Uncle Jack had made up his mind to lodge with us, and my mother found
some difficulty in inducing him to comprehend that there was no bed to
spare.
"That's unlucky," said he. "I had no sooner arrived in town than I was
pestered with invitations; but I refused them all, and kept myself for
you."
"So kind in you, so like you!" said my mother; "but you see--"
"Well, then, I must be off and find a room. Don't fret; you know I can
breakfast and dine with you all the same,--that is, when my other
friends will let me. I shall be dreadfully persecuted." So saying,
Uncle Jack repocketed his prospectus and wished us good-night.
The clock had struck eleven, my mother had retired, when my father
looked up from his books and returned his spectacles to their case. I
had finished my work, and was seated over the fire, thinking now of
Fanny Trevanion's hazel eyes, now, with a heart that beat as high at the
thought, of campaigns, battle-fields, laurels, and glory; while, with
his arms folded on his breast and his head drooping, Uncle Roland gazed
into the low clear embers. My father cast his eyes round the room, and
after surveying his brother for some moments he said, almost in a
whisper,--
"My son has seen the Trevanions. They remember us, Roland."
The Captain sprang to his feet and began whistling,--a habit with him
when he was much disturbed.
"And Trevanion wishes to see us. Pisistratus promised to give him our
address: shall he do so, Roland?"
"If you like it," answered the Captain, in a military attitude, and
drawing himself up till he looked seven feet high.
"I should like it," said my father, mildly. "Twenty years since we
met."
"More than twenty," said my uncle, with a stern smile; "and the season
was--the fall of the leaf!"
"Man renews the fibre and material of his body every seven years," said
my father; "in three times seven years he has time to renew the inner
man. Can two passengers in yonder street be more unlike each other than
the soul is to the soul after an interval of twenty years? Brother, the
plough does not pass over the soil in vain, nor care over the human
heart. New crops change the character of the land; and the plough must
go deep indeed before it stirs up the mother stone."
"Let us see Trevanion," cried my uncle; then, turning to me, he said
abruptly, "What family has he?"
"One daughter."
"No son?"
"No."
"That must vex the poor, foolish, ambitious man. Oho! you admire this
Mr. Trevanion much, eh? Yes, that fire of manner, his fine words, and
bold thoughts, were made to dazzle youth."
"Fine words, my dear uncle,--fire! I should have said, in hearing Mr.
Trevanion, that his style of conversation was so homely you would wonder
how he could have won such fame as a public speaker."
"Indeed!"
"The plough has passed there," said my father.
"But not the plough of care: rich, famous, Ellinor his wife, and no
son!"
"It is because his heart is sometimes sad that he would see us."
Roland stared first at my father, next at me. "Then," quoth my uncle,
heartily, "in God's name, let him come. I can shake him by the hand, as
I would a brother soldier. Poor Trevanion! Write to him at once,
Sisty."
I sat down and obeyed. When I had sealed my letter, I looked up, and
saw that Roland was lighting his bed-candle at my father's table; and my
father, taking his hand, said something to him in a low voice. I
guessed it related to his son, for he shook his head, and answered in a
stern, hollow voice, "Renew grief if you please; not shame. On that
subject--silence!"