THE HALF-BROTHERS.
"It is better to be born lucky than rich" is one of the few proverbs
to which the lie cannot be given by a proverb in the opposite
direction. If Gerald Paget had had the choice, and had he been blessed
with wisdom, he would have chosen luck in the place of riches, but he
could not be credited with either of these conditions. He was born to
riches, and he was too amiable and easy-natured to ripen into wisdom.
When he first met Emilia Braham he was twenty-four years of age; she
was eighteen, and in a position of dependence; Gerald was wealthy, and
to a certain extent his own master. His father had died three months
before this meeting with the beautiful young girl, whose association
was to bring into his life both happiness and woe. He had only one
close relative, a half-brother, a few years older than himself, who
was then absent in Australia; the name of this brother was Leonard,
and it was he who was destined to hold in his hands the skeins of
Gerald's fate.
Their father had been twice married, and Leonard was the son of his
first wife. She brought him no fortune, and he himself had but little.
Shortly after Leonard was born she died, and the widowed husband went
with his child to Switzerland, where he met with the lady who was to
replace the wife he had lost. She possessed a large fortune in her own
right, of which with her husband's full approval, she kept control.
Although they had met and were married in Switzerland, they were both
English, and to England they returned, and set up their home there.
One child blessed their union, Gerald, whom they idolized and did
their best to spoil. They did not neglect their duty to Leonard; they
performed it cheerfully and lovingly, but it was nevertheless the fact
that Gerald was the magnet to which their hearts more constantly
turned. The difference between the ages of the half-brothers was a bar
to that close and sympathetic association of interests which
frequently exists between children of equal age. The child of six and
the child of fourteen have little in common; still less when one is
twelve and the other twenty. But despite this disparity and these
unfavorable conditions, Gerald adored his big brother, and bowed down
before him as a being of a very superior order. Leonard's tastes was
for travel, and as a young man he spent much of his time on the
Continent, picking up foreign ways, and also foreign vices, which he
kept very carefully concealed from the knowledge of his father and
step-mother. When he came home from these Continental jaunts he always
brought with him remembrances for little Gerald, whose affectionate,
grateful heart magnified their value, and invested with rare qualities
the spirit which animated the giver. Leonard was supplied with ample
funds to indulge in his whims and pleasures, and he took life easily,
accepting it as his right that his purse should be always well filled.
Presently, however, a change came over the spirit of his dream, a
change which caused the evil forces within him to spring into active
life. His stepmother died, and left a will. Its terms were as follows:
To her stepson, Leonard, she left an income of four hundred pounds,
and expressed a hope that he would adopt some profession or pursuit in
which he might attain fortune and distinction. His father was
empowered to further in a practical way any step in this direction. To
her son Gerald she also left an income of four hundred pounds, but
there was this difference between the bequests. Leonard's remained
always the same--four hundred pounds, no more and no less; whereas
Gerald's, when he reached the age of twenty-one, was increased to one
thousand pounds. Moreover, upon the death of his father, all that Mrs.
Paget devised to her husband was to revert to her son, whose income
would then amount to nearly four thousand pounds. Leonard, studying
the will, reckoned this up, and said, "I am the elder son, and I have
exactly one-tenth of the younger son's fortune." There was another
clause in the will. As upon the death of the father the income that
was left to him was to fall to Gerald, so, should it happen that both
Gerald and his father died before Leonard, the entire fortune would
fall to the elder son. In the event of Gerald marrying this would not
be the case; Gerald could devise to his wife and children, if he had
any, all that he possessed, thus, as it were, disbarring Leonard. For
the soured and disappointed young man there were, then, these chances:
First, that his father should die. Second, that Gerald should die.
Third, that he should die unmarried. These conditions fulfilled,
Leonard would become the master of four thousand pounds a year. It
occurred to Leonard that the sooner all this occurred the better, and
the thought having obtained lodgement in his mind, remained there.
Safely hidden, safely concealed. He was not a man who wore his heart
upon his sleeve. He was one who could present a smiling face while he
was concocting the cunningest of schemes. He had but one view of life,
the pursuit of pleasure. There was a certain similarity between him
and Gerald; they were both easy-natured outwardly, but there was no
guile in Gerald's disposition, while guile was the very essence of
Leonard's.
"I can't very well live on four hundred a year," he said to his
father, after the death of his step-mother. "You never led me to
expect that I should have to do so."
"I will double it, Len," said the indulgent father; "but you are a man
now, and understand things. The fortune which has enabled us to
maintain our position was strictly my wife's and she had a right to do
what she pleased with it. Had it not been for her money you and I
would have been poor gentlemen."
"That is all very well," said Leonard, "but the reflection comes too
late, father. To bring up a person in the expectation of fortune, and
then to suddenly let him down to poverty, is not what I call just or
fair. That is all I want--justice, and I have a right to it."
"Every person has a right to it."
"Then you agree with me that I am hardly treated."
"Eight hundred a year is not a bad income, Len."
"But, if you will forgive me for mentioning it, father--I am a man, as
you say, and can't help thinking of things--that is only during your
lifetime. Heaven forbid that anything should happen to you, but we are
all mortal, and down I should drop to a miserable seven or eight
pounds a week."
"Gerald has the sweetest disposition in the world," said Mr. Paget;
"you can always depend upon him."
"Depend upon him, depend upon him!" repeated Leonard, fretfully. "Is
it right, is it just, that the elder should depend upon the younger?"
Mr. Paget sighed; he was not strong in argument.
"I will make it a thousand," he said, "and you must look out for a
profession which will treble it."
"I'll see what Gerald will do toward it," said Leonard; and he
actually went to the lad, who ran to his father, and said that poor
Len must have two hundred a year more; so that subtle Leonard managed
to obtain an income of twelve hundred pounds, a very fair slice of the
fortune left by Mrs. Paget. He did not trouble himself to look for a
profession, but carried out his view of life with zeal and ability. He
spent his money on himself, but he did not squander it. He generally
managed to obtain his money's worth, and he was wise in his
liberality. Nevertheless, pleasure ran ahead of him, and in racing
after it he came to grief, and had to mortgage his own private income
of four hundred pounds to such an extent that it presently passed out
of his hands and became the property of the money-lenders. His father
and half-brother never failed him; they were living quietly and
modestly in England, and every appeal Leonard made to them was
promptly and affectionately responded to. He was not thankful for the
assistance; there gathers upon some natures a crust of selfishness so
thick as to deaden the sentiment of gratitude for kindness rendered.
Thus matters went on till the father died. Leonard, as has been
stated, was in Australia at the time. It was not a spirit of
enterprise that took him there, nor any idea of business; he was
enamoured of a pretty face, and he followed, or accompanied it, to the
antipodes--it matters not which. When he received news of his father's
death, the enchantment was over, and another chapter in his book of
selfish pleasures was closed. He cabled home for money. Gerald cabled
him back a thousand pounds. "By jove," thought Leonard; "he must be
richer than I thought." It was so. Mr. Paget had saved half his income
and had invested it well, so that, upon his death, Gerald found
himself in possession of a handsome sum of money in addition to the
income which now fell to his share. Leonard remained in Australia long
enough to spend three-fourths of the thousand pounds--it did not take
long--and then he took ship to England, with the firm resolve to milk
his cow, his half-brother Gerald, who received him with open arms. But
between the day of Mr. Paget's death and the day of Leonard's return
to England, Gerald met Emilia Braham. That made all the difference.