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(Harvard College)
THE FORGERY;
OR,
BEST INTENTIONS.
--------------------
BY G. P. E. JAMES, ESQ.
--------------------
LONDON:
SIMMS AND M'INTYRE,
PATERNOSTER ROW; AND DONEGALL STREET, BELFAST.
1853.
THE FORGERY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
One of the finest characters in the world was the old English
merchant. We may and have improved upon many things, but not upon
that. A different spirit reigns in commerce from that which ruled it
long ago, and not a better one. We are more the shopkeeper, as a
celebrated but not a great man called us, and less the merchant. As a
people, our commerce is more extended, but the separate transactions
are smaller; and minute dealings almost always produce paltry minds.
Not at all do I mean to say that the old English merchant is without
his representatives; but they are fewer than in other times, both with
reference to our numbers and to our extended trade.
There are many still, however, whose notions are as vast and as just
as those of any of our ancestors; and amongst them, not very long ago,
was a gentleman of the name of Humphrey Scriven. He was a
highly-educated and naturally-gifted man, the son of wealthy and
respectable parents in a class of society peculiar to England--the
untitled country gentry; and he had been originally intended for the
church. Circumstances, however, are to most men fate. He became
acquainted, by some mere accident, with the only daughter of a rich
merchant--admired, loved her, and won her love in return. He was a
younger son; but, nevertheless, her father was a kind and liberal man,
and he consented to their marriage upon one condition: that Mr.
Scriven should abandon his intention of entering the church, and
become a merchant like himself. He fancied that he had perceived in
the young man a peculiar aptitude for business, and he was not
mistaken. Mr. Scriven became his son-in-law, his partner, and his
successor; and well did he bear up the name and honour of the house.
It was a fine thing to see him, some twenty years after his marriage,
when, with the business of the day over, he sat in his splendid house
in St. James's Square, surrounded by his family, and often associated
with the noblest and the proudest of the land. His wife was no longer
living, but she had left him four very handsome children. She had
herself been remarkably beautiful, and her husband was as fine a
looking man as eye could see--tall, graceful, vigorous, and possessing
that air of dignity which springs from dignity of mind. From the
moment that five o'clock struck, Mr. Scriven cast off all thought and
care of business; for, though there were, of course, with him as with
other men engaged in similar pursuits, fluctuations and changes, bad
speculations, failing debtors, and wrecked ships, still his
transactions were too extensive for the loss of a few thousand pounds
here or there to weigh upon his mind; and, being of a cheerful and
happy disposition, he spread sunshine through his dwelling.
His family, at the time of which I speak, consisted of three daughters
and one son, who was born some four or five years after the youngest
sister. The daughters were all lovely, kind, affectionate, and gentle
in disposition, very much alike in person, and so nearly of an age
that it was difficult to tell which was the eldest. There was indeed
some difference in character, in point of force and vigour of reason,
but the spirit and the heart were the same. Maria, the eldest, was a
girl of much good sense, but of a very humble appreciation of her own
qualities and advantages. She thought little of her beauty and less of
her wealth, and her humility mere worldly-minded people looked upon as
weakness. Isabella, the second, though neither haughty nor presuming,
was of a far more decided and independent nature; but Margaret, the
third, was all gentle kindness, with much less mere intellect than
either of her sisters. She had sense enough and principle enough never
to do anything that was wrong, but not enough worldly wisdom to guard
her own interests against her affections. The son was at this time a
boy of fifteen--a sharp, clever lad, who had been a good deal petted
by his mother, and had been taught by circumstances to attach more
importance to the possession of wealth than it deserves.
In great things Mr. Scriven seldom made mistakes; in small ones he
often did; and one of his mistakes was in not looking upon trifles in
education as important. Perhaps it is there alone that they really are
important; for every idea received in youth has a vast development in
maturity. The seed may be small and insignificant in appearance; but,
once sown, it is sure to grow, and may spread to a great tree.
The father destined his boy to succeed him in his counting-house.
Though very wealthy, he had no inclination that his son should spend
the fruit of his ancestors' labours in idleness. He had a great idea
of the dignity of commerce; and Henry Scriven was taught from his
earliest years that he was to be a merchant. He was educated with that
view, and early initiated into business matters. Could Mr. Scriven
himself have given up his time and attention to the lad, he might have
acquired, with all the practical details, great views and noble
purposes; but his father's time was necessarily greatly occupied, and
he also felt some doubts as to his parental fondness leaving his
judgment room to act in the case of his own child. At the age of
fifteen, then, he sent him to receive the rudiments of a mercantile
education with the correspondent of his house at Hamburg. This
correspondent was known to be a good man of business, but he was no
more than that; and pinning his pupil down to small details, and
accustoming him to his own limited views of commerce, he narrowed all
his habits of thought, while he gave vast development to certain germs
of selfishness which were in the boy's own nature. His principles were
always to gain something off every transaction; never to leave a penny
unproductive; to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market;
to look to his pence, knowing that his pounds would take care of
themselves; and, being a merchant, to regard everything with a
mercantile eye. He held that no merchant should marry till he could
retire from business. Indeed, he regarded marriage, like everything
else, as "a transaction," and one quite incompatible with the
conduct of a great commercial house. Such lessons always have their
effect--the pupil sometimes going beyond, sometimes falling short of
his master.
What were the impressions produced upon Henry Scriven will be seen
very soon; but, in the mean time, his eldest sister, Maria, married.
She made her own choice, and that without ambition having any share in
it. The gentleman whom she selected was amiable, somewhat eccentric,
but a man of high honour and much feeling. He was the second son of
one of Mr. Scriven's oldest friends and fellow-merchants, and Maria's
father had but one objection. It had been arranged that Mr. Henry
Marston was to go out to India, with a sufficient capital to establish
a house in relation with that of his father in London. Mr. Scriven did
not like the idea of his daughter going to India at all; but he knew
that people are the only judges of their own happiness; and, as Maria
had made up her mind, he threw no impediment in the way. Shortly after
Henry Scriven's return from Hamburg, where he staid two years, the
marriage of his second sister, Isabella, took place. In this instance
there could be no objection on any part, as the man she chose was just
the sort of person whom such a girl might be expected to prefer. He
was about ten years older than herself, good-tempered, but remarkably
firm, cheerful without being merry, generous without being
extravagant. His property was ample; for his father, the third
baronet, had left him a large and unencumbered estate, and his mother
a very considerable sum in the public funds. Thus Isabella became the
wife of Sir Edward Monkton; but, as his property lay at no great
distance from London, her separation from her family was not so
complete as that of her sister Maria.
The youngest of the three sisters remained longer unmarried, although
she was fully as attractive, both in person and manners, as her
sisters. Nor was it that there was a lack of applicants for her hand;
for some four or five unexceptionable men proposed to her, and were at
once and steadily rejected, much to their own surprise and to that of
the lookers-on. She was so gentle, so affectionate, so easily led, so
over-anxious for the happiness and welfare of others, that everybody
had supposed her heart would be carried at the first assault. Perhaps,
indeed, it was, and this might be the cause of her remaining single to
the age of twenty-four.
There was at that time moving in the highest ranks of English society
a Sir John Fleetwood, who realized completely the idea of "a man of
wit and pleasure about town." He had served with some distinction in
the army, though he had not seen more than thirty summers; was very
handsome, very lively, with a smart repartee always ready, a slightly
supercilious air towards all men but his own choice companions, and a
manner most engaging to all women whom he thought it worth his while
to please. He had towards them an easy familiarity which did not in
the least savour of vulgar impertinence--a constant display of little
attentions, which seemed to show that the person who received them was
occupying all his thoughts--a protecting kindness of tone, with a
musical voice, and a habit of speaking low. He danced with Margaret
the first time she ever appeared at a large party; he danced with her
again, and then he obtained an introduction to her father. Mr. Scriven
received him coldly, much to the poor girl's mortification--it might
almost, indeed, be called repulsively; and as he saw that Margaret was
not only surprised by his unusual demeanour to her handsome partner,
but more vexed than he could have desired, her father judged it best
to explain his motives at once.
"You were astonished, my love," he said, as they were driving home,
"at my coolness towards Sir John Fleetwood; but I do not wish to
encourage any intimacy between him and any of my family, and I wish to
make him feel at once that it cannot be. I know him, Margaret, to be a
bad man, as well as an imprudent man; and I should be incurring too
great a responsibility were I to suffer him to visit at my house. He
has had every advantage in life--family, fortune, education--and he
has misused them all."
Margaret was silent for a moment or two; but then she said--
"How do you wish me then to behave to him when we meet, as must often
be the case, I suppose? He will certainly ask me to dance, and then I
shall not know how to act after what you have said."
"The customs of society, my dear child, will prevent your refusing to
dance with him, unless engaged to another," her father replied; "but I
should wish you to be as often engaged as possible, and not to suffer
any approach to intimacy that you can avoid."
Margaret to the best of her abilities followed the directions of her
father; but she met Sir John Fleetwood often--she danced with him
often; and, with the best intentions in the world, what between
nervous doubts as to how she should behave on her part, and skill,
boldness, and experience upon his, he did not want opportunities of
making progress in her regard. Margaret therefore remained unmarried,
and reached her twenty-fourth year single, but less blessed than she
might well have expected to be.
Two days after her birthday, her father went out to ride in Hyde Park;
his horse took fright, ran away, and threw him. Mr. Scriven was
brought home little more than an hour after he had set out, with a
compound fracture of the thigh. The surgeons said that, with his
strong constitution and equable temper, there was no danger; and Mr.
Scriven's spirits did not in the least give way. Three or four days
after, however, mortification appeared; and he then with perfect
calmness informed the medical men that he felt his life was drawing to
a close. They endeavoured to persuade him that such was not the case,
but there are internal sensations not to be mistaken; and Mr. Scriven
sent for his lawyer, and a young gentleman of the name of Hayley, who
had been placed in his counting-house some seven or eight years
before, by highly respectable but not wealthy relations. Mr. Hayley
had conducted himself remarkably well, and had risen to be the chief
clerk of Mr. Scriven's house.
He approached the great merchant's bedside with looks of sorrowful
concern; and Mr. Scriven, after shaking hands with him kindly, said--
"I have sent for you, my young friend, to give you a little testimony
both of my gratitude for various services, and of my confidence in
your character. I am dying, Hayley, though the surgeons say not; and
if I die at present, Henry, my son, is not yet old enough to manage
entirely such large concerns as must fall into his hands. You are
acquainted with all the details. I owe you a good deal for your care,
attention, and zeal in my service; and I do not think I can either
recompense you better, or do my son a greater service, than by leaving
you an eighth share of the business, which was that portion bestowed
upon me at my marriage. There is only one observation I have to make,
and do not suppose it to imply censure, but merely warning. Though
born of a race of gentlemen, it is very necessary for you to remember
that you are especially a merchant. To that consideration you should
sacrifice much, and it you should sacrifice to nothing. Your education
at a public school has given you several acquaintances of a higher
class of society than our own, and some of very expensive habits, I am
told. Friendships are too valuable to be given up; but no examples are
worthy of being followed but those of honour, virtue, and truth."
"I can assure you, sir," replied Hayley, "I have preserved none of my
school acquaintances of a higher rank than my own, except that of Lord
Mellent, son of the Earl of Milford. We were first at a private school
together, then at Eton, in the same form; and it would, I acknowledge,
be a most painful sacrifice to give up his friendship. With greater
means than myself, he is of course able to maintain a much more
expensive style of living; but I trust you have never observed
anything in me which should induce you to suppose I affect to rival
him, or even to join him, in any extravagance. However, I feel as
deeply indebted to you for your advice as even for your kind
intentions towards me. The one shall be remembered as a guide to my
conduct; and I do still hope and pray that it may be long, very long,
before the latter receives execution."
Perhaps, had Mr. Scriven been at all a suspicious man, he might have
thought his _protégé's_ reply too neat and rounded; but ill as he was,
and by nature generous in his appreciation of other men's motives, he
was well satisfied. His anticipations, however, regarding his own
fate, were but too surely realized. Three days after this conversation
his eyes were closed for ever; and his son succeeded to a large
property, and found himself at the head of a firm hardly rivalled by
any in the world. With the habits of thought which he had acquired,
the possession of so much wealth, and of such vast means of increasing
it, served to close rather than open the heart.
He felt an awful responsibility of getting money upon him, and of
preserving what he had got; and all his first acts indicated
sufficiently what would be his future course. Those who were observers
of human nature remarked, "If young Scriven is so close and grasping
as a mere lad, what will he be as age creeps upon him?" And those who
had perhaps calculated upon gaining some advantages over the son which
they had not been able to obtain over the father, soon gave up the
attempt and regretted the change.
Henry Scriven's first step was to discharge all his father's old
servants, and to pay all legacies, though he did not scruple to say
that he thought his sisters had been somewhat too liberally provided
for. He then sold the house in St. James's Square, as requiring a
larger establishment than was necessary for a young man; and he
retired to a lodging in Brook Street, comfortable enough, but greatly
within his means. He was much annoyed at the bequest of an eighth
share of his father's business to Mr. Hayley; but he took advantage of
all that gentleman's knowledge; and Hayley, soon by mild, almost timid
manners, and active services, contrived to ingratiate himself as far
as possible with a not very generous person.
In the mean time Margaret, viewing with wonder and disapproval all her
brother's conduct, retired for three months to the house of her sister
Isabella, and then went for some time on a visit to a friend. Before
she returned, a letter announced to Mr. Scriven and Lady Monkton, that
their sister was about to bestow her hand upon Sir John Fleetwood; and
as soon as she came back to London, the baronet pressed eagerly for
the consummation of his happiness. Isabella, with knowledge of the
world and strong good sense, saw, as her father had seen, unanswerable
objections to the marriage, and she urged them strongly, though
kindly, upon her sister's attention; but she soon found that to urge
them was labour in vain. Margaret admitted that she knew her lover had
been what was then, and still is, called a gay man, and, moreover, an
extravagant one; but she assured her friends that he was reformed in
both respects and that she looked upon it as a duty to aid as far as
was in her power to complete the happy change. Lady Monkton wisely
abandoned the task of opposition, and hoped, but did not believe, that
the reformation would last. Mr. Scriven attached himself to one
object: to ensure that his sister's large fortune should be settled
upon herself; and in this he would probably have succeeded, if
Margaret would have consented even for a few short days not to see her
lover, or would have steadily referred all matters of business to her
brother. Unfortunately, however, Margaret had lost confidence in him
who was now really striving for her good; and she would not trust to
his generosity, while she was inclined to place the fullest reliance
on one whose selfishness was only of a more sparkling kind. All that
Mr. Scriven could accomplish was to have seven hundred a-year and a
house settled upon his sister, though she brought her husband three
thousand per annum; but that small sum he took care so to tie up, that
no after weakness on her own part could deprive her of at least a
moderate independence. Sir John Fleetwood, after the deed was signed,
laughed with a gay companion, and observed, that Harry Scriven was the
best man of business in England; and on the following day Margaret
became his wife. The after fate of all the family shall be briefly
told in the succeeding chapter.
CHAPTER II.
Where is the family in which the retrospect of ten years will not
present a sad and chilling record--with the open tomb, around whose
verge we play, and the yawning gulf of fate, which stands ever ready
to swallow up the bright hopes and joys of early life? Maturity and
decay shake hands.
In the family of Mr. Scriven many changes had taken place during that
space of time: flowers had blossomed and been blighted; expectations
had passed away which were once fair; sorrow had shadowed some happy
faces; death had not spared them any more than others. But I must
trace the history of each, though it shall be very briefly.
The only one of the four children of the merchant who had undergone
few vicissitudes, who had known but little change, and that merely
progressive, was the son. Mr. Henry Scriven was the same man, ten
years older. He laid himself open to few of the attacks of fate; he
had neither wife nor children. His fortress was small, and therefore
easily defended. He had made money, and therefore he loved it all the
better; he had lost money, and therefore he was more careful both in
getting and keeping it. The circles round his heart went on
concentrating, not expanding, and were well-nigh narrowed to a point.
Even in business this was discovered by those who had to deal with
him. People said that the house of "Scriven and Co." was a hard house;
but still everyone pronounced Mr. Scriven "a very honourable man,"
though he did sundry very dirty tricks. But he was known to be a rich
man, and his business most extensive. Did you never remark, reader,
that a wealthy man or a wealthy firm is always "very honourable," in
the world's opinion? I have known a body of rich men do things that
would have branded an inferior establishment with everlasting
disgrace, or have sent an unfriended and unpursed vagabond across the
seas; and yet I have been boldly told, "It is a highly honourable
house."
So it was in a degree with Mr. Scriven, but still he was careful of
his character. He never did anything very gross--anything that could
be detected; and though all admitted that he was very close and
somewhat grasping, people found excuses for him. Some thought he would
build hospitals. Even his very nearest and his dearest knew him not
fully, and did not perceive what were the real bonds which kept his
actions in an even and respectable course. It is wonderful how many
persons, women and men, are restrained by fear!
Maria Scriven had accompanied, as I have said, her husband, Mr.
Marston, to India; and there, as far as worldly matters went, they
were very prosperous. Still they had their griefs. Who has not? Their
eldest child was a boy, whom they named Charles; and a stronger, finer
little fellow never was seen. Her letters were full of him. But the
second child was lost when a few months old, and the third did not
survive its birth a year. Maria's own health also suffered from the
climate, and with much pain it was resolved that she should return to
Europe with her boy. Mr. Marston was to rejoin them at the end of
three years. But human calculations are vain. When Maria reached
England she was carried from the ship to the shore, and thence by slow
journeys to London, for she was very ill. She revived a little in her
native air; but the improvement was not permanent, and she died about
two months after her arrival.
Her husband's great inducement for revisiting the land of his birth
was gone; and leaving his son to the care of his brother-in-law, he
remained plodding on in India.
Lady Monkton had her share of sorrows, too. Her first three children
died in infancy. They were all bright, blooming, beautiful. Health and
long life seemed written on their fair faces; but the battle is not to
the strong, nor the race to the swift; and one or other of those
maladies of childhood which often make a cheerful household desolate,
had swept away the whole successively. Isabella, gay, happy,
strong-minded as she was, quailed under these repeated blows. She was
too firm and sensible to yield entirely; but a shade of sadness came
over her once clear brow, and when a fourth child appeared, it was
with some awe she watched its infancy. This child was a daughter, more
delicate to all appearance than the others; but when illness fell upon
her it was comparatively light, and with years health and strength
seemed to increase. The fair, fragile form developed itself with a
thousand graces; the bloom came upon the cheek, the soft, languid eyes
grew bright and gay, and hour by hour hope and confidence returned.
There was still a terrible shock in store, however. One day Sir Edward
Monkton returned from a ride, very wet, was detained by a person he
found waiting for him on business, was seized with shivering during
the night, and inflammation of the lungs succeeded. Five days of
watching and terror left her a widow, with a heart, the very firmness
of which rendered its affections the more enduring. Mr. Scriven's
character had not fully displayed itself to the eyes of Sir Edward
Monkton. He knew him to be a good man of business, and believed him to
be an honourable and upright man. Even Lady Monkton did not know her
brother thoroughly; and she was glad to have him joined with herself
as the executor of her husband's will and the guardian of her
daughter. She soon found cause for some regret that it was so; for his
arrangements did not altogether please her; but still there was not
much to complain of; and at the end of the ten years which followed
her father's death, she was living peacefully at her house in
Hertfordshire, about fifteen miles from London, occupied with the
education of her daughter Maria, seeing very little society, dwelling
calmly, though gravely, upon the past, and looking forward with hope
and consolation to the future.
One of the greatest anxieties which Lady Monkton felt at this
time--and they were anxieties which amounted to grief--proceeded from
the circumstances of her sister Margaret. Sir John Fleetwood had
turned out all that Mr. Scriven had anticipated--reckless,
extravagant, licentious. His whole thought and occupation seemed to
be, how he might soon run through his own property and that part of
his wife's fortune over which he had control. He was very successful
in his endeavours. What bad associates, male and female, did not
contrive to dissipate soon enough, cards, dice, and horses succeeded
in losing; and at length he endeavoured to get rid of his wife's
settlement. She would willingly have given it up to please him; for
though he had been a negligent and offending husband, yet so long as
money lasted he had always been gay and good-humoured with her,
treating her more as an innocent and unsuspecting child than as a
companion. But Mr. Scriven had taken care of his sister's income. It
could not be touched even with her own consent. No creditor had power
over it; her own receipt was necessary for every penny of the income,
and being settled upon her children, though she had none, it was
inviolable.
Sir John had not clearly perceived these stringent conditions when he
signed the deed; and some sharp discussions took place between him and
his brother-in-law. He became gloomy, morose, fretful; and still he
would appear at Ascot or at the gambling-table, though he could no
longer maintain the appearance which he had once displayed. It was at
the former of these places that a dispute took place between himself
and another gentleman _of the turf_. It matters not much to this work
which was wrong or which was right, and indeed I do not know. Hard
epithets were exchanged, and Sir John employed a horsewhip, not for
its most legitimate purpose. Two mornings after he was brought home in
a dying state, with a pistol-shot through his lungs, and never uttered
a word during the half-hour he continued to exist. It must have been
an awful half-hour, for it was clear that his senses and his memory
were all still perfect; and what a picture memory must have shown him!
Poor Lady Fleetwood was in despair. Her love had never failed, nor
even diminished. She had never admitted his faults even to herself;
or, at all events, had found excuses for them in her kind and
affectionate heart. Now that he was gone she was still less likely to
discover them; for bitter sorrow drew a veil between her eyes and all
that might have shocked her in the conduct of the dead. It is true,
there was one thing could not be concealed from her: that he had
wasted every penny of his own property, and of hers, too, as far as it
was in his power to do so. But then she fancied that he had been only
unfortunate, and doubted not that, had he lived, all would have been
set right. Her brother, Mr. Scriven, tried hard in his cold, dry way
to open her eyes, but he only wrung her heart without convincing her;
and though she both feared and respected him, he could never induce
her to admit that her husband had acted ill.
Lady Monkton, with tenderer feelings, never attempted to undeceive
her, but brought her at once to Bolton Park, and there tried to soothe
and comfort her. Nor was she unsuccessful. Her own calm and quiet
demeanour, somewhat touched with grief, but yet not melancholy, the
gay and cheerful company of her little girl Maria, and the occasional
society of her next neighbours, Lord Mellent and his wife, a somewhat
indolent but amiable and lively woman, gradually restored Lady
Fleetwood to composure and resignation. Her greatest solace, indeed,
was her niece Maria; for, though enthusiastically fond of children,
she had had none herself; and now, the gay, happy girl, about ten
years old, addressed herself, with more thought and feeling than might
have been expected of a child, to amuse her widowed aunt and win her
mind from sad thoughts and memories. Maria's young companion, too,
Anne Mellent, the daughter of their neighbours, though of a different
character from Maria--quick, decided, independent in her ways--was
always exceedingly tender and gentle to Lady Fleetwood, and from time
to time another was added to their society, whom they all knew and all
loved, though he was at this time not above thirteen years of age. But
of him and his family I must speak apart, as, although it was
intimately connected by circumstances with that of Mr. Scriven, it was
not allied to it either by blood or marriage.
CHAPTER III.
In mentioning the circumstances which attended the death of the great
merchant, I have spoken of a young gentleman of the name of Hayley,
who, when his family fell into adverse circumstances, had been placed
in Mr. Scriven's house as a clerk, and had risen by good conduct and
attention to be the chief clerk in the counting-house. He was still
under thirty when his friend and patron died, and, as I have said,
received, as a recompense for his services, an eighth share in the
house. Perhaps enough has been displayed of his character to enable
the reader to estimate it justly; and I will only add, that he was of
a gentle, yielding, almost timid disposition, although it might
perhaps have been somewhat fiery and eager--as indeed it had seemed at
school--had not early misfortunes and long drudgery broken his spirit
and cowed the stronger passions within him. It is not an uncommon
case.
During the time that he remained a clerk, and for a year after he
became a partner in the house, Mr. Hayley lived as a single man with
an unmarried sister, somewhat older than himself, in a small house in
one of those suburban quarters of the town where people fancy they get
country air. But at the end of that time he one day brought home with
him a fine little boy of two years old, very much indeed to the
surprise of his sister. Some explanation was of course necessary, as
well as many new arrangements; but, for the first time in his life, a
strange degree of reserve seemed to have fallen over Mr. Hayley. He
would tell his sister part, but not the whole, he said, in answer to
her anxious inquiries. He did not affect to deny that the child was
his son; but he desired that he might not be questioned at all about
the boy's mother, and seemed annoyed at the least allusion to the
circumstance of birth.
Now, Miss Hayley was as affectionate a creature as ever drank in the
milk of human kindness from the gentle air of heaven, and she was
devotedly attached to her brother. But she was proud of him, too; and
she had very strong peculiarities, and also a strong and quick temper,
which is not unfrequently joined to a heart soft even to weakness. She
was not satisfied with the information she had received; she thought
her brother did not place sufficient confidence in her; and, after
considering the matter for some hours, she took her resolution, and
with an air of grave dignity went down to the room where Mr. Hayley
was seated looking over some papers.
"Stephen," she said, "I want to speak with you for a moment."
"Well, my dear Rebecca, what is it?" asked her brother, hardly looking
up.
"I must know more about this little boy," said his sister.
"I must indeed request you not to trouble me or yourself," said Mr.
Hayley, with unwonted sharpness, "about what does not concern you."
Miss Hayley fired up instantly. She insisted that it did concern her
very much, and the sharpest dispute took place between herself and her
brother that had ever occurred in their lives. It ended by her
declaring, that if he did not satisfy her at least upon one point, she
would leave his house, and by his telling her that she was at liberty
to do so--very well assured, be it remarked, that she would not. She
turned to the door, however, with such a look of determination that
Mr. Hayley became a little alarmed, and he called her back.
"Now, what is it you want to know, Rebecca?" he asked. "You say one
point. That must, of course, be a point of consequence; for I think
you would not quarrel with me for a trifle, or for anything that does
not actually concern you. What is it?"
Miss Hayley paused for a moment, for she had come with an intention of
making him tell all, and when driven from the broader ground by his
resolute resistance, had not exactly the point on which to make her
last stand.
"Is the child legitimate or illegitimate?" she asked at length.
"He was born in lawful wedlock," answered her brother.
"And the mother?" inquired his sister.
"That is not fair, Rebecca," said Mr. Hayley: "you declared that you
would be satisfied with explanation on one point; now you require
more. However, I will satisfy you on this head also, upon the clear
understanding that I hear not one word more upon the subject, now or
ever. Do you agree?"
"Yes, then I shall be content," answered she; "but on these two
matters I have a right to information, for I am not going to----"
"There, there!--I want not your reasons," exclaimed her brother,
interrupting her. "Upon that understanding, then, I tell you, his
mother is dead, poor little fellow--has been dead for some months; and
I should have brought him home before, if it had not been for the
anticipation of all this fuss and explanation. You may therefore tell
any impertinent person who inquires, that Henry is my son by a private
marriage, and that his mother is dead.
"Very well," replied Miss Hayley with an offended air; for she was not
at all pleased with the half-confidence she had received, when she
thought that she had a right to the whole story, and she walked
dignifiedly out of the room.
When she got up to the drawing-room, she found the boy playing about
upon the floor under the charge of one of the maids; and she had a
strong inclination to sulk a little, even with the child. She found it
impossible, however. He would not let her; her own heart would not let
her; and in three days she was doing her best to spoil him completely.
She tried to draw from him--for he could speak very nicely--some of
those facts which her brother had withheld, or at least a clue to
them. She questioned him regarding his "mamma;" but the little fellow
stoutly maintained he had never had a mamma, asserting that "Nurse
Johnston" was the only mamma he had ever had, and she was not his
mamma either, for his papa had told him so. The next thing was to
ascertain, if possible, where he had previously lived; but of that the
boy could tell her nothing but that it was a great, great way off, had
taken a long time to travel thence (which was afterwards reduced to
two or three hours), and that the house had a garden and was opposite
to a toll-gate. All that she could arrive at was, that the boy's first
recollections were of being dressed in a white frock with black
ribbons, and sometimes having on a frock altogether of the same sombre
colour.
In time curiosity died away, and simple love for the dear boy
succeeded. Proper arrangements for his careful education were made; a
nurse was hired; his letters were learnt; Mr. Hayley seemed to dote
upon him, and Miss Hayley actually did so; for a more engaging child
never was seen--kind, gentle, docile, yet playful, bold, and frank.
In the mean while a house had been hired in a more fashionable
situation, the number of servants was increased, a better style of
living assumed; and even Mr. Scriven admitted that Hayley was a very
prudent man, who had waited to see the extent of his means before he
at all increased his expenditure.
Mr. Scriven was not an inquisitive man. He was accustomed to say that
he had too many affairs of his own to allow him to mind other
people's, and he saw the little addition to Mr. Hayley's family
without much comment or inquiry. He was well satisfied with the
assurance which his partner gave him, in answer to the only questions
he did put, that he never intended to marry again; and he even seemed
pleased with and fond of the little boy, whom he frequently saw--as
pleased with and as fond of him as he could be of anything but money.
When little Charles Marston was left under his charge, indeed, by his
sister's death and her husband's absence, he naturally became more
attached to his young relation. Nevertheless, he often had little
Henry Hayley to play with his nephew, and the two boys became
inseparable as they grew up. Henry's manners and disposition won his
way everywhere, and he was looked upon almost as one of the family by
Lady Fleetwood and Lady Monkton. At Bolton Park he was always a most
welcome guest; and a fondness, which might have alarmed some mothers
who had ambitious views for their daughters, arose and increased from
day to day between him and Maria Monkton, who was but a few years
younger.
In the mean time Mr. Hayley's style of living became gradually a good
deal more expensive; and that taste for high society which the elder
Mr. Scriven had remarked showed itself more strongly with his altered
circumstances. The names of several noblemen were added to that of
Lord Mellent on his list of friends; and rumour said that he
occasionally lent money to the more needy of his fashionable
acquaintances. Still his intimacy with his former friend and
schoolfellow continued unabated. Lady Mellent, who was herself the
daughter of a banker, readily adopted her husband's feelings towards
him, and Mr. Hayley was generally a guest at their house on the
Saturday and Sunday.
After having seen their friend's little boy once or twice at Lady
Monkton's house, the noble lord and his lady were as fascinated with
him as others had been; and the next time Mr. Hayley came down to
Harley Lodge, he was asked to bring his son with him. The invitation
was repeated till it became customary; and till he was ten years of
age, each Saturday saw Henry a guest at Lord Mellent's house, and the
companion of his daughter.
Nothing to please or to instruct was spared upon the boy by Mr.
Hayley. He was determined, he said, not to send him to a private
school, and consequently masters were engaged to teach all sorts of
rudimental knowledge at home. He had his pony, too, and a groom was
generally ready to go out with him; but it was remarked that, whenever
he got away from his lessons early, he was soon on the road to Bolton
Park, and roaming about with Maria in her play-hours. At length the
period arrived for sending him to Eton; and now of course he was only
seen during the holidays by his young companions, except by Charles
Marston, who followed him six months after. Both boys distinguished
themselves a good deal at school; but Henry's abilities were decidedly
higher, or his application greater. Nor was this produced by any want
of those inducements to inattention which rich and fond parents often
supply to their children; for Mr. Hayley was a very indulgent father,
and the allowance that he made to his son was more than ample, at
least during the first three years of Henry's stay. Indulgence did not
seem to spoil him. On only two occasions--and they were both
honourable to him--did he go beyond the strict limit of what was
allowed him; and his attachment and devotion to a father who showed
him such tender kindness were unbounded. The course pursued, however,
was undoubtedly foolish. Mr. Hayley had not made a fortune: it was
still to make; and his over-liberality towards his son in matters of
expense generated habits which could only be kept up in after life by
a very wealthy man.
During the period of the holidays the gay, happy lad was still a
frequent guest at Bolton Park and Harley Lodge. He was very tall,
finely formed, and of a remarkably handsome and expressive
countenance, older both in look and in manner than his years, and yet
with all the grace and frankness of boyhood unimpaired. There was
something noble and even proud about his look, too, although he was as
gentle as the spring; and if, considering his youth, his habits were
expensive, he could hardly be blamed, seeing that Mr. Hayley did
nothing to restrain them; and his aunt, whose fondness for him had now
grown to a pitch of extravagance, did everything that excessive
indulgence could do to encourage them. He had but to ask and to have;
and as he had never been taught the value of money, of course it had
no value in his eyes.
The period at which youth puts on manhood varies very much in
different individuals, and Henry Hayley looked and was two years
nearer maturity at fourteen than his young companion, Charles Marston,
who was not quite a year younger. Nevertheless, Lady Monkton always
saw him the companion of her daughter with pleasure. She let things
take their course, and did not even think fit to foresee a time when
the intimacy must receive a check. This very unworldly view depended
upon her own character. Though a sensible girl and a very sensible
woman, she had never had the slightest share of ambition. She
considered that happiness consists of happiness; which, simple as the
conclusion may seem, is a view that very few people indeed take. She
did not believe that she would have been in the slightest degree
happier with her own husband if he had been a peer: she was sure she
should not have been less happy if he had been a merchant; and she
left Maria to choose for herself, without the slightest precaution as
to how she might choose, except inasmuch as she resolved that she
should never have the opportunity, if she could prevent it, of
choosing a Sir John Fleetwood.
Not so, however, Lady Mellent, who became somewhat uneasy at young
Henry Hayley's constant association with her daughter. It is true that
she was only ten years of age; it is true that the lad's boyish
prepossessions were evidently in favour of Maria Monkton; but still
she thought it right to represent to Lord Mellent that "Henry was
really growing quite a young man;" that "boyish intimacies often
ripened into more tender feelings;" that "as Anne grew up, it would
not do to have such a thing as an attachment even reported between her
and young Hayley;" with a number of the usual etceteras.
But her representations had not the least effect upon Lord Mellent.
Henry was now his great favourite. He took him out to shoot with him;
he mounted him; he took him out to hunt; and he never was happier than
when the lad was with him. His society also was of great advantage to
Henry Hayley; for, though Lord Mellent had in his young days been both
an extravagant and a somewhat dissipated man, yet there was at bottom
a fund of strong good sense and high principle in his character, which
had shown itself in a complete change of habits and pursuits after his
marriage--in the casting off of all dissolute associates, and the
abandonment of all evil or dangerous customs. Lady Mellent felt a
little piqued perhaps at her husband's great fondness for the handsome
boy. She felt sure, and perhaps not unreasonably, that Lord Mellent
regretted he had not a son such as Henry Hayley; but she was too
good-humoured and too indolent to press her opinions after they had
once been expressed, and everything went on as before.
Thus all matters proceeded till Henry returned from Eton for the
summer holidays, when he was somewhat more than fifteen years of age;
but on his arrival at his father's house he found a great change had
worked itself during his last absence. Mr. Hayley was gloomy and
depressed; Miss Hayley was evidently uneasy, though a fitful and
excessive cheerfulness was assumed to cover care and thought. No
explanation was given him; and on the second day after his arrival,
finding that even his presence, which usually spread sunshine around,
and all his efforts to please and amuse, which never before had been
unsuccessful, failed to cheer his home, he betook himself to call upon
his young companion, Charles Marston.
Charles was out--he had gone down to his uncle's counting-house, the
servant said; and thither Henry followed to ask him if he would ride
to Bolton Park. He did not find him in the city; but he met with Mr.
Scriven, who was particularly kind to him, asked after his progress in
his studies, inquired especially into his knowledge of arithmetic, and
questioned him as to how he should like to be a merchant. Nay, more:
having a little time to spare, he gave him some of his own views of
commercial matters, and seemed anxious to impress him favourably with
the pursuits in which his own life was entirely spent. It was really
kind--and he intended it to be so. The lady did not much like the
subject; but with his usual sense of propriety he listened with
attention, looked at some books which Mr. Scriven showed him, and
though he did not express any great liking for a mercantile life,
replied gaily that he doubted not he should soon bend himself to any
course which his father thought fit for him to follow.
A certain feeling of shyness, he knew not well why, prevented him from
turning his horse's head towards Bolton Park without Charles Marston;
but he had no such feelings in riding to Harley Lodge. There, however,
he learned that Lord Mellent had been for some weeks in the north of
England, attending upon his father, who was dangerously ill; and after
having lunched gaily with Lady Mellent and her daughter, he rode back
to London, and went to call upon Lady Fleetwood, who had by this time
taken up her abode in a small house in London.
Here, for the first time, Henry Hayley was informed of the real
situation of his father. Lady Fleetwood was the best creature in the
world, and the best creature in the world is always anxious to comfort
everybody that requires comforting. It very often happens, indeed,
that the objects of this kind influence do not know that they need it,
and then the effect of the effort is generally the reverse of what was
intended.
Lady Fleetwood, with the "best intentions," began the process by
assuring her young friend that she was very sorry indeed for the
differences between her brother and Mr. Hayley--the whole family were
very sorry, and had long hoped that it might be made up; but that her
brother had always been very firm--Lady Fleetwood would not call it
obstinate, though that was what she meant to imply; but she was a
woman of soft words, who never used a harsh expression in her life.
However, her consolations showed Henry Hayley that there was something
in his situation which needed consolation, and he proceeded to
ascertain from Lady Fleetwood what it was. In regard to keeping a
secret, it was a thing which Lady Fleetwood did not often succeed in
effecting, though she sometimes attempted it; and Henry soon learned
that Mr. Scriven, having heard, or discovered, or suspected, that Mr.
Hayley occasionally frequented a fashionable gambling-house, had about
two months before insisted upon an immediate dissolution of
partnership. The accounts were even then in course of settlement, Lady
Fleetwood told him; and she added, that she was very sorry to hear Mr.
Hayley was likely to be greatly embarrassed by this business, as some
speculations on his own private account had proved unsuccessful.
"She could not understand it," she said, "for she knew nothing of
business; but she recollected quite well having heard her brother say,
at the time of her father's death, that the eighth share of the
business was worth more than thirty thousand pounds."
Henry Hayley left her with a heart terribly depressed. He felt himself
compelled to think, and think deeply, for the first time in life; and
that very fact proved depressing. When we first learn that the flowers
of the garden, which this world generally is to youth, are doomed to
wither, by seeing the fair, frail things fade and fall, the heart
feels faint with apprehension lest they should never bloom again, nor
others rise up in their places. But the mind of the lad was a powerful
one, disposed for thought and apt for action.
"My father is ruined," he thought, "and perhaps his indulgence to me
may have contributed to involve him. More than one-half of the
_fellows_ at Eton were not allowed to spend nearly as much as I was,
and none more." Then came the thought, "What can I do to help him?"
It was a difficult question for a boy to answer, but Henry brooded
over it. Everything he saw at home showed him that his conclusions in
regard to Mr. Hayley's circumstances were but too just. All matters
were going amiss, and his father's gloom was not to be mistaken. The
young lad pondered and meditated in his own room for several hours
each day, without arriving at any satisfactory result; but one morning
he called to mind his interview with Mr. Scriven, and that gentleman's
marked kindness towards him. He remembered the peculiar and unusual
character of their conversation; and he could not help thinking that
Mr. Scriven, in asking how he would like to be a merchant, had sought
to point out to him the best course he could pursue.
"I will be a merchant," he said to himself; "I may help even as a
clerk, and at all events relieve my father of the burden of supporting
me."
The next step was to inquire how he was to proceed. He had a natural
repugnance to going to Mr. Scriven again; yet, as Mr. Hayley had not
mentioned to him his changed circumstances, he was anxious to keep his
proceedings a secret at home till his arrangements were formed. Had
not Lord Mellent been at a distance, Henry would have gone to him
direct for counsel in his strait; for the frank kindness which that
nobleman had ever shown him had won the boy's confidence entirely.
But, cut off from that source of advice, he was obliged to act without
consolation; and after long deliberation, he one morning put on his
hat and issued forth to call upon Mr. Scriven.
When he was within a couple of hundred yards of the counting-house, he
saw his father approaching with a quick and hurried step, his brow
clouded and his eyes bent anxiously upon the ground. He was apparently
coming from his late house of business, and was at some distance, when
one of two merchants who were walking in the same direction as Henry,
and close before him, observed to the other, "Ah! here comes poor
Hayley. I am afraid the game's up with him."
"I cannot be sorry for him," replied the other, in a dry, harsh tone:
"he has acted like a fool."
The next moment Mr. Hayley approached, still with the same thoughtful
air; and probably in his reverie he would have passed even his son,
had not the two men who had been speaking of him stopped him with the
ordinary inquiries of the morning. He answered shortly, but on raising
his eyes saw Henry before him, and inquired somewhat eagerly whither
he was going.
"I am going to call on Mr. Scriven," replied the lad; "I have not seen
him for several days, and he was very kind to me when last I was
there."
"Stop, stop!" said Mr. Hayley; and then, after pausing for a few
moments, and fixing his eye gloomily upon the pavement, he added,
"Well--go," and hurried on.
The lad pursued his way to the counting-house and inquired for Mr.
Scriven. He was asked to wait a few minutes, and then ushered into a
large handsome room, where the head of the house usually sat.
"Ah, Henry!" he said, in a tone frank enough, "did you not meet your
father?"
"Yes, sir," replied the youth; "I met him close to the door."
"Did he say anything particular to you?" demanded Mr. Scriven.
"No; he only asked where I was going," replied Henry, "and when I told
him, he said 'Very well, go on.'"
"Humph!" said Mr. Scriven. "Have you any business to speak about, my
young friend? or is this merely a call?"
"I can hardly call it business, sir," replied Henry, coming to the
point at once; "but you were kind enough when last I saw you to talk
about my becoming a merchant. I have been thinking over the matter
since, and I have made up my mind to be one, if I can."
"Have you spoken to your father on the subject?" asked Mr. Scriven.
"No, sir," answered the lad in his usual candid manner; "I see he is
very uneasy about something. I am afraid that I have been a great
burden to him, and I want, if possible, to put myself in the way of
relieving him rather than pressing upon him."
Mr. Scriven gazed upon him with a look of some surprise, and then
said, "And have you not spoken with him upon the subject at all?"
"Not in the least," answered Henry: "I hope you do not think it wrong,
for I wish only to do what is right. But as my father has not said a
word to me about his affairs, and perhaps I may be found not to have
abilities for what I desire to undertake, I thought it would be better
not to say anything till I had tried, and then if I fail he would not
be disappointed."
"You are a singular boy, upon my word," said Mr. Scriven; "Do you
propose, then, to go as a clerk upon trial?"
"I do not know what steps I ought to take," replied Henry, "and that
is the very subject upon which I came to ask your advice."
Mr. Scriven mused for a moment, and then called for his head clerk.
"Is young Hamilton likely to return to business soon?" he inquired, as
soon as the clerk appeared.
"I am afraid not, sir," replied the other: "they tell me he is in a
deep decline."
"Very well," said Mr. Scriven, and the clerk retired. An important
conversation followed, though it was not a very long one; for all Mr.
Scriven's ideas and expressions were so clear and precise that he got
through much matter very rapidly. His counting-house was now without
one of the usual clerks; and he proposed to Henry Hayley, as a favour
to the young man--though in fact it was some assistance to himself--to
come to his house for three or four hours each day, and do part, at
least, of the work of the sick lad who could not attend. He left him
to tell his father or not as he pleased; but he made such arrangements
as to hours that the communication need not be forced upon him. Henry
accepted the offer joyfully, and returned home with a lightened heart.
But in the mean time Mr. Scriven looked out for another clerk in the
place of the one who was ill; for, though he had no objection to give
the son of his late partner the opportunity of learning a little of
mercantile affairs, and keeping some of his books for him at the same
time, he had not the slightest intention of taking Henry Hayley into
his counting-house.
"That would never do," he said: "the connection between his father and
myself must be altogether broken off. It is lucky I discovered his
habits so soon, before he had shaken my credit while he was ruining
his own."
CHAPTER IV.
Daily, to the tick of the clock, at the appointed hour Henry Hayley
was at Mr. Scriven's counting-house, and earnestly and steadily did he
apply. He became a great favourite with the head clerk and the
cashier, whom he assisted alternately; and a quick and intelligent
mind and retentive memory enabled him in ten days to master more than
many other lads of his age would have acquired in as many months. Mr.
Scriven himself he seldom saw; but that gentleman found that he was
very useful, and likely to become more so; and he was inclined to
regret that insuperable objections would prevent him from retaining
him as a clerk. He suffered no hint of his intentions to escape to the
youth himself, however, till he had found the sort of person he wanted
for his office; and Henry was indulging sanguine hopes, and preparing
to tell his father all that had occurred, when Mr. Scriven dashed his
expectations to the ground at once by informing him, with all decent
civility, that in a week a new clerk would come to fill the place he
had lately been occupying.
"You have now seen enough of mercantile life, my young friend," he
added, "to judge whether it is likely to suit your tastes or not. I
think you seem well fitted for it; and if you decide upon such
pursuits, I will do all I can to assist you."
With this promise Henry Hayley was obliged to content himself; but he
returned home sad, and he soon had occasion for deeper anxiety.
Mr. Hayley, was out all the evening and a great part of the night. His
sister was evidently in an agony of expectation; and from some casual
words she dropped, as well as from almost instinctive suspicions in
his own heart, the lad could not help fearing that his father had
betaken himself to the gaming-table again. He sat up with Miss Hayley
till her brother came home; but though Mr. Hayley's face was pale and
his eye haggard with strong excitement, it was evident that he was
elated, not depressed. The truth is, he had won a considerable sum of
money, and, to use the idiot expression of persons of his habits, it
seemed that the luck had turned in his favour. The next morning, just
as he was going out, an execution was put into the house. It is true,
the money was paid immediately; but it showed Henry clearly, for the
first time, how low his father's means had been reduced.
He now resolved at once to tell Mr. Hayley what he had done, to
explain to him his feelings and his wishes without reserve, and to
beseech him in existing circumstances not to send him back to Eton,
but to obtain for him the office of clerk in some mercantile house.
With a good deal of timidity, but with that grace which springs from
the warmth of natural affection, he executed the task without giving
himself time to shrink from it.
Mr. Hayley listened with utter astonishment, and for some moments
seemed not to know what to reply. His first answer consisted of
nothing but broken, incoherent fragments of sentences and
exclamations. "You, Henry!--you!" he cried--"you acting as clerk to
that fellow Scriven! The rascal! he has cheated me of thousands, and
does not pay even what he acknowledges he owes me--forsooth, there may
be other claims. To debase you to be his servant!"
After a moment or two he became more collected, however, though he
remained greatly agitated through their whole conversation. "No,
Henry," he continued, turning to the subject of his son's future
prospects; "no--a mercantile life is not fitted for you, nor you for
it. I cannot consent, neither do I think it will be needful. This
pressure is but temporary, and I trust something will _turn up_ to set
things to rights."
He then paused, and walked up and down the room for several minutes in
deep thought; and then turning again to Henry, he took his hand,
saying with sorrowful gravity, "I must not conceal from you, my dear
boy, that affairs are very bad with me at present. Mr. Scriven's
unjust, tyrannical, and pitiful conduct has done all that he could do
to ruin me; but he shall not succeed--by ----, he shall not succeed!
This does not affect you, however. There is--there is a little
something settled upon you, and no Scriven on earth can hurt you.
There is quite enough to pay for your education at Eton, so do not let
that trouble you. But I think you could do me a service, Henry, though
you are very young, my dear boy, to trust with such things. Yet it is
the only way. Still, I do not like to ask you."
"Oh, name it, my dear father! name it!" exclaimed Henry. "Do you not
know that, if it were my life, I would willingly lay it down for you?"
"Oh, your life!" replied Mr. Hayley, smiling. "No, it is nothing so
important as that. It is only to execute a task which I have a foolish
reluctance to undertake myself. The fact is, this pressure is but
temporary, and ten days will see it all at an end; yet in the course
of those ten days I have several thousand pounds to pay, and look
here, Henry--this is all I have in the world to pay it with;" and
opening a drawer, he showed him about two hundred pounds in gold,
adding, "There is not a sixpence at the bankers'."
"But what can I do?" demanded Henry Hayley, with youthful terror at
the dark prospect so suddenly placed before him. "I have got ten
pounds up-stairs, but that is nothing."
"Nothing, indeed," answered Mr. Hayley with a faint smile, "and there
is only one person to whom I can apply for assistance; yet I have
shrunk from telling him the whole, though I have written, giving him
some notion of my state--I mean my friend Lord Mellent."
"But he is absent!" exclaimed Henry. "I went down to Harley Lodge, and
found he was in the north."
"That is true," said Mr. Hayley, "and doubtless his close attendance
on his father--a violent, harsh, and capricious man at all times, and
now rendered probably more exacting by sickness--has prevented him
from answering my letter. Now, Henry, what I wish you to do for me is
this: go down to Lord Mellent in the north, see him, and tell him
exactly the state of my affairs. I have not nerve for it myself; for I
will be candid with you, Henry: driven almost to madness, I have done
many things which I regret, and which I will never do again. Mellent
would ask me many questions--he will ask you none. He is my oldest
friend in the world, and has always, as you know, shown a very great
fondness for yourself. He will not, I am sure, refuse you, if you ask
him to lend me two thousand pounds for but one month. But press him
warmly; tell him it must be done directly if he would save me from
ruin. If he hesitates, make it your own request, and get him to give
you a draft for it. Then hurry up as speedily as possible; for
remember, if I have it not in seven days, I am lost."
"But if he has not got as much ready money as two thousand pounds?"
said Henry.
"He has! he has!" exclaimed Mr. Hayley vehemently: "he had nine
thousand pounds at his bankers' when he went away."
"Then I am sure he will lend it," replied Henry in a confident tone;
"I am quite certain."
"I think so too," said Mr. Hayley; "I have no doubt you will succeed."
"Oh, yes, to a certainty," answered the inexperienced boy. "I will
just write a note to Mr. Scriven, saying that I cannot attend any
longer, and then I am ready to set out."
"You must travel by the mail, my dear boy," replied Mr. Hayley, "so
you will have time enough. We cannot afford post-horses now, Henry. As
to writing to Mr. Scriven, let me see--yes, you had better write, and
I would moreover advise you to go there no more. He has used me
shamefully, and he knows it. I must see him from time to time on
business, but all friendship is at an end between us for ever."
"I shall certainly not go to one who has treated my father in such a
manner," replied the lad, "and I will write to him directly, telling
him merely that I do not intend to visit his counting-house any more."
Thus saying, he left the room, and Mr. Hayley continued for several
minutes buried in deep thought. At length he said in a low tone, "He
will lend it certainly--oh, yes, he will not refuse the boy. If he
does send the money--and I think he will--he must--then I could take
up the bill before it becomes due."
He then opened the drawer again, took out a small tin case, and from
that drew forth a long slip of paper with a stamp at one end and a few
brief lines written on the face. He gazed at it for a moment, and then
thrust it back again, saying, "I won't till the last extremity. Yet I
have a right: he owes me the money, and should have paid it without
this quibbling evasion. I am a partner of the house, too, till it is
paid; I have a right to consider myself so." But still he closed the
drawer, and locked it, putting the key in his pocket.
About an hour after, a gentleman was admitted to Mr. Hayley--a
stern-looking, business-like person, who remained with him for about
half-an-hour; and their conversation was somewhat loud and stormy--so
at least it seemed to the servants in the hall. When the visiter came
forth his face was flushed; and holding the door in his hand, he said
aloud, "Not another hour, sir!--not another hour! Twelve to-morrow,
and if not, why----."
"My dear sir--" said the voice of Mr. Hayley imploringly.
"My dear sir! Stuff and nonsense!" cried the other. "I am not your
dear sir," and he walked out of the house.
Mr. Hayley passed two or three hours alone. His sister Rebecca was
very anxious, and made an excuse to go to his sitting-room; but she
found the door locked and her brother from within begged not to be
disturbed, as he was busy with accounts.
Henry walked away to the mail-office and took a place for the north;
but he had no spirits to call on any one, and returning slowly, he did
not reach home till about half-past three.
"Your papa has been asking for you, sir," said the servant who
admitted him; and almost at the same moment Mr. Hayley opened his
door, saying, "Henry, Henry! here!--I want you."
Henry entered the room, and Hayley put in his hands the slip of paper
with the stamp upon it which he had been gazing at some hours before;
but there was now something written across it.
"I wish you would take that, my dear boy, to my bankers', and ask to
see Mr. Stolterforth, the head partner. You know Mr. Stolterforth, I
think?"
"Oh, very well," replied the lad.
"Well, then, give him that, and say I should feel very much obliged to
him if he will let me have a thousand pounds upon it. He will do it
directly, I am sure, and perhaps may offer to discount it; for it is
for eighteen hundred, and has only seven days to run; but you may tell
him I do not want to put it into circulation--because, you see, it was
given by Mr. Scriven in settlement of an account which is not yet
finally made up, and there may be some difference, I do not know
what--a few hundred pounds--you understand?"
Mr. Hayley's hand shook a good deal as he gave the lad the paper, and
he seemed to think it needed some explanation; for, when Henry replied
that he understood perfectly, his father added, "It annoys me very
much to do this at all; for if Scriven were to know it, my credit
would be seriously injured by it. You may tell Mr. Stolterforth that,
and mind you let him know I do not want it to get into circulation."
Henry promised to do so, and putting on his hat again, he walked
quietly away to the bankers'. Being well known there, he was admitted
at once to the head partner, showed him the accepted bill, and
delivered his message calmly and accurately. The banker at once agreed
to do what was required; asked him several questions, indeed, which he
could not answer, but showed no hesitation; and after one or two
formalities, gave him the money, which he chose to have principally in
gold, thinking it might be more convenient for his father's payments.
Henry then got into a hackney-coach and drove away. Mr. Hayley was
dreadfully pale when his son returned to him, but he seemed rejoiced
to see the money, and immediately proceeded to speak of Henry's
journey. He gave him twenty pounds in gold, and then added fifty
pounds in five-pound notes, which Henry would fain have declined,
saying he could have no use for them; but Mr. Hayley urged that
accidents might occur, and impressed upon him strongly that he must be
up before that day week, adding, "Should it be necessary, take a
chaise, for time may be more valuable than money."
The lad's portmanteau was soon packed up, some dinner was provided for
him, and at the proper hour he set out for the coach-office, took his
seat, and was carried away from London.
Mail-coaches were then the quickest conveyances. The northern mail was
supposed to travel at the rate of eight miles an hour, including
stoppages; and on the young man was hurried from the capital towards
Northumberland, squeezed up in a hot summer night with an enormously
fat woman and a tolerably stout man. The distance he had to go was
about three hundred and twenty miles, and the town where he was to get
out was Belford, between which place and Wooler the mansion of the
Earl of Milford was situated. Farther he knew nothing of his road,
except that at Belford he should be able to obtain information. Night
set in soon after he left London, and both his companions were
speedily asleep; for they were of the taciturn breed, on which even
the aspect of youth has no more effect than beauty upon a stone. They
snored hard and sonorously, especially the man, woke up for a moment
into half-slumbering consciousness while the horses were being
changed, and then were as sound asleep as ever. Wherever provisions
were to be had, indeed, the lady roused herself, and proceeded to the
business of the hour with marvellous activity, considering her age and
weight; but at most other times she was as silent as her companion,
who seemed to consider that locomotion was the proper and natural
stimulus to slumber.
The forty weary hours passed at length, very few words having been
spoken; but the mail was not yet at Belford--indeed, it never was--and
two more hours went by before the small town appeared. It was at that
time very dull and dirty; and as he looked up at the sign of the "Old
Bell," Henry felt the place had a sort of desolate aspect, which made
the prospect of sleeping at Milford Castle very pleasant in
comparison.
The landlord of the "Bell," however, had no intention of suffering him
to depart so easily. Milford Castle, he assured him, was full sixteen
miles to the westward; and when Henry replied that the distance did
not matter, as he must go on that night, having business to transact,
the worthy host discovered that all his horses were out, and would not
return till two or three in the morning.
As there was no other house in the town which kept post-horses, Henry
was obliged to be content, and ordering a light dinner, he determined
to sit and doze by the fire till the horses returned. The landlord so
contrived, however--what between the necessity of giving food and rest
to cattle which were all the time in the stable, and the late hour at
which they were reported to return from a journey they had never
made--that the young traveller was obliged to remain all night and
breakfast the next morning at the "Bell."
Still, little more than eight-and-forty hours had passed since he had
left London when once more he was on the way again. He had been
allowed six whole days to complete his task; and the coming time, to
the mind of youth, is always long in proportion to the shortness of
the past.
It was a bright morning when he set out again for Milford, and all
looked gay and hopeful; but fatigue and impatience had done much to
diminish confidence, and the way seemed interminably long, the postboy
preternaturally slow. Half-way there, it was found necessary to stop
and feed the horses; and although Henry endeavoured, with a look of
importance, to enforce the necessity of great speed, he was too young
for his commands to be received with any great deference.
At about nine o'clock, however, a little village between bare, high
banks presented itself--a mere hamlet, with a chandler's shop and a
public-house--and shortly after were seen large gates and a lodge. The
gates were opened by an old woman, who seemed, like the few stunted
trees around, to have been bent by the prevailing wind; but a drive of
two miles through the large, wild park was still before the young
traveller. The scenery certainly improved, and gave him some
objects of interest to look at; the trees became large and fine;
pleasantly-varied hill and dale succeeded to round-backed rises; and
occasional glimpses of an old grey mansion-house caught his eyes as he
strained his sight out of the front windows of the chaise. The house
disappeared again in thick plantations as he got nearer, and it was
with surprise that he found himself suddenly driving up to the doors.
He was too much accustomed to good society to feel anything like
shyness, but yet he was somewhat anxious; and, advancing his head as
near the window as possible without putting it out, he looked up over
the house with some curiosity as the postboy rang the great bell.
To his consternation he perceived that all the windows were closed,
and bidding the driver open the door, he jumped out.
No one answered the summons of the bell, and he rang it again after
waiting several minutes. It required a third application to bring any
one out, and then it was merely a slipshod country servant, who came
round from the back of the house without condescending to open the
great doors.
Her first salutation was, "What d'ye want, man? Don't you know that
the old lord is dead, and they are gone to take the corpse over to
Wales, to the place where they're all booried?"
Henry professed his ignorance of all this, and anxiously desired to
know where the young lord was to be found. The girl, however, could
give him no information, but referred him to the steward, who lived
across the park--only adding, "It's a pity ye didn't come this time
yestermorn, for then ye'd have found the young lord and the old lord
too--only he was dead, poor body."
To the steward's house Henry then betook himself; but the steward
himself was out, and his wife could only tell the visiter that he was
likely to find the present earl at Caermarthen, as he was to meet the
body of his father there, the family vault being in that
neighbourhood. An Eton boy's knowledge of geography, at the age of
fifteen or sixteen, is not usually very great, for the most important
objects of education are generally those the most neglected in this
happy country; but still Henry was aware that he would be nearer
Caermarthen at Wooler than at Belford. The driver was indeed unwilling
to go that road, and his reluctance was only overcome by a promise of
good payment. The greater part of the day, however, was wasted by all
the delays he had encountered; and although he was resolved to go on
under any circumstances and find his father's friend, yet the journey
was a long one, and he felt puzzled and apprehensive.
Luckily, at Wooler he found an intelligent landlord, who gave him some
serviceable information regarding the line of his journey; and after
writing a brief note to Mr. Hayley, informing him of what had
occurred, he resumed his expedition, resolved to travel night and day.
This was not so easily achieved as determined; but I need not follow
him through all the difficulties that beset him. Suffice it, that at
Preston his gold fell short, and he was obliged to change one of the
notes which had been given him by Mr. Hayley. This occurred again
before he reached Caermarthen; for, though he was anxious to pursue
his course as economically as possible, stage-coaches were scanty,
their hours were often inconvenient, and he recollected with a feeling
of apprehension the last expression of his father, "Time is more
valuable than money." Eagerly--I might say vehemently--he hurried on;
but still the long, long journey from one side of the island to the
other occupied far more time than he had expected. Sometimes horses
could not be had; at others a whole hour was wasted rousing ostlers
and postboys; then came slow drivers and hilly countries, bad roads
and worse horses.
The fifth day from that of his departure was drawing towards its close
when he at length reached Caermarthen, weary, exhausted, and feeling
ill. Still, before he took any refreshment at the inn, he inquired for
the family seat of the Earl of Milford. The waiter could tell him
nothing about it; the landlord was sent for, and proved more
communicative. It lay at twelve or thirteen miles' distance, he said.
"But if you have come for the funeral, sir," he added, looking at the
lad with a good deal of interest, "you are too late. It took place
early this morning; and the new lord--that is, Lord Mellent as
was--passed through about four hours ago, on his way back to London."
"I must follow him directly," said Henry, almost wildly. "I have
business of the greatest importance with him."
"Then you had better take a place in the mail, sir," said the
landlord: "it starts from this house, and you will save more time by
it than by posting. It starts at two, and it's now nine; but between
this and town you'd lose more than five hours by getting out horses
and slow going."
Henry's experience showed him that what the good man said was true.
The mail must bring him into London just at the beginning of the fatal
seventh day; by posting he might delay his arrival; and he thought, if
he reached his father's house by five in the morning, there would
still be time enough, before business hours began, for Mr. Hayley to
see the earl and obtain his assistance.
His course therefore was soon determined, his place in the mail
secured, and during the time he had to stay, he endeavoured to refresh
and strengthen himself for his onward journey. Even in the gay and
bounding days of youth, the mind is in sad slavery to the body.
Fatigue and exhaustion will make the aspect of all things gloomy, and
rest and food will restore their brightness. The landlady at
Caermarthen was a good, kind, motherly woman; and taking the weary
young traveller into her parlour, she soon provided him with a light
supper, and a few glasses of wine added revived the lad's spirits
greatly. He eased the aching of his limbs by walking up and down the
room, and when the mail was ready to start felt quite equal to the
fatigue. There was no other passenger in the inside, and he amused
himself as best he could, sometimes by sleeping, sometimes after
daybreak by gazing out at the prospect. At length night began to fall
again, and Henry fell asleep once more. He was awakened by the coach
stopping to change horses. All was ready, and in haste the beasts were
put to; but while he was looking out of the window there was a good
deal of bustle at the inn door, and he saw something carried in by
three or four men. He had no time, however, to make inquiries, for the
coachman was mounting his box, and the next moment the mail dashed
off.
Two stages farther on, it was announced to him that a quarter of an
hour was allowed for supper; and as he got out he inquired of the
guard what was the matter a couple of stages behind.
"Why, the gentleman's carriage had been overturned at the bridge,
sir," replied the guard, "and he had been stunned, with what they call
a concussion of the brain, Mrs. White said; so they were carrying him
in. That was what you saw, I dare say."
"Do you know who he was?" demanded Henry, with feelings of
unaccountable alarm.
"Oh, yes, sir," replied the man: "I saw him at Caermarthen yesterday.
It's the young lord whose father's just dead and buried. He's like
enough to be soon dead and buried too, for he's badly hurt, and his
carriage all dashed to smash."
A moment of bewildering uncertainty succeeded. Henry asked himself
first, should he go back? then, for what purpose? But he soon saw that
to do so would serve none. He could not see and speak to Lord Mellent
in such a state; and he resolved to hurry on, though to be the
bearer of such disastrous tidings to his father made his heart
sink. He ate no supper; he slept no more; and driver and horses being
good, he arrived at the General Post-office a little after four. A
hackney-coach was soon obtained, the guard and coachman were feed, and
before five he was at his father's house.
The instant the coach stopped, the door was opened by Mr. Hayley
himself, and Henry sprang out to meet him.
"Put the portmanteau in the hall, and wait," said Mr. Hayley to the
coachman; and holding Henry's hand, he led him towards his own
sitting-room. The lad saw that his father was pale and haggard, and he
dreaded the effect of what he had to tell; but still he would not
delay, and even as they went to the room the main facts were poured
forth. To his surprise, Mr. Hayley seemed hardly to listen; and when
they were in the study, he locked the door and gazed earnestly at the
boy.
His words were short, sharp, and to the lad seemed wild. "Henry," he
said, "you love me, I think--do you not?"
Henry gazed in his face, utterly astounded.
"I know you do," his father added; "I am sure you do. Now, my dear
boy, you can prove it. You can save my life--my honour."
"How?--how?" cried the boy. "I will do all--anything you please, my
dear father; only tell me what.
"It is, Henry, to get into that coach again and drive down to
Blackwall. You will there find a steamer ready to start for Rotterdam
at six in the morning. Embark in her; from Rotterdam go up the Rhine,
through Germany to Italy, and stay at Ancona till you hear from me.
Here are money and a passport."
"But why?--why?" asked the boy earnestly. "Oh, tell me all, for fear I
make any mistake."
Mr. Hayley grasped his arm very tight, and bending down his head,
whispered in a voice hardly audible, yet stern too--"Henry, that bill
which you took to the bankers' was forged--_I_ forged it! If you stay,
you must stay to be a witness against me and condemn me to death."
The young man sank down in a chair, with a face so pale that his
father thought he was going to faint. "Here, take some wine," he said,
pouring him out a tumbler-full from a decanter that stood on the
table, and Henry drank it all.
The father gazed upon his face with a look of agonised expectation,
while the lad put his hand to his head, as if to recover his scattered
thoughts.
"But they will say I did it," he murmured at length. "I shall be an
exile for ever, and never see you more."
"They will say you did it," replied Mr. Hayley; "they think, even now,
you did it. I was obliged to deny I sent you, even to gain time; for
it was discovered last night, and an officer set off into
Northumberland immediately to seek you. Do as you will, Henry. You now
know all; but it you stay, I will go and give myself up directly. You
shall see me again if you go, for as soon as the inquiry is over I
will come and join you. But no time is to be lost--your resolution
must be taken in five minutes."
"I will go!--I will go!" said the lad faintly; "but, oh, my father!
give me means of proving my innocence hereafter."
"I have it ready," said Mr. Hayley; "I have thought of all--prepared
all. Look here," and taking up a paper he read--"'I, Stephen Hayley,
acknowledge that the acceptance of Mr. Henry Scriven to a bill'" (I
need not read all that) "'was forged by me, and that my son took it to
Messrs. Stolterforth's by my orders, without knowing it to be forged.'
Then further I state, as you may see, that you go abroad to save me.
Now, Henry, my life is in your hands--act as you like." And sinking
down into a chair, he covered his eyes with his hands.
The next instant Henry's hand was laid upon his arm. "I am going," he
said: "farewell, my father! farewell!"
"Stay! stay!" said Mr. Hayley, starting up: "remember the
passport--and the money, too. Here are two hundred napoleons--they go
everywhere. Ah, Henry! dear, good lad!--your consolation must be that
you have saved your father's life."
Henry made no reply, but the tears fell over his cheeks. Mr. Hayley
pressed him to his heart; it was a selfish one, but still gratitude
did mingle with rejoicing for his own safety. In five minutes more he
was in the coach, with another portmanteau which had been prepared for
him the night before by his father, bearing marked upon it, "Henry
Calvert, Esq. passenger by 'City of Antwerp.'" On looking at the
passport he found the same name therein, and saw (for that Mr. Hayley
had forgotten to explain) that he was to take that name during his
flight.
In about three-quarters of an hour he stood upon the deck of the
vessel, and in ten minutes after his embarkation she was going quickly
down the river.
The same morning, on the arrival of the Newcastle mail, two officers
in plain clothes had walked up to the side, and examined every
passenger both inside and outside. There were in all three men and two
women; but neither of the men bore the least resemblance to Henry
Hayley, and the officers turned their attention to the coach-offices.
The Caermarthen mail escaped unexplored.
An examination into the affair took place that day at Bow Street; but
it was proved that Henry had, unknown to Mr. Hayley, frequented the
counting-house of Mr. Scriven for more than a fortnight; that he was
anxious to conceal his doing so from his father; that, on the very
morning of his departure for Northumberland, he had written to Mr.
Scriven to say he should come no more; that at four o'clock that day
he had obtained money upon the forged bill, and then gone, no one
rightly knew whither, further than that his journey was towards
Northumberland; for Mr. Hayley took care to give no explanations on
that head.
A thousand little circumstances of no real value, such as some small
bills at Eton left unpaid, tended to make up a mass of evidence
against him; and thus the guilty escaped--if not without doubts, yet
without any charge against him--while the whole weight of suspicion
fell upon the innocent boy, who was sailing away over the sea to
Rotterdam.
CHAPTER V.
The curious state of society in which we exist, and the complex causes
and effects which it comprises--the fictitious, the factitious, the
unreal, the unnatural relations which it establishes between man and
man--are always producing unexpected results and events which no one
can rightly account for, because no one can trace all the fine lines
which connect one piece of the complicated machinery with another. It
must have often struck every thinker who gathers up the passing
events, and marks the impression which they produce upon the world at
large, that matters, often of great moment, will excite little or no
attention--will be slurred over in newspapers, pass without comment in
society, be hardly heard of beyond the narrowest possible circle round
the point at which they take place--while mere trifles will set
Rumour's thousand tongues a-going, men and women will interest
themselves with eager anxiety about things that do not affect them in
the least, and half the world will be on fire as to whether a feather
was blown to the right or the left. The basest political scheme that
ever was practised for depriving a queen of hope, happiness, and
power, and a great country of its independence, will excite far less
attention and curiosity than the disappointment of one priest's
ambition and the compensation of another priest's unmerited
persecution.
When first my attention was directed to this subject, I said, "A
cannon fired in an open country cannot by any chance produce such
terrible results as a spark in a powder-mill. It is not the event
itself that is important, but the things with which it is connected
that make it so." But I soon became convinced that this explanation,
though specious, was not true--at least, that there was something
more; that whenever anything made a great noise, it must connect
itself by some of the many hooks and pulleys of society with some of
the loud tongues in high places. By high places I do not mean elevated
stations, but positions in which men can make themselves heard: some
newspaper scribe--one of the things in parliament assembled--a popular
preacher--a mob-orator--is either interested in the matter directly or
indirectly, immediately or remotely, or else has nothing else to do
and wants a hobby, and the whole affair is made the talk of the town.
In short, it were endless to search out, arrange, and classify the
infinite variety of causes which may render any event notorious, or
consign it to speedy oblivion, though it may rend the hearts, ruin the
fortunes, desolate the prospects, and destroy the peace of all within
a certain little circle.
The forgery upon Mr. Scriven made little or no noise in the great
world. The first investigation at Bow Street was fully reported in one
or two of the morning newspapers. Some others, which had no reporters
of their own, abridged it from their "esteemed contemporaries." Others
declared there were no matters of public interest at Bow Street that
day, because they had not room to report more than the donations of
five-pound notes to the poor-box, the receipt of which had been
requested to be acknowledged.
But the event was a terrible one in the midst of those more
immediately interested. Mr. Scriven pursued the inquiry into the facts
with a fierceness and a virulence which had not before appeared in his
nature; and undoubtedly Mr. Hayley himself might have fallen into
danger, had not many little circumstances, some accidental, some
skilfully prepared, combined to fix the guilt upon the innocent.
As an instance of one of those accidents which served to shelter him,
I may mention, that upon the examination of his servants, one of the
footmen deposed, and deposed truly, that three or four days before
Henry's disappearance, Mr. Hayley had been eagerly inquiring if any
one had found a piece of stamped paper--a draft, in short--and seemed
very uneasy about it. Mr. Scriven admitted that Hayley had told him he
had drawn upon him, and that he had refused to accept the draft. Thus,
the body of the document being evidently in Mr. Hayley's handwriting,
and the acceptance, which constituted the forgery, being in a feigned
hand very like that of Mr. Scriven, the inference was established by
the servant's evidence, that Henry had found the draft and used it for
his own purposes.
The fact was, that Mr. Hayley had mislaid the document for some time,
at the period when he first contemplated the forgery, and had inquired
for it anxiously till he found it in the place where he had concealed
it. But many other things occurred in the course of a few days to
confirm the suspicions against the poor boy. Three five-pound notes,
which Henry had changed in his long travelling across England, found
their way to the Bank of England, where the numbers and dates of those
given upon the forged draft had been notified. They were traced back
from hand to hand, till the chain ended with Henry Hayley.
The whole of his wandering course, with a very few intervals, was
tracked by the officer sent in pursuit of him to Northumberland. He
was found to have been at Belford, at Wooler, at Caermarthen, and then
to have come to London in the mail. With the instinct of bloodhounds
the officers pursued their inquiries; got a clue, at the office of the
Dutch consul, to his further course; and, furnished with the necessary
authority, set out for Rotterdam.
Now Mr. Hayley began to tremble, and Mr. Scriven to rejoice.
"We shall soon have him now!" said the latter to Lady Fleetwood,
rubbing his hands; "we shall soon have him now! P---- is not a man to
give up the chase till he has run down his game."
"Why, I am sure, Henry, you do not think him guilty," said Lady
Fleetwood; "nobody that knew him can think so; and even if you did,
you would never wish to destroy the poor lad."
Her brother gazed at her in utter astonishment.
"Do you wish me to think you a fool, Margaret?" he said. "Nobody but
one totally destitute of common sense can doubt his guilt."
"Well, I do, Mr. Scriven," replied Lady Fleetwood, a little nettled.
"I never pretended to any great sense, and I dare say you have a great
deal more; but he was all his life a fine, frank, honourable boy, and
it is not into such a heart as his that a crime enters easily.
However, even if he had done it, I do not think you would be cruel
enough to punish with death a mere boy like that, who could not know
all the criminality of the act."
"I have nothing to do with it," said Mr. Scriven. "It is the law will
punish him, and that soon, I hope, else there will not be a clerk in
all London who will not be forging his master's name, and then
pleading his youth."
"Then I trust, with all my heart, the law won't catch him," said Lady
Fleetwood. "What are a thousand pounds to you, Henry? It would have
been much kinder of you to have paid the money and said nothing about
it."
Mr. Scriven gave her a look of unutterable scorn, and buttoning up his
coat to keep out such ridiculous notions, quitted the house.
He was a good deal surprised, however, to find that even his
clearer-sighted sister, Lady Monkton, in some degree shared the views
of Lady Fleetwood. She expressed herself somewhat more cautiously,
perhaps, but not less firmly, and gave him to understand that, judging
from long observation of Henry's character, nothing would persuade her
that he had been guilty of the act imputed to him.
"Then pray who was it, Lady Monkton?" asked Mr. Scriven sharply.
"That is quite another question, and one that I will not take upon me
to answer," replied Isabella; "but let us drop the subject, for it is
a very, very painful one. We all loved him as if he had been one of
our own relations; and he could not have made himself so loved by
people who saw his whole conduct, if there had been anything
dishonourable or disingenuous in his nature."
"Your love blinds you," replied Mr. Scriven; and Maria Monkton, who
had been drawing at the other end of the room, rose with tears in her
eyes, and went out.
Those who did love the poor lad--and they were many--had soon fresh
cause for grief.
Six weeks passed without anything being heard of the officer who had
gone to seek for the young fugitive. Not a doubt existed in his mind
that the Henry Calvert of the Dutch passport-office was identical with
the Henry Hayley of Bow Street; and, having got a full account of his
person and general appearance, this conviction was strengthened at
Rotterdam, where he traced him to the Bath-house Inn. He thence
pursued him up the Rhine to Cologne, where for two days he could
discover no further track, from his assumed name having been terribly
mutilated in the books.
Stage by stage he pursued him still; sometimes, indeed, almost giving
up the undertaking in despair, but always, by perseverance, gaining
some new clue. Thus, to Munich, Innspruck, Trieste, and Venice, he was
lured on; and there for five days remained baffled, till it struck the
consul that it might be as well to inquire of a celebrated _vetturino_
at Mestre. When they went over, the man was absent with his horses,
and the officer had to wait another day for his return. The subsequent
morning, however, he was more fortunate.
His questions were answered at once. Ten days before, the _vetturino_
said he had carried a young English lad, answering exactly the
description given, to Ancona. Instead of being fresh-coloured, he
stated that the young man was very pale; but then he was ill when he
quitted Mestre, and got worse every day till they reached Ancona.
There the people of the inn would not take him in, for by that time
the youth could not hold up his head at all; and not knowing what to
do with him, nor how to make him understand--for he spoke little
Italian--he had applied at the house of the Franciscan friars, where
he knew there were some Irish monks, and they had charitably received
him. There the officer would find him, he said; and that personage
without pause set out at once for Ancona.
It was night when he reached the city; but he delayed not an instant,
and finding that he could not get aid from the police of the place
before morning, he went at once with a guide to the monastery, to give
notice of his errand, and ensure that the culprit was not suffered to
escape. He had some hopes, indeed, that the monks would give him up at
once; but nothing was opened in answer to the great bell except the
small shutter over a grate in the door. The porter who appeared behind
was an Italian; but the guide could speak a little English, and served
as interpreter.
To the first question, whether a young Englishman of the name of Henry
Calvert was there, the monk replied; he did not know, and to the
officer's demand of admittance returned a direct refusal. The other
explained his errand, but it was of no avail. It was contrary to the
rule, the good brother said; and, whatever was the officer's business,
he could not have admission at that hour.
The latter next demanded to speak with some of the English or Irish
brethren, and after some hesitation the old man went away to bring one
to the gate.
The officer had to wait fully half-an-hour; but at length a lantern
was seen coming across the court, and the shaven head of an elderly
man appeared behind the grating.
"What is it you want, my son?" he asked in English, after gazing at
the officer attentively as he came up.
"I understand, and that upon sufficient evidence," replied the other,
"that within this monastery you have a person named Henry Calvert,
otherwise Hayley, charged with forgery to a large amount. I am the
bearer of a warrant for his apprehension, which I can show you, and I
demand that you deliver up his body to my custody."
"We know nothing of English warrants here," replied the monk, "and the
gates of this convent are opened after nine to no one, either to admit
or to send forth. Go your way, my son, and return to-morrow if needs
must be; but come not without the authority of the state in which you
are, otherwise you will come in vain."
The monk was retiring, but the officer called after him, in somewhat
civiller tones than perhaps his heart dictated, saying--
"Tell me, at least, sir, if the young man is here."
"Perhaps I should be wise to refuse an answer," said the monk, "seeing
that I know you not, neither what right you have to inquire; but as
there are plenty ready to defend any of our just privileges, I will
venture to say that a lad--a mere boy--calling himself Henry Calvert,
is here; but he is, I tell you, at the point of death, having been
brought in sick of the malignant fever which is now raging so fiercely
in those parts of Italy."
"I must see him notwithstanding," said the officer, doggedly; but the
monk waited no further conference, and retired from the gate.
The Londoner and his guide walked back to the inn; and as they went
along through the dark and gloomy streets, a slow and solemn sound,
the tolling of a heavy bell, burst upon the ear.
The next morning, at the earliest possible hour, the officer's
application was made to the police of Ancona. Assistance was
immediately given him, and with his guide and a commissary of the
government he returned to the monastery. The outer gates were now wide
open, and a number of people, monks and others, were passing in and
out. At a small door of the principal building stood the old man he
had seen on the preceding night, and to him the commissary of police
at once led the way. Some conversation took place between them in
Italian, and then the monk turned to the officer, saying--
"This good man, my son, tells me you are duly authorised to take into
your custody the lad named Henry Calvert--otherwise, you say, Hayley.
We do not resist the laws, and he shall be given up to you. Follow
me."
The three men followed across the court to a low wing of the building,
the monk preceding them with a slow and heavy step. They then walked
along a sort of cloister, dry and shady, and at the fifth door on the
right the old man stopped and turned a key.
"There he is!" he said throwing open the door; and the officer
entered.
Upon a low pallet, stripped of its usual coverings, lay a corpse, with
a few flowers strewed upon the bosom. The waxy hue of the face, the
plain ravages of illness, the closed eyes, the emaciated features,
might make a great difference; but still the colour of the hair, the
age, the height, and the general lines of the features, showed the
officer that there indeed before him lay all that remained of the gay,
frank, happy boy.
He gazed on him for a moment or two, and even ne was moved in some
degree.
"When did he die?" he asked in a low tone.
"Last night, five minutes before ten," answered the monk: "when I
returned to him, after seeing you, he was in the agony."
Another pause succeeded; and then the monk, pointing to an English
portmanteau, which stood in the corner of the cell, said--
"I am ordered to give that and its contents into your custody. There
are, besides, this pocket-book, containing the passport with which he
travelled, and some bank-notes. He had also a small sum in gold and
silver with him, for which the convent will account to the police, and
the police to your own consul, after the expenses of the funeral are
paid. Can you tell me whether he was a Catholic or not?--we are
troubled about the burial."
"I don't know, I am sure," replied the officer; but he then added,
with a desire to avoid any unpleasant proceeding, "I dare say he was a
Catholic--I think I have heard so."
"Then he shall have Catholic interment," replied the monk, and after a
few more questions the officer withdrew.
The portmanteau was put into a hired carriage and conveyed to the inn;
the notes were compared with a list which the officer carried, and
found to correspond with seven of the numbers there inscribed; and
after a conference with the British consul, the Bow Street runner took
his departure from Ancona, saying--
"The old monk declared there was only a small sum in gold. I know
there must have been a good lot, if the lad did not lead a terribly
riotous life as he came, and of that I heard nothing."
There were many who wept for poor Henry Hayley; but there was one who
felt that he had more cause to weep than all, though he could not shed
a tear. Mr. Hayley fell into profound melancholy, from which nothing
could rouse him. His affairs righted themselves, in a very great
degree, without his making an effort; several of the speculations in
which he had engaged proved eminently successful, but they brought no
comfort. He walked about his house and the town like a ghost, never
speaking to any one but those who spoke to him; and it was observed
that he often talked to himself, but no one heard anything escape his
lips save the one solitary word, "murder," murmured in the accents of
horror and despair.
CHAPTER IV.
This shall be an exceedingly short chapter, merely destined to wind up
that preliminary matter with which it was absolutely necessary for the
reader to be made acquainted before perusing the real business of the
tale. Another long lapse of nearly ten years must intervene before we
take up any of the characters afresh; and the reader will soon see now
the preceding events connect themselves with those that follow. The
characters, indeed, were sadly diminished in number between the time
at which the story opens and that to which I have now to proceed.
Of the four children of the elder Mr. Scriven, only two survived--Lady
Fleetwood and Mr. Scriven. Lady Monkton survived her husband just ten
years, and then died very suddenly, leaving her daughter Maria the
heiress of great wealth at the age of about twenty. She was, indeed, a
few months more when her mother was taken from her, and Mr. Scriven's
guardianship had not long to run--a fact with which that gentleman was
not well pleased; for, besides the authority which the guardianship
conferred--and all men like authority--the whole of the fortune which
his sister Isabella had received, and the accumulated surplus of the
rents of Sir Edward Monkton's estates, making together a very large
sum, remained in his hands, and he found them exceedingly convenient;
nay, more--somewhat lucrative. He clearly accounted for the interest
upon every penny at a moderate rate; but he did not think it at all
necessary to state to Maria, or to calculate in any way, except for
his own private satisfaction--and I do not know that he even did
that--all that he gained by turning and returning the funds of hers at
his disposal. That went under the general head of "profits of
business."
I am not aware whether this would be considered right, fair, and
honourable, in the mercantile world or not. There is a good deal to be
said on both sides of the question; but certainly, while he allowed,
as I have stated, interest upon every penny that he received, at the
exact rate which that penny would have produced if invested in the
public funds on the day that he received it, he made sometimes twice,
sometimes three times, that amount by the use of the money.
Maria, however, knew nothing about this. When she did come of age, she
passed the accounts as a matter of course, and begged her uncle to
continue to manage her affairs for her as he had been accustomed to
do. But when this source of anxiety had gone by, Mr. Scriven had
another. Maria inherited all her mother's beauty: she was a gay,
gentle girl, with a natural cheerfulness of character generally
predominating over and subduing occasional clouds of melancholy, which
might well be produced by the early death of parents deeply beloved.
Lovely, wealthy, graceful, engaging, with a heart full of warm
affections, and a kind disposition, it was more than probable that she
would marry early--indeed, only wonderful that she had not already
married. Then, again, she chose to reside during a great part of the
year with her aunt, Lady Fleetwood. In London her aunt's house was the
only proper place for her, but still it made Mr. Scriven somewhat
uneasy; for Lady Fleetwood was the kindest and best intentioned woman
in the world, and though by no means what is called a matchmaker, she
had a very strong conviction--which her own experience had not shaken
in the least--that marriage was the only state in which a woman could
be really happy.
On this point Mr. Scriven differed with her entirely; and it was not
at all pleasant to him to know that she was continually dinning her
own system into Maria's ears. However, there was no help for it; and
his only consolation was, that his niece was fond of going down alone
from time to time to Bolton Park, which was kept up exactly in the
same state as at Lady Monkton's death. It was generally, too, at the
time when London was fullest and gayest that Maria chose to make her
retreat; and at Bolton she saw no one but her neighbour, Lady Anne
Mellent, the similarity of whose situation to her own drew closer the
bonds of early affection, though their characters were very different.
It may be said in passing, that Lady Anne had been longer an orphan at
this time than Maria; for Lord Milford had not survived the death of
his father many years, and Lady Milford had died the Christmas before
her husband.
Lady Anne, gay, lively, and decided in character, had been left to the
guardianship of mere men of business, and soon set at defiance the
trammels they endeavoured to impose upon her. At eighteen she was as
much mistress of her own house as if she had been eight-and-forty; and
although her old governess continued to live with her, at the earnest
request rather than the positive command of her guardians, yet the
very idea of governing anything never seemed to enter into the good
lady's head. Yet, whether in resistance or compliance, in the display
of her independence or the exercise of her strong good sense, there
was so much good humour and even fun in Lady Anne Mellent's manner,
that neither guardians nor relations could be angry. There was one,
indeed, of the former--an old gentleman with a pigtail and powdered
poll--who would sit and laugh at her till the tears ran over his
cheeks--ever and anon putting on a grave face, and proposing something
to which he knew she would never consent, merely to excite her
resistance, and always beginning--
"Now, my dear young lady, you really ought--" &c.
But, whether serious or in jest, Lady Anne always had her own way; and
her guardians often came to the conclusion, that her own way was
generally the right one.
There was an old maiden aunt of her mother's--the only near female
relative she had, whom one of her father's executors thought fit to
propose as a suitable person to live with her and keep up her
establishment. But Lady Anne at once replied--
"Indeed she shall not. In the first place, all the wine in the cellar
would be turned sour in a fortnight. In the next place, she would
spoil all my prospects of 'establishing myself for life,' as she
herself calls it; for by her own account she is a most dangerous
rival, and has had more proposals than ever I hope to have; and in the
next place she would attempt to control me, which neither she nor any
other person ever shall do--except my lord and master, if I should
some day happen to have such a thing."
In short, Lady Anne Mellent was a very pretty, nice, clever,
independent girl, whom many people considered completely spoiled by
fate, fortune, and her relations, and who might have been so, if a
high and noble heart, a kind and generous spirit, and a clear and
rapid intellect would have permitted it. She loved and respected Maria
Monkton, who was a little older--would often take her advice when she
would take that of no other person--frequently in conversation with
others set her immeasurably above herself--and yet often would call
her to her face a dear, gentle, loveable, poor-spirited little thing.
Her last vagary before she came of age was to take a tour upon the
Continent with her old governess, a maid, and three men-servants. Her
guardians would here certainly have interfered, had she ever
condescended to make them acquainted with her intentions; but the
expedition was plotted, all her arrangements were made, and she
herself was in the heart of Paris, before they knew anything of the
matter. In writing to the old gentleman with the pigtail, she said--
"You will not be at all surprised to learn that I am here on my way to
Rome and Naples; and I think, as I have nobody with me but Mrs. Hughes
and my maid and the other servants, I shall enjoy my tour very much.
Charles Marston, my old playfellow, was here the other day, and very
delightful--nearly as mad as myself. He intends to go heaven knows
where, but first to Damascus, because it is the only place where one
can eat plums. If anybody asks you where I am, you can say that I have
run away with him, and that you have my own authority for it. Then
none will believe a word of it, which they otherwise might. Send me
plenty of money to Milan, for I intend to buy all Rome, and set it up
in the great drawing-room at Harley Lodge, as a specimen of the true
antique."
Enough, however, of the gay girl, and almost enough of the chapter.
There is only one person, I believe, whom I have not mentioned
sufficiently. Mr. Hayley's fate was sad, but not undeserved. In vain
Fortune made a perverse effort to befriend him; in vain matters turned
out favourable which had once looked very dark. The worm that
perisheth not was in his heart, and it consumed him. He strove to
establish a prosperous business for himself, separated from Mr.
Scriven, and he succeeded to a certain extent; but he had no spirit to
attend to anything long. He neglected everything--himself, his
affairs, the affairs of others, his friends, acquaintances, his own
person. He became slovenly in habits and appearance; people said he
drank; business fell off; correspondents would not trust him; and
after a struggle of eight years, he retired upon a pittance, gave
himself up to intemperance, went mad--died.
Such was the end of one to whom, not twenty-four years before, had
been opened a brighter career than his hopes had ever pictured.
The reader may not exactly see how several of the characters and
events which have passed across the stage in this phantasmagoria can
have any influence upon the story that is to follow; but let him wait
patiently, and he will see that not one word which has been written
could have been properly omitted; and for the present let him remember
that just four-and-twenty years and a few months had passed since the
death of the elder Mr. Scriven, so that his son was now a man of
middle age, and his only surviving daughter approaching her grand
climacteric; that his grandson Charles Marston was now twenty-four,
and his grand-daughter Maria Monkton not quite twenty-two.