With his hands behind him, and his head drooping on his breast--slow,
stealthy, noiseless, Randal Leslie glided along the streets on leaving
the Italian's house. Across the scheme he had before revolved, there
glanced another yet more glittering, for its gain might be more sure
and immediate. If the exile's daughter were heiress to such wealth,
might he himself hope----. He stopped short even in his own soliloquy,
and his breath came quick. Now, in his last visit to Hazeldean, he
had come in contact with Riccabocca, and been struck by the beauty
of Violante. A vague suspicion had crossed him that these might be
the persons of whom the Marchesa was in search, and the suspicion had
been confirmed by Beatrice's description of the refugee she desired to
discover. But as he had not then learned the reason for her inquiries,
nor conceived the possibility that he could have any personal interest
in ascertaining the truth, he had only classed the secret in question
among those the farther research into which might be left to time and
occasion. Certainly the reader will not do the unscrupulous intellect
of Randal Leslie the injustice to suppose that he was deterred from
confiding to his fair friend all that he knew of Riccabocca, by the
refinement of honour to which he had so chivalrously alluded. He had
correctly stated Audley Egerton's warning against any indiscreet
confidence, though he had forborne to mention a more recent and direct
renewal of the same caution. His first visit to Hazeldean had been
paid without consulting Egerton. He had been passing some days at
his father's house, and had gone over thence to the Squire's. On his
return to London, he had, however, mentioned this visit to Audley, who
had seemed annoyed and even displeased at it, though Randal well knew
sufficient of Egerton's character to know that such feelings could
scarce be occasioned merely by his estrangement from his half brother.
This dissatisfaction had, therefore, puzzled the young man. But as it
was necessary to his views to establish intimacy with the Squire, he
did not yield the point with his customary deference to his patron's
whims. He, therefore, observed, that he should be very sorry to do
anything displeasing to his benefactor, but that his father had been
naturally anxious that he should not appear positively to slight the
friendly overtures of Mr Hazeldean.
"Why naturally?" asked Egerton.
"Because you know that Mr Hazeldean is a relation of mine--that my
grandmother was a Hazeldean."
"Ah!" said Egerton, who, as it has been before said, knew little, and
cared less, about the Hazeldean pedigree, "I was either not aware of
that circumstance, or had forgotten it. And your father thinks that the
Squire may leave you a legacy?"
"Oh, sir, my father is not so mercenary--such an idea never entered
his head. But the Squire himself has indeed said--'Why, if anything
happened to Frank, you would be next heir to my lands, and therefore we
ought to know each other.' But--"
"Enough," interrupted Egerton, "I am the last man to pretend to the
right of standing between you and a single chance of fortune, or of aid
to it. And whom did you meet at Hazeldean?"
"There was no one there, sir; not even Frank."
"Hum. Is the Squire not on good terms with his parson? Any quarrel
about tithes?"
"Oh, no quarrel. I forgot Mr Dale; I saw him pretty often. He admires
and praises you very much, sir."
"Me--and why? What did he say of me?"
"That your heart was as sound as your head; that he had once seen you
about some old parishioners of his; and that he had been much impressed
with a depth of feeling he could not have anticipated in a man of the
world, and a statesman."
"Oh, that was all; some affair when I was member for Lansmere?"
"I suppose so."
Here the conversation had broken off; but the next time Randal was led
to visit the Squire he had formally asked Egerton's consent, who, after
a moment's hesitation, had as formally replied, "I have no objection."
On returning from this visit, Randal mentioned that he had seen
Riccabocca; and Egerton, a little startled at first, said composedly,
"Doubtless one of the political refugees; take care not to set Madame
di Negra on his track. Remember, she is suspected of being a spy of the
Austrian government."
"Rely on me, sir," said Randal; "but I should think this poor Doctor
can scarcely be the person she seeks to discover."
"That is no affair of ours," answered Egerton; "we are English
gentlemen, and make not a step towards the secrets of another."
Now, when Randal revolved this rather ambiguous answer, and recalled
the uneasiness with which Egerton had first heard of his visit to
Hazeldean, he thought that he was indeed near the secret which Egerton
desired to conceal from him and from all--viz., the incognito of the
Italian whom Lord l'Estrange had taken under his protection.
"My cards," said Randal to himself, as, with a deep-drawn sigh, he
resumed his soliloquy, "are become difficult to play. On the one
hand, to entangle Frank into marriage with this foreigner, the Squire
could never forgive him. On the other hand, if she will not marry him
without the dowry--and that depends on her brother's wedding this
countrywoman--and that countrywoman be, as I surmise, Violante--and
Violante be this heiress, and to be won by me! Tush, tush. Such
delicate scruples in a woman so placed and so constituted as Beatrice
di Negra, must be easily talked away. Nay, the loss itself of this
alliance to her brother, the loss of her own dowry--the very pressure
of poverty and debt--would compel her into the sole escape left to
her option. I will then follow up the old plan; I will go down to
Hazeldean, and see if there be any substance in the new one;--and then
to reconcile both--aha--the House of Leslie shall rise yet from its
ruin--and--"
Here he was startled from his reverie by a friendly slap on the
shoulder, and an exclamation--"Why, Randal, you are more absent than
when you used to steal away from the cricket ground, muttering Greek
verses at Eton."
"My dear Frank," said Randal, "you--you are so _brusque_, and I was
just thinking of you."
"Were you? And kindly, then, I am sure," said Frank Hazeldean, his
honest handsome face lighted up with the unsuspecting genial trust of
friendship; "and heaven knows," he added, with a sadder voice, and a
graver expression on his eye and lip--"heaven knows I want all the
kindness you can give me!"
"I thought," said Randal, "that your father's last supply, of which
I was fortunate enough to be the bearer, would clear off your more
pressing debts. I don't pretend to preach, but really I must say once
more, you should not be so extravagant."
FRANK, (seriously).--"I have done my best to reform. I have sold off my
horses, and I have not touched dice nor card these six months: I would
not even put into the raffle for the last Derby." This last was said
with the air of a man who doubted the possibility of obtaining belief
to some assertion of preternatural abstinence and virtue.
RANDAL.--"Is it possible? But, with such self-conquest, how is it
that you cannot contrive to live within the bounds of a very liberal
allowance?"
FRANK, (despondingly).--"Why, when a man once gets his head under
water, it is so hard to float back again on the surface. You see, I
attribute all my embarrassments to that first concealment of my debts
from my father, when they could have been so easily met, and when he
came up to town so kindly."
"I am sorry, then, that I gave you that advice."
"Oh you meant it so kindly, I don't reproach you; it was all my own
fault."
"Why, indeed, I did urge you to pay off that moiety of your debts left
unpaid, with your allowance. Had you done so, all had been well."
"Yes, but poor Borrowwell got into such a scrape at Goodwood; I could
not resist him--a debt of honour, _that_ must be paid; so when I signed
another bill for him, he could not pay it, poor fellow: really he would
have shot himself, if I had not renewed it; and now it is swelled to
such an amount with that cursed interest, that _he_ never can pay it;
and one bill, of course, begets another, and to be renewed every three
months; 'tis the devil and all! So little as I ever got for all I have
borrowed," added Frank with a kind of rueful amaze. "Not £1500 ready
money; and it would cost me almost as much yearly,--if I had it."
"Only £1500."
"Well, besides seven large chests of the worst cigars you ever smoked;
three pipes of wine that no one would drink, and a great bear, that had
been imported from Greenland for the sake of its grease."
"That should at least have saved you a bill with your hairdresser."
"I paid his bill with it," said Frank, "and very good-natured he was
to take the monster off my hands; it had already hugged two soldiers
and one groom into the shape of a flounder. I tell you what," resumed
Frank, after a short pause, "I have a great mind even now to tell my
father honestly all my embarrassments."
RANDAL, (solemnly.)--"Hum!"
FRANK.--"What? don't you think it would be the best way? I never
can save enough--never can pay off what I owe; and it rolls like a
snowball."
RANDAL.--"Judging by the Squire's talk, I think that with the first
sight of your affairs you would forfeit his favour for ever; and your
mother would be so shocked, especially after supposing that the sum I
brought you so lately sufficed to pay off every claim on you. If you
had not assured her of that, it might be different; but she who so
hates an untruth, and who said to the Squire, 'Frank says this will
clear him; and with all his faults, Frank never yet told a lie.'"
"Oh my dear mother!--I fancy I hear her!" cried Frank with deep
emotion. "But I did not tell a lie, Randal; I did not say that that sum
would clear me."
"You empowered and begged me to say so," replied Randal with grave
coldness; "and don't blame me if I believed you."
"No, no! I only said it would clear me for the moment."
"I misunderstood you, then, sadly; and such mistakes involve my own
honour. Pardon me, Frank; don't ask my aid in future. You see, with the
best intentions I only compromise myself."
"If you forsake me, I may as well go and throw myself into the river,"
said Frank in a tone of despair; "and sooner or later my father must
know my necessities. The Jews threaten to go to him already; and the
longer the delay, the more terrible the explanation."
"I don't see why your father should ever learn the state of your
affairs; and it seems to me that you could pay off these usurers, and
get rid of these bills, by raising money on comparatively easy terms--"
"How?" cried Frank eagerly.
"Why, the Casino property is entailed on you, and you might obtain a
sum upon that, not to be paid till the property becomes yours."
"At my poor father's death? Oh, no--no! I cannot bear the idea
of this cold-blooded calculation on a father's death. I know it
is not uncommon; I know other fellows who have done it, but they
never had parents so kind as mine; and even in them it shocked and
revolted me. The contemplating a father's death and profiting by the
contemplation,--it seems a kind of parricide--it is not natural,
Randal. Besides, don't you remember what the governor said--he actually
wept while he said it, 'Never calculate on my death; I could not bear
that.' Oh, Randal, don't speak of it!"
"I respect your sentiments; but still all the post-obits you could
raise could not shorten Mr Hazeldean's life by a day. However, dismiss
that idea; we must think of some other device. Ha, Frank! you are a
handsome fellow, and your expectations are great--why don't you marry
some woman with money?"
"Pooh!" exclaimed Frank, colouring. "You know, Randal, that there is
but one woman in the world I can ever think of, and I love her so
devotedly, that, though I was as gay as most men before, I really feel
as if the rest of her sex had lost every charm. I was passing through
the street now,--merely to look up at her windows--"
"You speak of Madame di Negra? I have just left her. Certainly she
is two or three years older than you; but if you can get over that
misfortune, why not marry her?"
"Marry her!" cried Frank in amaze, and all his colour fled from his
cheeks. "Marry her!--are you serious?"
"Why not?"
"But even if she, who is so accomplished, so admired--even if she would
accept me, she is, you know, poorer than myself. She has told me so
frankly. That woman has such a noble heart! and--and--my father would
never consent, nor my mother either. I know they would not."
"Because she is a foreigner?"
"Yes--partly."
"Yet the Squire suffered his cousin to marry a foreigner."
"That was different. He had no control over Jemima; and a
daughter-in-law is so different; and my father is so English in his
notions; and Madame di Negra, you see, is altogether so foreign. Her
very graces would be against her in his eyes."
"I think you do both your parents injustice. A foreigner of low
birth--an actress or singer, for instance--of course would be highly
objectionable; but a woman, like Madame di Negra, of such high birth
and connections--"
Frank shook his head. "I don't think the governor would care a straw
about her connections, if she were a king's daughter. He considers all
foreigners pretty much alike. And then, you know"--Frank's voice sank
into a whisper--"you know that one of the very reasons why she is so
dear to me would be an insuperable objection to the old fashioned folks
at home."
"I don't understand you, Frank."
"I love her the more," said young Hazeldean, raising his front with
a noble pride, that seemed to speak of his descent from a race of
cavaliers and gentlemen--"I love her the more because the world has
slandered her name--because I believe her to be pure and wronged. But
would they at the hall--they who do not see with a lover's eyes--they
who have all the stubborn English notions about the indecorum and
license of Continental manners, and will so readily credit the
worst?--Oh, no--I love--I cannot help it--but I have no hope."
"It is very possible that you may be right," exclaimed Randal, as if
struck and half-convinced by his companion's argument--"very possible;
and certainly I think that the homely folks at the Hall would fret and
fume at first, if they heard you were married to Madame di Negra. Yet
still, when your father learned that you had done so, not from passion
alone, but to save him from all pecuniary sacrifice--to clear yourself
of debt--to--"
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Frank impatiently.
"I have reason to know that Madame di Negra will have as large a
portion as your father could reasonably expect you to receive with
any English wife. And when this is properly stated to the Squire, and
the high position and rank of your wife fully established and brought
home to him--for I must think that these would tell, despite your
exaggerated notions of his prejudices--and then, when he really sees
Madame di Negra, and can judge of her beauty and rare gifts, upon my
word, I think, Frank, that there would be no cause for fear. After all,
too, you are his only son. He will have no option but to forgive you;
and I know how anxiously both your parents wish to see you settled in
life."
Frank's whole countenance became illuminated. "There is no one who
understands the Squire like you, certainly," said he, with lively joy.
"He has the highest opinion of your judgment. And you really believe
you could smooth matters?"
"I believe so, but I should be sorry to induce you to run any risk; and
if, on cool consideration, you think that risk is incurred, I strongly
advise you to avoid all occasion of seeing the poor Marchesa. Ah, you
wince; but I say it for her sake as well as your own. First, you must
be aware, that, unless you have serious thoughts of marriage, your
attentions can but add to the very rumours that, equally groundless,
you so feelingly resent; and, secondly, because I don't think any man
has a right to win the affections of a woman--especially a woman who
seems to me likely to love with her whole heart and soul--merely to
gratify his own vanity."
"Vanity! Good heavens, can you think so poorly of me? But as to the
Marchesa's affection," continued Frank, with a faltering voice, "do you
really and honestly believe that they are to be won by me?"
"I fear lest they may be half won already," said Randal with a smile
and a shake of the head; "but she is too proud to let you see any
effect you may produce on her, especially when, as I take it for
granted, you have never hinted at the hope of obtaining her hand."
"I never till now conceived such a hope. My dear Randal, all my cares
have vanished--I tread upon air--I have a great mind to call on her at
once."
"Stay, stay," said Randal. "Let me give you a caution. I have just
informed you that Madame di Negra will have, what you suspected not
before, a fortune suitable to her birth; any abrupt change in your
manner at present might induce her to believe that you were influenced
by that intelligence."
"Ah!" exclaimed Frank, stopping short, as if wounded to the quick. "And
I feel guilty--feel as if I _was_ influenced by that intelligence. So
I am, too, when I reflect," he continued, with a _naiveté_ that was
half pathetic; "but I hope she will not be _very_ rich--if so, I'll not
call."
"Make your mind easy, it is but a portion of some twenty or thirty
thousand pounds, that would just suffice to discharge all your debts,
clear away all obstacle to your union, and in return for which you
could secure a more than adequate jointure and settlement on the Casino
property. Now I am on that head, I will be yet more communicative.
Madame di Negra has a noble heart, as you say, and told me herself,
that, until her brother on his arrival had assured her of this dowry,
she would never have consented to marry you--never crippled with her
own embarrassments the man she loves. Ah! with what delight she will
hail the thought of assisting you to win back your father's heart! But
be guarded, meanwhile. And now, Frank, what say you--would it not be
well if I ran down to Hazeldean to sound your parents? It is rather
inconvenient to me, to be sure, to leave town just at present; but I
would do more than that to render you a smaller service. Yes, I'll go
to Rood Hall to-morrow, and thence to Hazeldean. I am sure your father
will press me to stay, and I shall have ample opportunities to judge of
the manner in which he would be likely to regard your marriage with
Madame di Negra--supposing always it were properly put to him. We can
then act accordingly."
"My dear, dear Randal. How can I thank you? If ever a poor fellow like
me can serve you in return--but that's impossible."
"Why, certainly, I will never ask you to be security to a bill of
mine," said Randal, laughing. "I practise the economy I preach."
"Ah!" said Frank, with a groan, "that is because your mind is
cultivated--you have so many resources; and all my faults have come
from idleness. If I had had anything to do on a rainy day, I should
never have got into these scrapes."
"Oh! you will have enough to do some day managing your property. We who
have no property must find one in knowledge. Adieu, my dear Frank; I
must go home now. By the way, you have never, by chance, spoken of the
Riccaboccas to Madame di Negra?"
"The Riccaboccas? No. That's well thought of. It may interest her to
know that a relation of mine has married her countryman. Very odd that
I never did mention it; but, to say truth, I really do talk so little
to her; she is so superior, and I feel positively shy with her."
"Do me the favour, Frank," said Randal, waiting patiently till this
reply ended--for he was devising all the time what reason to give for
his request--"never to allude to the Riccaboccas either to her or to
her brother, to whom you are sure to be presented."
"Why not allude to them?"
Randal hesitated a moment. His invention was still at fault, and, for a
wonder, he thought it the best policy to go pretty near the truth.
"Why, I will tell you. The Marchesa conceals nothing from her brother,
and he is one of the few Italians who are in high favour with the
Austrian court."
"Well!"
"And I suspect that poor Dr Riccabocca fled his country from some mad
experiment at revolution, and is still hiding from the Austrian police."
"But they can't hurt him here," said Frank, with an Englishman's dogged
inborn conviction of the sanctity of his native island. "I should like
to see an Austrian pretend to dictate to us whom to receive and whom to
reject."
"Hum--that's true and constitutional, no doubt; but Riccabocca may
have excellent reasons--and, to speak plainly, I know he has, (perhaps
as affecting the safety of friends in Italy,)--for preserving his
incognito, and we are bound to respect those reasons without inquiring
further."
"Still, I cannot think so meanly of Madame di Negra," persisted Frank,
(shrewd here, though credulous elsewhere, and both from his sense of
honour,) "as to suppose that she would descend to be a spy, and injure
a poor countryman of her own, who trusts to the same hospitality she
receives herself at our English hands. Oh, if I thought that, I could
not love her!" added Frank, with energy.
"Certainly you are right. But see in what a false position you would
place both her brother and herself. If they knew Riccabocca's secret,
and proclaimed it to the Austrian government, as you say, it would be
cruel and mean; but, if they knew it and concealed, it might involve
them both in the most serious consequences. You know the Austrian
policy is proverbially so jealous and tyrannical?"
"Well, the newspapers say so, certainly."
"And, in short, your discretion can do no harm, and your indiscretion
may. Therefore, give me your word, Frank. I can't stay to argue now."
"I'll not allude to the Riccaboccas, upon my honour," answered Frank;
"still, I am sure that they would be as safe with the Marchesa as
with"----
"I rely on your honour," interrupted Randal hastily, and hurried off.