Just without the Boundaries, in a wide, quiet street, called Close
Street, was the office of Richard Galloway, Esquire, Proctor, and
Steward to the Dean and Chapter. Excepting for this solitary office, the
street consisted of private houses, and it was one of the approaches to
the cathedral, though not the chief one. Mr. Galloway was a bachelor;
a short, stout man, shaped like a cask, with a fat, round face, round,
open, grey eyes--that always looked as if their owner was in a state of
wonder--and a little round mouth. But he was a shrewd man and a capable;
he was also, in his way, a dandy; dressed scrupulously in the fashion,
with delicate shirt fronts and snow-white wristbands; and for the last
twenty-five years, at least, had been a mark for all the single ladies
of Helstonleigh to set their caps at.
Of beauty, Mr. Galloway could boast little; but of his hair he was
moderately vain: a very good head of hair it was, and curled naturally.
But hair, let it be luxuriant enough to excite the admiration of a whole
army of coiffeurs, is, like other things in this sublunary world of
ours, subject to change; it will not last for ever; and Mr. Galloway’s,
from a fine and glossy brown, turned, as years went on, to sober
grey--nay, almost to white. He did not particularly admire the change,
but he had to submit to it. Nature is stronger than we are. A friend
hinted that it might be “dyed.” Mr. Galloway resented the suggestion:
anything false was abhorrent to him. When, however, after an illness,
his hair began to fall off alarmingly, he thought it no harm to use
a certain specific, emanating from one of her Majesty’s physicians;
extensively set forth and patronized as an undoubted remedy for hair
that was falling off. Mr. Galloway used it extensively in his fear, for
he had an equal dread both of baldness and wigs. The lotion not only had
the desired effect, but it had more: the hair grew on again luxuriantly,
and its whiteness turned into the finest flaxen you ever saw; a light
delicate flaxen, exactly like the curls you see upon the heads of
blue-eyed wax dolls. This is a fact: and whether Mr. Galloway liked it,
or not, he had to put up with it. Many would not be persuaded but that
he had used some delicate dye, hitherto unknown to science; and the
suspicion vexed Mr. Galloway. Behold him, therefore, with a perfect
shower of smooth, fair curls upon his head, equal to any young beau.
It was in this gentleman’s office that Arthur Channing had been placed,
with a view to his becoming ultimately a proctor. To article him to Mr.
Galloway would take a good round sum of money; and this had been put off
until the termination of the suit, when Mr. Channing had looked forward
to being at his ease, in a pecuniary point of view. There were two
others in the same office. The one was Roland Yorke, who was articled;
the other was Joseph Jenkins, a thin, spare, humble man of nine and
thirty, who had served Mr. Galloway for nearly twenty years, earning
twenty-five shillings a week. He was a son of old Jenkins, the bedesman,
and his wife kept a small hosiery shop in High Street. Roland Yorke was,
of course, not paid; on the contrary, he had paid pretty smartly to
Mr. Galloway for the privilege of being initiated into the mysteries
belonging to a proctor. Arthur Channing may be said to have occupied a
position in the office midway between the two. He was to _become_ on the
footing of Roland Yorke; but meanwhile, he received a small weekly sum
in remuneration of his services, as Joe Jenkins did. Roland Yorke,
in his proud moods, looked down upon him as a paid clerk; Mr. Jenkins
looked up to him as a gentleman. It was a somewhat anomalous position;
but Arthur had held his own bravely up in it until this blow came,
looking forward to a brighter time.
In the years gone by, one of the stalls in Helstonleigh Cathedral was
held by the Reverend Dr. Yorke: he had also some time filled the office
of sub-dean. He had married, imprudently, the daughter of an Irish peer,
a pretty, good-tempered girl, who was as fond of extravagance as she was
devoid of means to support it. She had not a shilling in the world; it
was even said that the bills for her trousseau came in afterwards to Dr.
Yorke: but people, you know, are given to scandal. Want of fortune had
been nothing, had Lady Augusta only possessed ordinary prudence; but she
spent the doctor’s money faster than he received it.
In the course of years Dr. Yorke died, leaving eight children, and
slender means for them. There were six boys and two girls. Lady Augusta
went to reside in a cheap and roomy house (somewhat dilapidated) in the
Boundaries, close to her old prebendal residence, and scrambled on in
her careless, spending fashion, never out of debt. She retained their
old barouche, and _would_ retain it, and was a great deal too fond of
ordering horses from the livery stables and driving out in state. Gifted
with excellent qualities had her children been born; but of training,
in the highest sense of the word, she had given them none. George, the
eldest, had a commission, and was away with his regiment. Roland, the
second, had been designed for the Church, but no persuasion could induce
him to be sufficiently attentive to his studies to qualify himself for
it; he was therefore placed with Mr. Galloway, and the Church honours
were now intended for Gerald. The fourth son, Theodore, was also in the
college school, a junior. Next came two girls, Caroline and Fanny, and
there were two little boys still younger.
Haughty, self-willed, but of sufficiently honourable nature, were
the Yorkes. If Lady Augusta had only toiled to foster the good, and
eradicate the evil, they would have grown up to bless her. Good soil was
there to work upon, as there was in the Channings; but, in the case of
the Yorkes, it was allowed to run to waste, or to generate weeds. In
short, to do as it pleased.
A noisy, scrambling, uncomfortable sort of home was that of the Yorkes;
the boys sometimes contending one with another, Lady Augusta often
quarrelling with all. The home of the Channings was ever full of love,
calm, and peace. Can you guess where the difference lay?
On the morning when the college boys had gone up to crave holiday of
the judges, and had not obtained it--at least not from the
head-master--Arthur Channing proceeded, as usual, to Mr. Galloway’s,
after breakfast. Seated at a desk, in his place, writing--he seemed to
be ever seated there--was Mr. Jenkins. He lifted his head when Arthur
entered, with a “Good morning, sir,” and then dropped it again over his
copying.
“Good morning,” replied Arthur. And at that moment Mr. Galloway--his
flaxen curls in full flow upon his head, something like rings--came
forth from his private room. “Good morning, sir,” Arthur added, to his
master.
Mr. Galloway nodded a reply to the salutation. “Have you seen anything
of Yorke?” he asked. “I want that deed that he’s about finished as soon
as possible.”
“He will not be an instant,” said Arthur. “I saw him coming up the
street.”
Roland Yorke bustled in; a dark young man of twenty-one, with large but
fine features, and a countenance expressive of indecision.
“Come, Mr. Yorke, you promised to be here early to-day. You know that
deed is being waited for.”
“So I am early, sir,” returned Roland.
“Early! for _you_ perhaps,” grunted Mr. Galloway. “Get to it at once.”
Roland Yorke unlocked a drawer, collected sundry parchments together,
and sat down to his desk. He and Arthur had their places side by side.
Mr. Galloway stood at a table, and began sorting some papers that were
upon it.
“How is Mr. Channing this morning, Arthur?”
“Much as usual, thank you, sir. Certain news, which arrived last night,
has not tended to cheer him.”
“It is true, then?” remarked Mr. Galloway. “I heard a rumour of it.”
“Oh, it’s true enough,” said Arthur. “It is in all the morning papers.”
“Well, there never was a more unjust decision!” emphatically spoke
Mr. Galloway. “Mark you, I am not reflecting on the Lord Chancellor’s
judgment. I have always said that there were one or two nasty points in
that suit, which the law might get hold of; but I know the whole
cause by heart, from beginning to end; and that money was as much your
father’s, as this coat, that I have on, is mine. Tell him I’ll come in
one of these fine evenings, and abuse the injustice of our laws with
him,--will you?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Arthur.
“What’s this row in the college school about a destroyed surplice, and
the boys not getting their holiday through it?” resumed Mr. Galloway.
“Oh, are they not savage!” struck in Roland Yorke. “The first thing
Tod did, when he came home to breakfast, was to fling over his bowl
of coffee, he was in such a passion. Lady Augusta--she came down to
breakfast this morning, for a wonder--boxed his ears, and ordered him to
drink water; but he went into the kitchen, and made a lot of chocolate
for himself.”
“What are the particulars? How was it done? I cannot understand it at
all,” said Mr. Galloway.
“Bywater left his clean surplice yesterday in the vestry, and some one
threw ink over it--half soaked it in ink, so the choristers told Tom,”
answered Arthur Channing. “In the afternoon--they had service late, you
know, sir, waiting for the judges--Bywater was not in his place to sing
the anthem, and Hurst sang it, and it put the master out very much.”
“Put him out all the more that he has no one to punish for it,” laughed
Roland Yorke. “Of course Bywater couldn’t appear in his stall, and sing
the anthem, if he had no surplice to put on; and the master couldn’t tan
him for not doing it. I know this, if it had happened while I was in
the college school, I’d just have skinned some of the fellows alive, but
what I’d have made them confess.”
“Suppose you had skinned the wrong party?” cynically observed Mr.
Galloway. “You are too hasty with your tongue, Roland Yorke. My nephew,
Mark, ran in just now to tell me of the holiday being denied, and that
was the first I had heard of the affair. Mark thinks one of the seniors
was in it; not Gaunt.”
Arthur Channing and Roland Yorke both looked up with a sharp, quick
gesture. Gaunt excepted, the only senior, besides their respective
brothers, was Harry Huntley.
“It is not likely, sir,” said Arthur.
“A senior do it!” scoffed Roland Yorke. “What a young idiot Mark
Galloway must be, to think that!”
“Mark does not seem to think much about it on his own account,” said Mr.
Galloway. “He said Bywater thought so, from some cause or other; and has
offered to bet the whole school that it will turn out to be a senior.”
“Does he, though!” cried Yorke, looking puzzled. “Bywater’s a cautious
fellow with his money; he never bets at random. I say, sir, what else
did Galloway tell you?”
“That was all,” replied Mr. Galloway. And if you wonder at a staid old
proctor chattering about this desultory news with his clerks in business
hours, it may be explained to you that Mr. Galloway took the greatest
possible interest, almost a boyish interest, in the college school. It
was where he had been educated himself, where his nephews were being
educated; he was on intimate terms with its masters; knew every boy in
it to speak to; saw them troop past his house daily in their progress to
and fro; watched them in their surplices in a Sunday, during morning
and afternoon service; was cognizant of their advancement, their
shortcomings, their merits, and their scrapes: in fact, the head-master
could not take a greater interest in the doings of the collegiate
school, than did Mr. Galloway. Whether of work, or whether of gossip,
his ears were ever open to listen to its records. Besides, they were not
so overburdened with work in that office, but that there was ample time
for discussing any news that might be agreeable to its master. His work
was light; his returns were heavy; his stewardship alone brought him in
several hundreds a year.
“The Reverend Mr. Pye seems uncommonly annoyed about it, sir,”
Mr. Jenkins ventured to put in. To interrupt, or take part in any
conversation, was not usual with him, unless he could communicate little
tit-bits of information touching the passing topic. “You are aware that
Mr. Harper, the lay-clerk, lodges at our house, sir. Well, Mr. Pye came
round last night, especially to question him about it.”
“What could Harper tell?” asked Mr. Galloway.
“He could not tell anything; except that he would answer for the
lay-clerks knowing nothing of the transaction. The master said he never
supposed the lay-clerks did know anything of it, but he had his reasons
for putting the question. He had been to the masons, too, who are
repairing the cathedral; and they declared to the master, one and all,
that they had not been into the vestry yesterday, or even round to that
side of the college where the vestry is situated.”
“Why should the master take it up so pertinaciously?” wondered Roland
Yorke.
“I’m sure I don’t know, sir. He was like one in a fever, so excited over
it, Harper said.”
“Did he talk to you about it, Jenkins?” asked Mr. Galloway.
“I did not see him, sir; it was Harper told me afterwards,” was the
reply of Jenkins, as he subsided to his writing again.
Just at this juncture, who should come in view of the window but the
head-master himself. He was passing it with a quick step, when out flew
Mr. Galloway, and caught him by the button. Roland Yorke, who was ever
glad of a pretext for idleness, rose from his stool, and pushed his
nose close up to the nearest pane, to listen to any colloquy that might
ensue; but, the window being open, he might have heard without leaving
his seat.
“I hear the boys have not a holiday to-day, Pye,” began Mr. Galloway.
“No, that they have not,” emphatically pronounced the master; “and, if
they go on as they seem to be going on now, I’ll keep them without it
for a twelvemonth. I believe the inking of that surplice was a concocted
plan, look you, Galloway, to--”
“To what?” asked Mr. Galloway, for the master stopped short.
“Never mind, just yet. I have my strong suspicions as to the guilty boy,
and I am doing what I can to convert them into proofs. If it be as I
suspect now, I shall expel him.”
“But what could it have been done for?” debated Mr. Galloway. “There’s
no point in the thing, that I can see, to ink and damage a surplice. If
the boy to whom it belonged had been inked, one might not have wondered
so much.”
“I’ll ‘point him,’” cried the master, “if I catch the right one.”
“Could it have been one of the seniors?” returned the proctor, all his
strong interest awakened.
“It was one who ought to have known better,” evasively returned the
master. “I can’t stop to talk now, Galloway. I have an errand to do, and
must be back to duty at ten.”
He marched off quickly, and Mr. Galloway came indoors again. “Is that
the way you get on with your business, Mr. Yorke?”
Yorke clattered to his desk. “I’ll get on with it, sir. I was listening
to what the master said.”
“It does not concern you, what he said. It was not one of your brothers
who did it, I suppose?”
“No, that it was not,” haughtily spoke Roland Yorke, drawing up his head
with a proud, fierce gesture.
Mr. Galloway withdrew to his private room, and for a few minutes silence
supervened--nothing was to be heard but the scratching of pens. But
Roland Yorke, who had a great antipathy to steady work, and as great a
love for his own tongue, soon began again.
“I say, Channing, what an awful blow the dropping of that expected money
must be for you fellows! I’m blest if I didn’t dream of it last night!
If it spoilt my rest, what must it have done by yours!”
“Why! how could you have heard of it last night?” exclaimed Arthur,
in surprise. “I don’t think a soul came to our house to hear the news,
except Mr. Yorke: and you were not likely to see him. He left late. It
is in every one’s mouth this morning.”
“I had it from Hamish. He came to the party at the Knivetts’. Didn’t
Hamish get taken in!” laughed Roland. “He understood it was quite a
ladies’ affair, and loomed in, dressed up to the nines, and there he
found only a bachelor gathering of Dick’s. Hamish was disappointed, I
think; he fancied he was going to meet Ellen Huntley; and glum enough he
looked--”
“He had only just heard of the loss,” interrupted Arthur. “Enough to
make him look glum.”
“Rubbish! It wasn’t that. He announced at once that the money was
gone for good and all, and laughed over it, and said there were worse
disasters at sea. Knivett said he never saw a fellow carry ill news off
with so high a hand. Had he been proclaiming the accession of a fortune,
instead of the loss of one, he could not have been more carelessly
cheerful. Channing, what on earth shall you do about your articles?”
A question that caused the greatest pain, especially when put by Roland
Yorke; and Arthur’s sensitive face flushed.
“You’ll have to stop as a paid clerk for interminable years! Jenkins,
you’ll have him for your bosom companion, if you look sharp and make
friends,” cried Roland, laughing loudly.
“No, sir, I don’t think Mr. Arthur Channing is likely to become a paid
clerk,” said Jenkins.
“Not likely to become a paid clerk! why, he _is_ one. If he is not one,
I’d like to know who is. Channing, you know you are nothing else.”
“I may be something else in time,” quietly replied Arthur, who knew how
to control his rebellious spirit.
“I say, what a rum go it is about that surplice!” exclaimed Roland
Yorke, dashing into another topic. “It’s not exactly the mischief itself
that’s rum, but the master seem to be making so much stir and mystery
over it! And then the hint at the seniors! They must mean Huntley.”
“I don’t know who they _mean_,” said Arthur, “but I am sure Huntley
never did it. He is too open, too honourable--”
“And do you pretend to say that Tom Channing and my brother Ger are not
honourable?” fiercely interrupted Roland Yorke.
“There you go, Yorke; jumping to conclusions! It is not to be credited
that any one of the seniors did it: still less, if they had done it,
that they would not acknowledge it. They are all boys of truth and
honour, so far as I believe. Huntley, I am sure, is.”
“And of Tom, also, I conclude you feel sure?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And I am sure of Ger Yorke. So, if the master is directing his
suspicion to the seniors, he’ll get floored. It’s odd what can have
turned it upon them.”
“I don’t think the master suspects the seniors,” said Arthur. “He called
them to his aid.”
“You heard what he just now said to Galloway. Jenkins, there is a knock
at the door.”
Jenkins went to open it. He came back, and said Mr. Yorke was wanted.
Roland lazily proceeded to the outer passage, and, when he saw who was
standing there, he put himself into a passion. “What do you mean by
presuming to come to me here?” he haughtily asked.
“Well, sir, perhaps you’ll tell me where I am to come, so as to get to
see you?” civilly replied the applicant, one who bore the appearance of
a tradesman. “It seems it’s of no use going to your house; if I went ten
times a day, I should get the same answer--that you are not at home.”
“Just take yourself off,” said Roland.
“Not till you pay me; or tell me for certain when you will pay me, and
keep your promise. I want my money, sir, and I must have it.”
“We want a great many things that we can’t get,” returned Roland, in a
provokingly light tone. “I’ll pay you as soon as I can, man; you needn’t
be afraid.”
“I’m not exactly afraid,” spoke the man. “I suppose if it came to it,
Lady Augusta would see that I had the money.”
“You hold your tongue about Lady Augusta. What’s Lady Augusta to you?
Any odds and ends that I may owe, have nothing to do with Lady Augusta.
Look here, Simms, I’ll pay you next week.”
“You have said that so many times, Mr. Yorke.”
“At any rate, I’ll pay you part of it next week, if I can’t the whole. I
will, upon my honour. There! now you know that I shall keep my word.”
Apparently satisfied, the man departed, and Roland lounged into the
office again with the same idle movements that he had left it.
“It was that confounded Simms,” grumbled he. “Jenkins, why did you say I
was in?”
“You did not tell me to say the contrary, sir. He came yesterday, but
you were out then.”
“What does he want?” asked Arthur.
“Wanted me to pay him a trifle I owe; but it’s not convenient to do
it till next week. What an Eden this lower world might be, if debt had
never been invented!”
“You need not get into debt,” said Arthur. “It is not compulsory.”
“One _might_ build a mud hut outside the town walls, and shut one’s
self up in it, and eat herbs for dinner, and sleep upon rushes, and
turn hermit for good!” retorted Roland. “_You_ need not talk about debt,
Channing.”
“I don’t owe much,” said Arthur, noting the significance of Yorke’s
concluding sentence.
“If you don’t, some one else does.”
“Who?”
“Ask Hamish.”
Arthur went on writing with a sinking heart. There was an undercurrent
of fear running within him--had been for some time--that Hamish did
owe money on his own private score. But this allusion to it was not
pleasant.
“How much do you owe?” went on Roland.
“Oh, a twenty-pound note would pay my debts, and leave me something out
of it,” said Arthur, in a joking tone. The fact was, that he did not
owe a shilling to any one. “Jenkins, do you know what I am to set about
next?” he continued; “I have filled in this lease.”
Jenkins was beginning to look amidst some papers at his elbow, in answer
to the appeal; but at that moment Mr. Galloway entered, and despatched
Arthur to get a cheque cashed at the bank.