to you if you had been found out?"
"Humph! -- They would have shut us up!" said Mr. Herder,
shrugging his shoulders.
"In your rooms?"
"No -- not exactly; -- in the fortress. At Munich the punishment
for being found out, is eight years in the fortress; -- at ozer
places, four or five years; -- yet they will fight."
"How many Universities have you been in, Mr. Herder?" said
Rose.
"I have been in seven, of Universités in Europe."
"Fighting duels in all of them!"
"Well, yes; -- no, there was one where I did fight no duel. I
was not there long enough."
"Mr. Herder, I am shocked! I wouldn't have thought it of you."
"The bracelet, Mr. Herder, I believe is yours," said Rufus.
"Mine?" -- said the naturalist.
"Miss Elizabeth would allow no one to put it on her hand, but
a philosopher."
"That is too great an honour for me, -- I am not young and
gallant enough -- I shall depute you," -- said Mr. Herder
putting the cameo in Winthrop's hand.
But Winthrop remarked that he could not take deputed honours;
and quietly laid it in the hand of its owner. Elizabeth, with
a face a little blank, clasped it on for herself. Rufus looked
somewhat curious and somewhat amused.
"I am afraid you will say of my brother, Miss Haye, that
though certainly _young_ enough, he is not very gallant," he
said.
Elizabeth gave no answer to this speech, nor sign of hearing,
unless it might be gathered from the cool free air with which
she made her way out of the group and left them at the window.
She joined herself to President Darcy, at the other side of
the fire, and engaged him in talk with her about different
gems and the engraving of them, so earnestly that she had no
eyes nor ears for anybody else. And when any of the gentlemen
brought her refreshments, she took or refused them almost
without acknowledgment, and always without lifting her eyes to
see to whom it might be due.
The company were all gone, and a little pause, of rest or of
musing, had followed the last spoken 'good night.' It was
musing on Elizabeth's part; for she broke it with,
"Father, if you can give Mr. Landholm aid in any way, I hope
you will."
"My dear," said her father, "I don't know what I can do. I did
offer to set him a going in business, but he don't like my
line; and I have nothing to do with his, away up in the North
there among the mountains."
"O I don't mean that Mr. Landholm -- I mean the other."
"Winthrop," said Mr. Haye.
"Elizabeth likes him much the best," said Miss Cadwallader.
"I don't," said Mr. Haye.
"Neither do I!"
"I do," said Elizabeth. "I think he is worth at least ten of
his brother."
"She likes him so well, that if you don't help him, dear Mr.
Haye, there is every likelihood that somebody else will."
"I certainly would," said Elizabeth, "if there was any way
that I could. But there is not."
"I don't know that he wants help," said Mr. Haye.
"Why, he must, father! -- he can't live upon nothing; how much
means do you suppose he has?"
"I met him at the chop-house the other day," said Mr. Haye; --
"he was eating a very good slice of roast beef. I dare say he
paid for it."
"But he is struggling to make his way up into his profession,"
said Elizabeth. "He _must_ be."
"What must he be?" said Rose.
"Struggling."
"Perhaps he is," said Mr. Haye, "but he don't say so. If I see
him struggling, I will try what I can do."
"Oh father! --"
"Why should Winthrop Landholm be helped," said Rose, "more
than all the other young men who are studying in the city?"
"Because I know him," said Elizabeth, "and don't happen to
know the others. And because I like him."
"I like him too," said her father yawning, "but I don't know
anything very remarkable about him. I like his brother the
best."
"He is honest, and good, and _independent_," said Elizabeth;
"and those are the very people that ought to be helped."
"And those are the very people that it is difficult to help,"
said her father. "How do you suppose he would take it, if I
were to offer him a fifty dollar note to-morrow?"
"I don't suppose he would take it at all," said Elizabeth.
"You couldn't help him so. But there are other ways."
"You may give him all your business, when he gets into his
profession," said Mr. Haye. "I don't know what else you can
do. Or you can use your influence with Mr. Satterthwaite to
get his father to employ him."
"You and he may both be very glad to do it yet," said
Elizabeth. "I shouldn't wonder."
"Then I don't see why you are concerned about him," said Rose.
Elizabeth was silent, with a face that might be taken to say
there was nobody within hearing worthy of her words.
Rufus went back to his work in the mountains, and Winthrop
struggled on; if most diligent and unsparing toil, and patient
denying himself of necessary and wished-for things, were
struggling. It was all his spare time could do to make clear
the way for the hours given to his profession. There was
little leisure for rest, and he had no means to bestow on
pleasure; and that is a very favourable stating of the case as
far as regards the last item. Mr. Inchbald never asked for
rent, and never had it; not in those days. That the time would
come, Winthrop believed; and his kind host never troubled
himself to inquire.
There were pleasures, however, that Winthrop could not buy and
which were very freely his. Mr. Herder's friendship introduced
him to society, some of the best worth to be found, and which
opened itself circle after circle to let him in. He had the
freedom of President Darcy's house, and of Mr. Haye's, where
he met other sets; in all, covering the whole ground of
Mannahatta good society; and in all which Winthrop could not
but know he was gladly seen. He had means and facilities for
social enjoyment, more, by many, than he chose to avail
himself of; facilities that did not lack temptation. In Mr.
Herder's set, Winthrop often was found; other houses in the
city saw him but rarely.
There was an exception, -- he was often at Mr. Haye's; why, it
did not very plainly appear. He was certainly made welcome by
the family, but so he was by plenty of other families; and the
house had not a more pleasant set of familiars than several
other houses could boast. Mr. Haye had no sort of objection to
giving him so much countenance and encouragement; and Rose
kept all her coldness and doubtful speeches for other times
than those when he was near. Elizabeth held very much her old
manner; in general chose to have little to do with him; either
haughtily or carelessly distant, it might be taken for one or
the other. Though _which_ it might be taken for, seemed to give
no more concern to the gentleman in question than it did to
herself.