The earnest sincerity of the grateful man shook Mr. Manners to the
soul, and for once in his life his self-control slipped from him. He
recovered himself quickly, but the impression produced by Mr.
Parkinson's words remained.
"You speak," he said, "of a woman and her daughter who have laid you
under an obligation--"
"A moment, if you please," interrupted Mr. Parkinson; "I spoke of a
lady and her daughter. Mrs. Manners is a lady; we all know that, every
one of us, and we've often wondered how she found her way among us,
and how it is she is almost as poor as the poorest of us. I object to
your calling her a woman in a tone that means, if it means anything,
that she is no better than the rest of us. It's clear enough to me
that you look down on us. Well, look down. It doesn't hurt us, any
more than it's to your credit."
"You are mistaken," said Mr. Manners, gently; "I do not look down on
you. I was once a working-man myself." He sighed as he made the
admission, at the thought that in those early days when he was
struggling and making his way up the ladder he was a happier man than
he had ever been since.
"Were you?" exclaimed Mr. Parkinson, in wonder. "Let me think a bit. I
remember when I was a boy hearing of a Mr. Manners, a great
contractor, who was once no better than a bricklayer, and who had made
himself a millionaire by his cleverness. It may be that you're the
gentleman."
"I am he."
"I take off my hat to you. I'm not one of the envious ones. You made
your money fairly, I've heard, and though you drove hard bargains, you
didn't cut down wages."
"That is true. I shall be pleased if yon will reckon it to my credit
now."
"I'll do that--it's no more than fair. And the lady I speak of may be
a connection of yours, you say. That's interesting, though I never
thought of linking you two together."
"She never gave you cause to suspect it?"
"Never. If she had it would have been known and talked of. These
things get about, you see."
"What you say makes me think all the better of her. May I proceed with
my questions?"
"You may."
Had Mr. Manners been inclined to reflect, in his usual spirit, under
the peculiar nature of this conversation, he would have loftily
resented Mr. Parkinson's occupation of the higher ground; but in truth
there was that stirring within him which humbled him; and it is good
to know that it humbled without mortifying him.
"Are Mrs. Manners and her daughter," he asked, "living alone? Is she a
widow?"
"No," replied Mr. Parkinson. "She is married, and lives with her
husband."
"Are you acquainted with his Christian name?"
"Yes. It is Kingsley."
A sigh of relief escaped Mr. Manners. He was not childless, then. It
was still in his power to make reparation, or if not to make, to offer
it. The latter alternative trod close upon the heels of the new-born
impulse to atone for his harshness; the reflection intruded itself
that his overtures towards a reconciliation might be declined. Many
years had passed since there was peace between him and his son, and
during all those years he had been, figuratively speaking, rolling in
gold. So vast was his fortune that, living the life he did, he could
not spend one half of it, and every day of his existence its colossal
proportions grew. To Mark Inglefield he had made a most liberal
allowance, and Inglefield, cunning and careful of the future, had
occasionally drawn largely upon the great contractor's generosity. The
requests he made were never refused, the reasons for them never
inquired into. Mr. Manners had set store upon his wealth before he
discarded his son; it meant then distinction, fame, political power,
in which he would have a share. Kingsley's sense of right, no less
than the ingenuousness and unselfishness of his nature, would have
caused him to lay at his father's feet the honor and glory which he
would assuredly have won had he been allowed to follow the career
which, in his young manhood, had been mapped out for him. The rich
man's heart was tortured as the image of Kingsley rose before him: the
frank, laughing mouth, the bright eyes, the eager manner, smote him
now with more than the force of actual blows. Those he could have
parried or returned; not so the accusing voices from the past which
proclaimed him tyrannical, ruthless, and unjust. The manner of
Kingsley's life, as indicated by Mr. Parkinson's championship of his
wife and daughter, was an added sting to the torture he was suffering.
Kingsley and those with whom he had, without a murmur, thrown in his
lot, had borne privation and poverty cheerfully, and had won a place
in the esteem and affections of the poor people around them of which
the highest in the land might have been proud. And all this time it
had been in his, the father's, power to have lightened and brightened
their lot without in the remotest degree feeling the loss; and all
this time they had lived and labored without uttering one Word of
reproach against him whose unreasoning, dictatorial conduct had made
their life one of daily, hourly struggle; and all this time they had
made no appeal to him upon whom they had a just claim, but trod, with
courage and resignation, the thorny paths into which he had thrust
them. Well might he hide his face in his hands with shame. He thought
of Nansie, and of the surprise he felt when he first saw her--surprise
at her modesty and gentleness of manner, surprise at the soft,
pleading voice, surprise that she was a lady, fitted to grace any
position to which wealth could raise her; to grace and adorn it, and
to bring into it qualities of goodness which would have made her a
shining example amid the follies and frivolities of fashionable life.
What were the grounds of his anger against her and his son? That
Kingsley, meeting her, had fallen in love with her, and had wooed her
honorably, and that she, urged in some degree by youth and love, and
in some degree by Kingsley's confident view of the future, had
accepted him and become his wife. How, then, was Nansie to be blamed?
How had she merited the lot to which he had condemned her? And wherein
lay Kingsley's misconduct? In that having wooed and won a lady, he had
held an opinion of his father which placed Mr. Manners above the
sordid considerations of a sordid age. That surely was not a crime;
but the father and judge had viewed it as such, and had meted out a
cruel punishment. Kingsley might have acted differently; he might
have acted towards Nansie as Mark Inglefield had acted towards the
working-man, whose visit to Mr. Hollingworth had brought about
disclosures which had led--and perhaps happily led--to the
contemplations in which Mr. Manners indulged as he stood in the dark
night with Mr. Parkinson. The conversation between them had been
continued, and Mr. Manners, anxious to obtain as much information as
it was in Mr. Parkinson's power to impart, had been told of Kingsley's
connection with the Wilberforce Club, and of the project to make him
president in the place of Mr. Bartholomew. This project Kingsley
himself had relinquished, further experience of the violent views of
his partisans having convinced him that their methods were not such as
he could approve of. Mr. Parkinson, being led on by Mr. Manners,
dilated at some length on working-men's politics in connection with
Kingsley.
"Not so easily led as you would imagine, sir," observed Mr. Parkinson,
referring to Kingsley's characteristics. "Sympathizing with all who
suffer from unjust and unequal laws, but stanch in his belief that
those wrongs can only be set right by temperate means. Mr. Kingsley
Manners has a will of his own."
The father had already been compelled to acknowledge that. Strikingly
different as he and his son were in their dispositions, they resembled
each other in one respect; having resolved upon what they deemed right
to do, they walked straight forward, regardless of consequences.
Kingsley had done this in his relations with Nansie, and Mr. Manners
had done this in his relations with his son. But Kingsley had
sacrificed everything, his father nothing; and yet, of the two, Mr.
Manners could not help confessing that the lot of the man who had
cheerfully embraced poverty was the higher and nobler of the two.
"And now," said Mr. Parkinson, after further questions had been asked
and answered, "I've told you all I know about Mr. and Mrs. Manners and
their daughter, and I should like to know what good it is going to do
me."
"I do not follow you," said Mr. Manners.
"You've been so much occupied," explained Mr. Parkinson, "in the
object you've been driving at, getting all you can out of me, and
telling me precious little to enlighten me, that maybe you've lost
sight of _my_ story."
"I acknowledge it," said Mr. Manners.
"I told you," proceeded Mr. Parkinson, "when we were in Mr.
Hollingworth's house, that I believed you knew who the man is who has
wronged my child. I say so again. You _do_ know him. Come, come, sir,
I've played fair with you; play fair with me."
"If the portrait you showed Mr. Hollingworth," said Mr. Manners, "is
that of the man who has done you this wrong, I do know him."
"Thank you for that much. I'll trouble you for his name. I don't want
any one to take my quarrels on himself; I'm equal to them, and can
carry them through. His name, sir, if you please."
"At present I must decline to give it to you," said Mr. Manners, and
would have proceeded had he not been interrupted roughly by Mr.
Parkinson, who exclaimed:
"That's the thanks I get! I might have known what to expect! But I'll
find out where you live, and I'll dog you like your shadow till I come
face to face with him."
"There is no cause for you to speak to me like that. I have told you
who I am, and wished you to come with me to my house. Mr. Parkinson,
you have done me a great service, and in return I would give you all
the assistance in my power. But threats and violence will not help you
here. For the present, leave your wrongs to me; it is not unlikely I
may be able to render you an infinitely greater service than you dream
of. I ask you to trust me."
"For how long?"
"For a few days."
"Have you influence with the scoundrel?"
"I have."
A queer smile played about Mr. Parkinson's lips. "An infinitely
greater service than I dream of," he said, repeating Mr. Manners's
words. "Of course there's but one way of setting this thing right, and
then I should lose my daughter. That's what we have children for--to
plague, or torment, or disgrace us."
Mr. Manners laid his hand gently on Mr. Parkinson's arm, and said, "We
bring such punishment upon ourselves often. Perhaps it is the parents,
not the children, who are chiefly to blame. Good-night, Mr. Parkinson.
Here is my card; if you wish to see me you are welcome at any time. If
you do not come to me I will come to you. There is one other favor I
would ask of you."
"Name it, sir."
"Say nothing to Mr. and Mrs. Manners of what has passed between us
to-night; regard our interview as private, for a time at least."
"All right, sir. It shall be so. Good-night."