It was a beautiful July afternoon, the air musical with midsummer hum,
the flowers basking in the sunshine, the turf cool and green in the
shade, and the breeze redolent of indescribable freshness and sweetness
compounded of all fragrant odours, the present legacy of a past day’s
shower. Like the flowers themselves, Albinia was feeling the delicious
repose of refreshed nature, as in her pretty pink muslin, her white
drapery folded round her, and her bright hair unbonnetted, she sat
reclining in a low garden chair, at the door of the conservatory, a
little pale, a little weak, but with a sweet happy languor, a soft
tender bloom.
There was a step in the conservatory, and before she could turn round,
her brother Maurice bent over her, and kissed her.
‘Maurice! you have come after all!’
‘Yes, the school inspection is put off. How are you?’ as he sat down on
the grass by her side.
‘Oh, quite well! What a delicious afternoon we shall have! Edmund will
be at home directly. Mrs. Meadows has absolutely let Gilbert take her to
drink tea at the Drurys! Only I am sorry Sophy should miss you, for
she was so good about going, because Lucy wanted to do something to her
fernery. Of course you are come for Sunday, and the christening?’
‘Yes,--that is, to throw myself on Dusautoy’s mercy.’
‘We will send Mr. Hope to Fairmead,’ said Albinia, ‘and see whether
Winifred can make him speak. We can’t spare the Vicar, for he is our
godfather, and you must christen the little maiden.’
‘I thought the three elder ones were to be sponsors.’
‘Gilbert is shy,’ said Albinia, ‘afraid of the responsibility, and
perhaps he is almost too near, the very next to ourselves. His father
would have preferred Mr. Dusautoy from the first, and only yielded to
my wish. I wish you had come two minutes sooner, she was being paraded
under that wall, but now she is gone in asleep.’
‘Her father writes grand things of her.’
‘Does he?’ said Albinia, colouring and smiling at what could not be
heard too often; ‘he is tolerably satisfied with the young woman! And
he thinks her like Edmund, and so she must be, for she is just like him.
She will have such beautiful eyes. It is very good of her to take after
him, since Maurice won’t!’
‘And she is to be another Albinia.’
‘I represented the confusion, and how I always meant my daughter to be
Winifred, but there’s no doing anything with him! It is only to be a
second name. A. W. K.! Think if she should marry a Mr. Ward!’
‘No, she would not be awkward, if she were so a-warded.’
‘It wont spell, Maurice,’ cried Albinia, laughing as their nonsense, as
usual, rose to the surface, ‘but how is Winifred?’
‘As well as could be hoped under the affliction of not being able to
come and keep you in order.’
‘She fancied me according to the former pattern,’ said Albinia, smiling,
‘I could have shown her a better specimen, not that it was any merit,
for there were no worries, and Edmund was so happy, that it was pleasure
enough to watch him.’
‘I was coming every day to judge for myself, but I thought things could
not be very bad, while he wrote such flourishing accounts.’
‘No, there were no more ponds!’ said Albinia, ‘and grandmamma happily
was quite well, cured, I believe, by the excitement. Lucy took care of
her, and Sophy read to me--how we have enjoyed those readings! Oh!
and Aunt Gertrude has found a delightful situation for Genevieve, a
barrister’s family, with lots of little children--eighty pounds a year,
and quite ready to value her, so she is off my mind.’
‘Maurice, boy! come here,’ she called, as she caught sight of a creature
prancing astride on one stick, and waving another. On perceiving a
visitor, the urchin came careering up, bouncing full tilt upon her, and
clasping her round with both his stalwart arms. ‘Gently, gently, boy,’
she said, bending down, and looking with proud delight at her brother,
as she held between her hands a face much like her own, as fair and
freshly tinted, but with a peculiar squareness of contour, large blue
eyes, with dark fringes, brimming over with mischief and fun, a bold,
broad brow, and thick, light curls. There was a spring and vigour as of
perpetual irrepressible life about the whole being, and the moment he
had accepted his uncle’s kiss, he poised his lance, and exclaimed, ‘You
are Bonaparte, I’m the Duke!’
‘Indeed,’ said Mr. Ferrars, at once seizing a wand, and bestriding the
nearest bench. Two or three charges rendered the boy so uproarious,
that presently he was ordered off, and to use the old apple tree as
Bonaparte.
‘What a stout fellow!’ said Mr. Ferrars, as he went off at a plunging
gallop, ‘I should have taken him for at least five years old!’
‘So he might be,’ said Albinia, ‘for strength and spirit--he is utterly
fearless, and never cries, much as he knocks himself about! He will
do anything but learn. The rogue! he once knew all his letters, but no
sooner did he find they were the work of life, than he forgot every one,
and was never so obstreperous as when called upon to say them. I gave up
the point, but I foresee some fine scenes.’
‘His minding no one but you is an old story. I hope at least the
exception continues.’
‘I have avoided testing it. I want all my forces for a decisive battle.
I never heard of such a masterful imp,’ she continued, with much more
exultation than anxiety, ‘his sisters have no chance with him, he rules
them like a young Turk. There’s the pony! Sophy will let him have it as
a right, and it is the work of my life to see that she is not defrauded
of her rides.’
‘You don’t mean that that child rides anything but a stick.’
‘One would think he had been born in boots and spurs. Legitimately he
only rides with some one leading the pony, but I have my suspicions that
by some preternatural means he has been on the pony’s back, and round
the yard alone, and that papa prudentially concealed it from me!’
‘I confess I should not like it,’ said her brother gravely.
‘Oh! I don’t mind that kind of thing. A real boy can’t be hurt, and I
don’t care how wild he runs, so long as he is obedient and truthful. And
true I think he is to the backbone, and I know he is reverend. We had
such a disturbance because he would not say his prayers.’
‘Proof positive!’
‘Yes, it was,’ said Albinia. ‘It did not seem to him orthodox without
me, and when he was let into my room again, it was the prettiest sight!
When he had been told of his little sister, all he said was that he did
not want little girls--girls were stupid--’
‘Ah! that came of your premature introduction to my Albinia,’
‘Not at all. It was partly as William’s own nephew, and partly because
pleasure was expected from him. But when he actually saw the little
thing, that sturdy face grew so very soft and sweet, and when we told
him he was her protector, he put both his hands tight together, and
said, “I’ll be so good!” When he is with her, another child seems to
shine out under the bluff pickle he generally is--he walks so quietly,
and thinks it such an honour to touch her.’
‘She will be his best tutor,’ said Maurice, smiling, but breaking off--
A sudden shriek of deadly terror rang out over the garden from the
river! A second or two sufficed to show them Lucy at the other end of
the foot-bridge, that led across the canal to the towing-path. She did
not look round, till Albinia, clutching her, demanded, ‘Where is he?’
Unable to speak, Lucy pointed down the towing-path, along which a
horse was seen rushing wildly--a figure pursuing it. ‘It was hitched up
here--he must have scrambled up by the gate! Oh! mamma! mamma! He has
run after him, but oh!’
Mr. Ferrars gave Lucy’s arm a squeeze, a hint not to augment the horror.
Something he said of ‘Let me--and you had better--’ but Albinia heard
nothing, and was only bent on pressing forward.
The canal and path took a wide sweep round the meadow, and the horse was
still in sight, galloping at full speed, with a small heap on its back,
as they trusted, but the rapid motion, and their eyes strained and misty
with alarm, caused an agony of uncertainty.
Albinia pointed across the meadows in anguish at not being able to make
herself understood, and hoarsely said, ‘The gate!’
Mr. Ferrars caught her meaning, and the next moment had leaped over the
gutter, and splashed into the water meadow, but in utter hopelessness
of being beforehand with the runaway steed! How could that gate be
other than fatal? The horse was nearing it--the pursuer far behind--Mr.
Ferrars not half way over the fields.
There was a loud cry from Lucy.--‘He is caught! caught!’
A loud shout came back, was caught up, and sent on by both the pursuers,
‘All right!’
Albinia had stood in an almost annihilation of conscious feeling. Even
when her brother strode back to her repeating ‘All safe, thanks be to
God,’ she neither spoke nor relaxed that intensity of watching. A few
seconds more, and she sprang forward again as the horse was led up by
a young man at his side; and on his back, laughing and chattering, sat
Master Maurice. Algernon Dusautoy strode a few steps behind, somewhat
aggrieved, but that no one saw.
The elder Maurice lifted down the younger one, who, as he was clasped by
his mother, exclaimed, ‘Oh! mamma, Bamfylde went so fast! I am to ride
home again! He said so--he’s my cousin!’
Albinia scarcely heard; her brother however had turned to thank the
stranger for her, and exclaimed, ‘I should say you were an O’More.’
‘I’m Ulick, from the Loughside Lodge,’ was the answer. ‘Is cousin
Winifred here?’
‘No, this is my sister, Mrs. Kendal, but--’
Albinia held out her hand, and grasped his; ‘I can’t--Maurice, speak,’
she said.
The little Maurice persisted in his demand to be remounted for the
twelve yards to their own gate, but nobody heard him; his uncle was
saying a few words of explanation to the stranger, and Algernon Dusautoy
was enunciating something intended as a gracious reception of the
apologies which no one was making. All Albinia thought of was that the
little unruly hand was warm and struggling, prisoned in her own; all her
brother cared for was to have her safely at home. He led her across the
bridge, and into the garden, where they met Mr. Kendal, who had taken
alarm from her absence; Lucy ran up with her story, and almost at the
same moment, Albinia, springing to him, murmured, ‘Oh! Edmund, the great
mercy--Maurice;’ but there she found herself making a hoarse shriek;
with a mingled sense of fright and shame, she smothered it, but there
was an agony of suffocation, she felt her husband’s arms round her,
heard his voice, and her boy’s scream of terror--felt them all unable to
help her, and sank into unconsciousness.
Mr. Ferrars helped Mr. Kendal to carry his wife’s inanimate form to
her room. They used all means of restoration, but it was a long, heavy
swoon, and a slow, painful revival. Mr. Kendal would have been in utter
despair at hearing that the doctor was out, but for his brother, with
his ready resources and cheerful encouragement; and finally, she lifted
her eyelids, and as she felt the presence of her two dearest guardians,
whispered, ‘Where is he?’
Lucy reported that he was with Susan, and Albinia, after hearing
her husband again assure her that he was quite safe, lay still from
exhaustion, but so calm, that her brother thought them best alone, and
drew Lucy away.
In about a quarter of an hour Mr. Kendal came down, saying that she was
quietly asleep, and he had left the nurse with her. He had yet to
hear the story, and when he understood that the child had been madly
careering along the towing-path, on the back of young Dusautoy’s most
spirited hunter, and had been only stopped when the horse was just about
to leap the tall gate, he was completely overcome. When he spoke again,
it was with the abrupt exclamation, ‘That child! Lucy, bring him down!’
In marched the boy, full of life and mischief, though with a large red
spot beneath each eye.
‘Maurice!’ Gilbert had often heard that tone, but Maurice never, and he
tossed back his head with an innocent look of fearless wonder. ‘Maurice,
I find you have been a very naughty, disobedient boy. When you rode the
pony round the yard, did not I order you never to do so again?’
‘I did not do it again,’ boldly rejoined Maurice.
‘Speak the truth, sir. What do you mean by denying what you have done?’
exclaimed his father, angrily.
‘I didn’t ride the pony,’ indignantly cried the child, ‘I rode a horse,
saddled and bridled!’
‘Don’t answer me in that way!’ thundered Mr. Kendal, and much incensed
by the nice distinction, and not appreciating the sincerity of it, he
gave the child a shake, rough enough to bring the red into his face,
but not a tear. ‘You knew it was very wrong, and you were as near as
possible breaking your neck. You have frightened your mamma, so as
to make her very ill, and I am sorry to find you most mischievous and
unruly, not to be trusted out of sight. Now, listen to me, I shall
punish you very severely if you act in this disobedient way again.’
Papa angry, was a novel spectacle, at which Maurice looked as innocently
and steadily as ever, so completely without fear or contrition, that
he provoked a stern, ‘Do you hear me, sir?’ and another shake. Maurice
flushed, and his chest heaved, though he did not sob, and his father,
uncomfortable at such sharp dealing with so young a child, set him
aside, with the words, ‘There now, recollect what I have told you!’ and
walked to the window, where he stood silent for some seconds, while
the boy stood with rounded shoulders, perplexed eye, and finger on his
pouting lip, and Mr. Ferrars, newspaper in hand, watched him under his
eyelids, and speculated what would be the best sort of mediation, or
whether the young gentleman yet deserved it. He knew that his own Willie
would have been a mere quaking, sobbing mass of terror, under such a
shake, and he would like to have been sure whether that sturdy silence
were obstinacy or fortitude.
The sound of the door-bell made Mr. Kendal turn round, and laying his
hand on the little fellow’s fair head, he said, ‘There, Maurice, we’ll
say no more about it if you will be a good boy. Run away now, but don’t
go into your mamma’s room.’
Maurice looked up, tossed his curls out of his eyes, shook himself, felt
the place on his arm where the grip of the hand had been, and galloped
off like the young colt that he was.
Albinia awoke, refreshed, though still shaken and feeble, and surprised
to find that dinner was going on downstairs. Her own meal presently
put such new force into her, that she felt able to speak Maurice’s name
without bursting into tears, and longing to see both her little ones
beside her, she told the nurse to fetch the boy, but received for
answer, ‘No, Master Maurice said he would not come,’ and the manner
conveyed that it had been defiantly said. Master Maurice was no
favourite in the nursery, and he was still less so, when his mamma,
disregarding all mandates, set out to seek him. Already she heard from
the stairs the wrangling with Susan that accompanied all his toilettes,
and she found him the picture of firm, solid fairness, in his little
robe de nuit, growling through the combing of his tangled locks. Though
ordinarily scornful of caresses, he sprang to her and hugged her, as she
sat down on a low chair, and he knelt in her lap, whispering with his
head on her shoulder, and his arms round her neck, ‘Mamma, were you
dead?’
‘No, Maurice,’ she answered with something of a sob, ‘or I should not
have my dear, dear little boy throttling me now! But why would you not
come down to me?’
‘Papa said I must not.’
Oh, that was quite right, my boy;’ and though she unclasped the tight
arms, she drew him nestling into her bosom. ‘Oh, Maurice, it has been a
terrible day! Does my little boy know how good the great God has been
to him, and how near he was never seeing mamma nor his little sister
again.’
Her great object was to make him thankful for his preservation, but with
a child, knowing nothing of death and heedless of fear, this was very
difficult. The rapid motion had been delightful excitement, or if there
had been any alarm, it was forgotten in the triumph. She had to change
her note, and represent how the poor horse might have run into the
river, or against a post! Maurice looked serious, and then she came to
the high moral tone--mounting strangers’ horses without leave--would
papa, would Gilbert, think of such a thing? The full lip was put out, as
though under conviction, and he hung his head. ‘You wont do it again?’
said she.
‘No.’
She told him to say his prayers, guiding the confession and thanksgiving
that she feared he did not fully follow. As he rose up, and saw the
tears on her cheeks, he whispered, ‘Mamma, did it make you _so_?’
Cause and effect were a great puzzle to him, but that swoon was the
only thing that brought home to him that he had been guilty of something
enormous, and when she owned that his danger had been the occasion, he
stood and looked; then, standing bolt upright, with clasped hands, and
rosy feet pressed close together, he said, with a long breath, ‘I’ll
never get on Bamfylde again till I’m a big boy.’
As he spoke, Mr. Kendal pushed open the half-closed door, and Albinia,
looking up, said, ‘Here’s a boy who knows he has done wrong, papa.’
Never was more welcome excuse for lifting the gallant child to his
breast, and lavishing caresses that would have been tender but for the
strong spirit of riot which turned them into a game at romps, cut short
by Mr. Kendal, as soon as the noise grew very outrageous. ‘That’s enough
to-night; good night.’ And when they each had kissed the monkey face
tossing about among the clothes, Maurice might have heard more pride
than pain in the ‘I never saw such a boy!’ with which they shut the
door.
‘This is not prudent!’ said Mr. Kendal.
‘Do you think I could have rested till I had seen him? and he said you
had told him not to come down.’
‘I would have brought him to you. You are looking very ill; you had
better go to bed at once.’
‘No, I should not sleep. Pray let me grow quiet first. Now you know you
trust Maurice,--old Maurice, and I’ll lie on the sofa like any mouse, if
you’ll bring him up and let him talk. You know it will be an interesting
novelty for you to talk, and me to listen! and he has not seen the
baby.’
Albinia gained her point, but Mr. Kendal and Lucy first tucked her up
upon the sofa, till she cried out, ‘You have swathed me hand and foot.
How am I to show off that little Awk?’
‘I’ll take care of that,’ said Mr. Kendal; and so he did, fully doing
the honours of the little daughter, who had already fastened on his
heart.
‘But,’ cried Albinia, breaking into the midst, ‘who or what are we,
ungrateful monsters, never to have thought of the man who caught that
dreadful horse!’
‘You shall see him as soon as you are strong enough,’ said Mr. Kendal;
‘your brother and I have been with him.’
‘Oh, I am glad; I could not rest if he had not been thanked. And can
anything be done for him? What is he? I thought he was a gentleman.’
Maurice smiled, and Mr. Kendal answered, ‘Yes, he is Mr. Goldsmith’s
nephew, and I am pleased to find that he is a connexion of your
brother.’
‘One of the O’Mores,’ cried Albinia. ‘Oh, Maurice, is it really one of
Winifred’s O’Mores?’
‘Even so,’ replied Mr. Ferrars; the very last person I should have
expected to meet on the banks of the Baye! It was that clever son of the
captain’s for whose education Mr. Goldsmith paid, and it seems had sent
for, to consider of his future destination. He only arrived yesterday.’
‘A very fine young man,’ said Mr. Kendal. ‘I was particularly pleased
with his manner, and it was an act of great presence of mind and
dexterity.’
‘It is all a maze and mystery to me,’ said Albinia; ‘do tell me all
about it. I can’t make out how the horse came there.’
‘I understood that young Dusautoy was calling here,’ said Mr. Kendal;
‘I wondered at even his coolness in coming in by that way, and at your
letting him in.’
‘I saw nothing of him,’ said Albinia. ‘Perhaps he was looking for
Gilbert.’
‘No,’ said Lucy, looking up from her work, with a slight blush, and
demure voice of secret importance; ‘he had only stepped in for a minute,
to bring me a new fern.’
‘Indeed,’ said her father; ‘I was not aware that he took interest in
your fernery.’
‘He knows everything about ferns,’ said Lucy. ‘Mrs. Cavendish Dusautoy
once had a conservatory filled with the rarest specimens, and he has
given me a great many directions how to manage them.’
‘Oh! if he could get you to listen to his maxims, I don’t wonder at
anything,’ exclaimed Albinia.
‘He had only just come in with the Adiantium, and was telling me how
hydraulic power directed a stream of water near the roots among his
mother’s Fuci,’ said Lucy, rather hurt. ‘He had fastened up his horse
quite securely, and nobody could have guessed that Maurice could have
opened that gate to cross the bridge, far less have climbed up the rail
to the horse’s back. I never shall forget my fright, when we heard
the creature’s feet, and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy began to run after it
directly.’
‘As foolish a thing as he could have done,’ said Mr. Kendal, not
impressed with Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy’s condescension in giving chase.
‘It was well poor little Maurice was not abandoned to your discretion,
and his resources.’
‘It seems,’ continued Mr. Ferrars, ‘that young O’More was taking a walk
on the towing-path, and was just so far off as to see, without being
able to prevent it, this little monkey scramble from the gate upon the
horse’s neck. How it was that he did not go down between, I can’t guess;
the beast gave a violent start, as well it might, jerked the reins
loose, and set off full gallop. Seeing the child clinging on like a
young panther, he dashed across the meadow, to cut him off at the turn
of the river; and it was a great feat of swiftness, I assure you, to run
so lightly through those marshy meadows, so as to get the start of the
runaway; then he crept up under cover of the hedge, so as not to startle
the horse, and had hold of the bridle, just as he paused before leaping
the gate! He said he could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the
urchin safe, and looking more excited than terrified.’
‘Yes, he was exceedingly struck with Maurice’s spirit,’ said Mr. Kendal,
who, when the fright and anger were over, could begin to be proud of the
exploit.
‘They fraternized at once,’ said Mr. Ferrars. ‘Maurice imparted that his
name was Maurice Ferrars Kendal, and Ulick, in all good faith and Irish
simplicity, discovered that they were cousins!’
‘Oh! Edmund, he must come to the christening dinner!’
‘Mind,’ said Maurice, ‘you, know he is not even my wife’s cousin; only
nephew to her second cousin’s husband.’
‘For shame, Maurice, cousin is that cousinly does!’
‘Very well, only don’t tell the aunts that Winifred saddled all the
O’Mores upon you.’
‘Not an O’More but should be welcome for his sake!’
‘Nor an Irishman,’ said Mr. Ferrars.
Albinia suffered so much from the shock, that she could not make her
appearance till noon on the following day. Then, after sitting a little
while in the old study, to hear that grandmamma had not been able to
sleep all night for thinking of Maurice’s danger, and being told some
terrible stories of accidents with horses, she felt one duty done, and
moved on to the drawing-room in search of her brother.
She found herself breaking upon a tete-a-tete. A sweet, full voice, with
strong cadences, was saying something about duty and advice, and she
would have retreated, but her brother and the stranger both sprang
up, and made her understand that she was by no means to go away. No
introduction was wanted; she grasped the hand that was extended to her,
and would have said something if she could, but she found herself not
strong enough to keep from tears, and only said, ‘I wish little Maurice
were not gone out with his brother, but you will dine with us, and see
him to-morrow.’
‘With the greatest pleasure, if my uncle and aunt will spare me.’
‘They must,’ said Albinia, ‘you must come to meet your old friend and
_cousin_,’ she added, mischievously glancing at Maurice, but he did
not look inclined to disavow the relationship, and the youth was not a
person whom any one would wish to keep at a distance. He seemed about
nineteen or twenty years of age, not tall, but well made, and with an
air of great ease and agility, rather lounging and careless, yet alert
in a moment. The cast of his features at once betrayed his country, by
the rounded temples, with the free wavy hair; the circular form of
the eyebrow; the fully opened dark blue eye, looking almost black when
shaded; the short nose, and the well-cut chin and lips, with their
outlines of sweetness and of fun, all thoroughly Irish, but of the
best style, and with a good deal of thought and mind on the brow, and
determination in the mouth. Albinia had scarcely a minute, however, for
observation, for he seemed agitated, and in haste to take leave, nor did
her brother press him to remain, since she was still looking very white
and red, and too fragile for anything but rest. With another squeeze of
the hand she let him go, while he, with murmured thanks, and head
bent in enthusiastic honour to the warm kindness of one so sweet and
graceful, took leave. Mr. Ferrars followed him into the hall, leaving
the door open, so that she heard the words, ‘Good-bye, Ulick; I’ll do my
best for you. All I can say is, that I respect you.’
‘Don’t respect me too soon,’ he answered; ‘maybe you’ll have to change
your mind. The situation may like me no better than I the situation.’
‘No, what you will, you can do; I trust to your perseverance.’
‘As my poor mother does! Well, with patience the snail got to Rome, and
if it is to lighten her load, I must bear it. Many thanks, Mr. Ferrars.
Good morning.’
‘Good morning; only, Ulick, excuse me, but let me give you a hint; if
the situation is to like you, you must mind your Irish.’
‘Then you must not warm my heart with your kindness,’ was the
answer. ‘No, no, never fear, when I’m not with any one who has seen
Ballymakilty, I can speak English so that I could not be known for a
Galway man. Not that I’m ashamed of my country,’ he added; and the next
moment the door shut behind him.
‘How could you scold him for his Irish?’ exclaimed Albinia, as her
brother re-entered; ‘it sounds so pretty and characteristic.’
‘I fear Mr. Goldsmith may think it too characteristic!’
‘I am sure Edmund might well call him prepossessing. I hope Mr.
Goldsmith is going to do something handsome for him!’
‘Poor lad! Mr. Goldsmith considers that he has purchased him for a
permanent fixture on a high stool. It is a sad disappointment, for he
had been doing his utmost to prepare himself for college, and he has so
far distinguished himself at school, that I see that a very little help
would soon enable him to maintain himself at the University. I could
have found it in my heart to give it to him myself; it would please
Winifred.’
‘Oh, let us help; I am sure Edmund would be glad.’
‘No, no, this is better for all. Remember this is the Goldsmith’s only
measure of conciliation towards their sister since her marriage, and it
ought not to be interfered with. Poor Ulick says he knows this is the
readiest chance of being of any use to his family, and that his mother
has often said she should be happy if she could but see one of the
six launched in a way to be independent! There are those three eldest,
little better than squireens, never doing a thing but loafing about with
their guns. I used to long for a horse-whip to lay about them, till they
spoke to me, and then not one of the rogues but won my heart with his
fun and good-nature.’
‘Then I suppose it is a great thing to have one in the way of
money-making.’
‘Hem! The Celtic blood is all in commotion! This boy’s business was to
ask my candid opinion whether there were anything ungentlemanlike in a
clerkship in a bank. It was well it was not you!’
‘Now, Maurice, don’t you know how glad I should have been if Gilbert
would have been as wise!’
‘Yes, you have some common sense after all, which is more than Ulick
attributes to his kith and kin. When I had proved the respectability of
banking to his conviction, I’ll not say satisfaction, he made me promise
to write to his father. He is making up his mind to what is not only a
great vexation to himself, and very irksome employment, but he knows he
shall be looked down upon as having lost caste with all his family!’
‘It really is heroism!’ cried Albinia.
‘It is,’ said Mr. Ferrars; ‘he does not trust himself to face the clan,
and means to get into harness at once, so as to clench his resolution,
and relieve his parents from his maintenance immediately.’
‘Is he to live with that formal Miss Goldsmith?’
‘No. In solitary lodgings, after that noisy family and easy home! I
can’t think how he will stand it. I should not wonder if the Galwegian
was too strong after all.’
‘We must do all we can for him,’ cried Albinia; ‘Edmund likes him
already. Can’t he dine with us every Sunday?’
‘I know you will be kind,’ said Mr. Ferrars. ‘Only see how things turn
out before you commit yourself. Ah! I have said the unlucky word which
always makes you fly off!’
There was little fear that Ulick O’More would not win his way with
Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, recommended as he was, and with considerable
attractions in the frankness and brightness of his manner. He was a
very pleasant addition to the party who dined at Willow Lawn, after
the christening. No one had time to listen to Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy’s
maxims, and he retired rather sullenly, to lean against the mantelpiece,
and marvel why the Kendals should invite an Irish banker’s clerk to
meet _him_. Gilbert likewise commented on the guest with a muttered
observation on his sisters’ taste; ‘Last year it was all the
Polysyllable, now it would be all the Irishman!’