BATTLE ROYAL
Squire Naseby, on sitting down to lunch, had inquired for Dick, whom he
had not seen since the day before at dinner; and the servant answering
awkwardly that Master Richard had come back, but had gone out again with
the pony-phaeton, his suspicions became aroused, and he cross-questioned
the man until the whole was out. It appeared from this report that Dick
had been going about for nearly a month with a girl in the Vale--a Miss
Van Tromp; that she lived near Lord Trevanion's upper wood; that
recently Miss Van Tromp's papa had returned home from foreign parts
after a prolonged absence; that this papa was an old gentleman, very
chatty and free with his money in the public-house--whereupon Mr.
Naseby's face became encrimsoned; that the papa, furthermore, was said
to be an admiral--whereupon Mr. Naseby spat out a whistle brief and
fierce as an oath; that Master Dick seemed very friendly with the
papa--"God help him!" said Mr. Naseby; that last night Master Dick had
not come in, and to-day he had driven away in the phaeton with the young
lady.
"Young woman," corrected Mr. Naseby.
"Yes, sir," said the man, who had been unwilling enough to gossip from
the first, and was now cowed by the effect of his communications on the
master. "Young woman, sir!"
"Had they luggage?" demanded the Squire.
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Naseby was silent for a moment, struggling to keep down his emotion,
and he mastered it so far as to mount into the sarcastic vein, when he
was in the nearest danger of melting into the sorrowful.
"And was this--this Van Dunk with them?" he asked, dwelling scornfully
on the name.
The servant believed not, and being eager to shift the responsibility to
other shoulders, suggested that perhaps the master had better inquire
further from George the stableman in person.
"Tell him to saddle the chestnut and come with me. And then you can
take away this trash," added Mr. Naseby, pointing to the luncheon; and
he arose, lordly in his anger, and marched forth upon the terrace to
await his horse.
There Dick's old nurse shrunk up to him, for the news went like wildfire
over Naseby House, and timidly expressed a hope that there was nothing
much amiss with the young master.
"I'll pull him through," the Squire said grimly, as though he meant to
pull him through a threshing-mill; "I'll save him from this gang; God
help him with the next! He has a taste for low company, and no natural
affections to steady him. His father was no society for him; he must go
fuddling with a Dutchman, Nance, and now he's caught. Let us pray he'll
take the lesson," he added, more gravely, "but youth is here to make
troubles, and age to pull them out again."
Nance whimpered and recalled several episodes of Dick's childhood, which
moved Mr. Naseby to blow his nose and shake her hard by the hand; and
then, the horse having arrived opportunely, to get himself without delay
into the saddle and canter off.
He rode straight, hot spur, to Thymebury, where, as was to be expected,
he could glean no tidings of the runaways. They had not been seen at the
George; they had not been seen at the station. The shadow darkened on
Mr. Naseby's face; the junction did not occur to him; his last hope was
for Van Tromp's cottage; thither he bade George guide him, and thither
he followed, nursing grief, anxiety, and indignation in his heart.
"Here it is, sir," said George, stopping.
"What! on my own land!" he cried. "How's this? I let this place to
somebody--M'Whirter or M'Glashan."
"Miss M'Glashan was the young lady's aunt, sir, I believe," returned
George.
"Ay--dummies," said the Squire. "I shall whistle for my rent too. Here,
take my horse."
The Admiral, this hot afternoon, was sitting by the window with a long
glass. He already knew the Squire by sight, and now, seeing him dismount
before the cottage and come striding through the garden, concluded
without doubt he was there to ask for Esther's hand.
"This is why the girl is not yet home," he thought; "a very suitable
delicacy on young Naseby's part."
And he composed himself with some pomp, answered the loud rattle of the
riding-whip upon the door with a dulcet invitation to enter, and coming
forward with a bow and a smile, "Mr. Naseby, I believe," said he.
The Squire came armed for battle; took in his man from top to toe in one
rapid and scornful glance, and decided on a course at once. He must let
the fellow see that he understood him.
"You are Mr. Van Tromp?" he returned roughly, and without taking any
notice of the proffered hand.
"The same, sir," replied the Admiral. "Pray be seated."
"No, sir," said the Squire, point-blank, "I will not be seated. I am
told that you are an admiral," he added.
"No, sir, I am not an admiral," returned Van Tromp, who now began to
grow nettled and enter into the spirit of the interview.
"Then why do you call yourself one, sir?"
"I have to ask your pardon, I do not," says Van Tromp, as grand as the
Pope.
But nothing was of avail against the Squire.
"You sail under false colours from beginning to end," he said. "Your
very house was taken under a sham name."
"It is not my house. I am my daughter's guest," replied the Admiral. "If
it _were_ my house----"
"Well?" said the Squire, "what then? hey?"
The Admiral looked at him nobly, but was silent.
"Look here," said Mr. Naseby, "this intimidation is a waste of time; it
is thrown away on me, sir; it will not succeed with me. I will not
permit you even to gain time by your fencing. Now, sir, I presume you
understand what brings me here."
"I am entirely at a loss to account for your intrusion," bows and waves
Van Tromp.
"I will try to tell you, then. I come here as a father"--down came the
riding-whip upon the table--"I have right and justice upon my side. I
understand your calculations, but you calculated without me. I am a man
of the world, and I see through you and your manoeuvres. I am dealing
now with a conspiracy--I stigmatise it as such, and I will expose it and
crush it. And now I order you to tell me how far things have gone, and
whither you have smuggled my unhappy son."
"My God, sir!" Van Tromp broke out, "I have had about enough of this.
Your son? God knows where he is for me! What the devil have I to do with
your son? My daughter is out, for the matter of that; I might ask you
where she is, and what would you say to that? But this is all midsummer
madness. Name your business distinctly, and be off."
"How often am I to tell you?" cried the Squire. "Where did your daughter
take my son to-day in that cursed pony carriage?"
"In a pony carriage?" repeated Van Tromp.
"Yes, sir--with luggage."
"Luggage?"--Van Tromp had turned a little pale.
"Luggage, I said--luggage!" shouted Naseby. "You may spare me this
dissimulation. Where's my son? You are speaking to a father, sir, a
father."
"But, sir, if this be true," out came Van Tromp in a new key, "it is I
who have an explanation to demand."
"Precisely. There is the conspiracy," retorted Naseby. "Oh!" he added,
"I am a man of the world. I can see through and through you."
Van Tromp began to understand.
"You speak a great deal about being a father, Mr. Naseby," said he; "I
believe you forget that the appellation is common to both of us. I am at
a loss to figure to myself, however dimly, how any man--I have not said
any gentleman--could so brazenly insult another as you have been
insulting me since you entered this house. For the first time I
appreciate your base insinuations, and I despise them and you. You were,
I am told, a manufacturer; I am an artist; I have seen better days; I
have moved in societies where you would not be received, and dined where
you would be glad to pay a pound to see me dining. The so-called
aristocracy of wealth, sir, I despise. I refuse to help you; I refuse to
be helped by you. There lies the door."
And the Admiral stood forth in a halo.
It was then that Dick entered. He had been waiting in the porch for some
time back, and Esther had been listlessly standing by his side. He had
put out his hand to bar her entrance, and she had submitted without
surprise; and though she seemed to listen, she scarcely appeared to
comprehend. Dick, on his part, was as white as a sheet; his eyes burned
and his lips trembled with anger as he thrust the door suddenly open,
introduced Esther with ceremonious gallantry, and stood forward and
knocked his hat firmer on his head like a man about to leap.
"What is all this?" he demanded.
"Is this your father, Mr. Naseby?" inquired the Admiral.
"It is," said the young man.
"I make you my compliments," returned Van Tromp.
"Dick!" cried his father, suddenly breaking forth, "It is not too late,
is it? I have come here in time to save you. Come, come away with
me--come away from this place."
And he fawned upon Dick with his hands.
"Keep your hands off me," cried Dick, not meaning unkindness, but
because his nerves were shattered by so many successive miseries.
"No, no," said the old man. "Don't repulse your father, Dick, when he
has come here to save you. Don't repulse me, my boy. Perhaps I have not
been kind to you, not quite considerate, too harsh; my boy, it was not
for want of love. Think of old times. I was kind to you then, was I not?
When you were a child, and your mother was with us." Mr. Naseby was
interrupted by a sort of sob. Dick stood looking at him in a maze. "Come
away," pursued the father in a whisper; "you need not be afraid of any
consequences. I am a man of the world, Dick; and she can have no claim
on you--no claim, I tell you; and we'll be handsome too, Dick--we'll
give them a good round figure, father and daughter, and there's an end."
He had been trying to get Dick towards the door, but the latter stood
off.
"You had better take care, sir, how you insult that lady," said the son,
as black as night.
"You would not choose between your father and your mistress?" said the
father.
"What do you call her, sir?" cried Dick, high and clear.
Forbearance and patience were not among Mr. Naseby's qualities.
"I called her your mistress," he shouted, "and I might have called her a
----"
"That is an unmanly lie," replied Dick slowly.
"Dick!" cried the father, "Dick!"
"I do not care," said the son, strengthening himself against his own
heart; "I--I have said it, and it's the truth."
There was a pause.
"Dick," said the old man at last, in a voice that was shaken as by a
gale of wind, "I am going. I leave you with your friends, sir--with your
friends. I came to serve you, and now I go away a broken man. For years
I have seen this coming, and now it has come. You never loved me. Now
you have been the death of me. You may boast of that. Now I leave you.
God pardon you."
With that he was gone; and the three who remained together heard his
horse's hoofs descend the lane. Esther had not made a sign throughout
the interview, and still kept silence now that it was over; but the
Admiral, who had once or twice moved forward and drawn back again, now
advanced for good.
"You are a man of spirit, sir," said he to Dick; "but though I am no
friend to parental interference, I will say that you were heavy on the
governor." Then he added with a chuckle: "You began, Richard, with a
silver spoon, and here you are in the water, like the rest. Work, work,
nothing like work. You have parts, you have manners; why, with
application, you may die a millionaire!"
Dick shook himself. He took Esther by the hand, looking at her
mournfully.
"Then this is farewell?" he said.
"Yes," she answered. There was no tone in her voice, and she did not
return his gaze.
"For ever," added Dick.
"For ever," she repeated mechanically.
"I have had hard measure," he continued. "In time, I believe I could
have shown you I was worthy, and there was no time long enough to show
how much I loved you. But it was not to be. I have lost all."
He relinquished her hand, still looking at her, and she turned to leave
the room.
"Why, what in fortune's name is the meaning of all this?" cried Van
Tromp. "Esther, come back!"
"Let her go," said Dick, and he watched her disappear with strangely
mingled feelings. For he had fallen into that stage when men have the
vertigo of misfortune, court the strokes of destiny, and rush towards
anything decisive, that it may free them from suspense though at the
cost of ruin. It is one of the many minor forms of suicide.
"She did not love me," he said, turning to her father.
"I feared as much," said he, "when I sounded her. Poor Dick, poor Dick!
And yet I believe I am as much cut up as you are. I was born to see
others happy."
"You forget," returned Dick, with something like a sneer, "that I am now
a pauper."
Van Tromp snapped his fingers.
"Tut!" said he; "Esther has plenty for us all."
Dick looked at him with some wonder. It had never dawned upon him that
this shiftless, thriftless, worthless, sponging parasite was yet, after
all and in spite of all, not mercenary in the issue of his thoughts; yet
so it was.
"Now," said Dick, "I must go."
"Go?" cried Van Tromp. "Where? Not one foot, Mr. Richard Naseby. Here
you shall stay in the meantime! and--well, and do something
practical--advertise for a situation as private secretary--and when you
have it, go and welcome. But in the meantime, sir, no false pride; we
must stay with our friends; we must sponge a while on Papa Van Tromp,
who has sponged so often upon us."
"By God," cried Dick, "I believe you are the best of the lot."
"Dick, my boy," replied the Admiral, winking, "you mark me, I am not the
worst."
"Then why," began Dick, and then paused. "But Esther," he began again,
once more to interrupt himself. "The fact is, Admiral," he came out with
it roundly now, "your daughter wished to run away from you to-day, and I
only brought her back with difficulty."
"In the pony carriage?" asked the Admiral, with the silliness of extreme
surprise.
"Yes," Dick answered.
"Why, what the devil was she running away from?"
Dick found the question unusually hard to answer.
"Why," said he, "you know you're a bit of a rip."
"I behave to that girl, sir, like an archdeacon," replied Van Tromp
warmly.
"Well--excuse me--but you know you drink," insisted Dick.
"I know that I was a sheet in the wind's eye, sir, once--once only,
since I reached this place," retorted the Admiral. "And even then I was
fit for any drawing-room. I should like you to tell me how many fathers,
lay and clerical, go upstairs every day with a face like a lobster and
cod's eyes--and are dull, upon the back of it--not even mirth for the
money! No, if that's what she runs for, all I say is, let her run."
"You see," Dick tried it again, "she has fancies--"
"Confound her fancies!" cried Van Tromp. "I used her kindly; she had her
own way; I was her father. Besides, I had taken quite a liking to the
girl, and meant to stay with her for good. But I tell you what it is,
Dick, since she has trifled with you--Oh yes, she did though!--and since
her old papa's not good enough for her--the devil take her, say I."
"You will be kind to her at least?" said Dick.
"I never was unkind to a living soul," replied the Admiral. "Firm I can
be, but not unkind."
"Well," said Dick, offering his hand, "God bless you, and farewell."
The Admiral swore by all his gods he should not go. "Dick," he said,
"you are a selfish dog; you forget your old Admiral. You wouldn't leave
him alone, would you?"
It was useless to remind him that the house was not his to dispose of,
that being a class of considerations to which his intelligence was
closed; so Dick tore himself off by force, and shouting a good-bye, made
off along the lane to Thymebury.