As Dr. Beattie drove off with all speed to the Chief Baron's house,
which lay about three miles from the city, he had time to ponder as he
went over his late interview. “Tom Lendrick,” as he still called him
to himself, he had known as a boy, and ever liked him. He had been a
patient, studious, gentle-tempered lad, desirous to acquire knowledge,
without any of that ambition that wants to make the knowledge
marketable. To have gained a professorship would have appeared to have
been the very summit of his ambition, and this rather as a quiet retreat
to pursue his studies further than as a sphere wherein to display his
own gifts. Anything more unlike that bustling, energetic, daring spirit,
his father, would be hard to conceive. Throughout his whole career
at the bar, and in Parliament, men were never quite sure what that
brilliant speaker and most indiscreet talker would do next. Men secured
his advocacy with a half misgiving whether they were doing the very best
or the very worst for success. Give him difficulties to deal with, and
he was a giant; let all go smoothly and well, and he would hunt up
some crotchet,--some obsolete usage,--a doubtful point, that in its
discussion very frequently led to the damage of his client's cause, and
the defeat of his suit.
Display was ever more to him than victory. Let him have a great arena
to exhibit in, and he was proof against all the difficulties and all
the casualties of the conflict. Never had such a father a son less the
inheritor of his temperament and nature; and this same disappointment
rankling on through life--a disappointment that embittered all
intercourse, and went so far as to make him disparage the high abilities
of his son--created a gulf between them that Beattie knew could never
be bridged over. He doubted, too, whether as a doctor he could
conscientiously introduce a theme so likely to irritate and excite. As
he pondered, he opened the two miniatures, and looked at them. The young
man was a fine, manly, daring-looking fellow, with a determined brow and
a resolute mouth, that recalled his grandfather's face; he was evidently
well grown and strong, and looked one that, thrown where he might be in
life, would be likely to assert his own.
The girl, wonderfully like him in feature, had a character of subdued
humor in her eye, and a half-hid laughter in the mouth, which the artist
had caught up with infinite skill, that took away all the severity of
the face, and softened its traits to a most attractive beauty. Through
her rich brown hair there was a sort of golden _reflet_ that imparted
great brilliancy to the expression of the head, and her large eyes of
gray-blue were the image of candor and softness, till her laugh gave
them a sparkle of drollery whose sympathy there was no resisting. She,
too, was tall and beautifully formed, with that slimness of early youth
that only escapes being angular, but has in it the charm of suppleness
that lends grace to every action and every gesture.
“I wish he could see the originals,” muttered Beattie. “If the old man,
with his love of beauty, but saw that girl, it would be worth all the
arguments in Christendom. Is it too late for this? Have we time for the
experiment?”
Thus thinking, he drove along the well-wooded approach, and gained the
large ground-space before the door, whence a carriage was about to drive
away. “Oh, doctor,” cried a voice, “I'm so glad you 're come; they are
most impatient for you.” It was the Solicitor-General, Mr. Pemberton,
who now came up to the window of Beattie's carriage.
“He has become quite unmanageable, will not admit a word of counsel or
advice, resists all interference, and insists on going out for a drive.”
“I see him at the window,” said Beattie; “he is beckoning to me;
good-bye,” and he passed on and entered the house.
In the chief drawing-room, in a deep recess of a window, sat the Chief
Baron, dressed as if to go out, with an overcoat and even his gloves
on. “Come and drive with me, Beattie,” cried he, in a feeble but harsh
voice. “If I take my man Leonard, they 'll say it was a keeper. You know
that the 'Post' has it this morning that it is my mind which has given
way. They say they 've seen me breaking for years back. Good heavens!
can it be possible, think you, that the mites in a cheese speculate over
the nature of the man that eats them? You stopped to talk with Pemberton
I saw; what did he say to you?”
“Nothing particular,--a mere greeting, I think.”
“No, sir, it was not; he was asking you how many hours there lay between
him and the Attorney-Generalship. They 've divided the carcase already.
The lion has to assist at his autopsy,--rather hard, is n't it? How it
embitters death, to think of the fellows who are to replace us!”
“Let me feel your pulse.”
“Don't trust it, Beattie; that little dialogue of yours on the grass
plot has sent it up thirty beats; how many is it?”
“Rapid,--very rapid; you need rest,--tranquillity.”
“And you can't give me either, sir; neither you nor your craft. You are
the Augurs of modern civilization, and we cling to your predictions just
as our forefathers did, though we never believe you.”
“This is not flattery,” said Beattie, with a slight smile.
The old man closed his eyes, and passed his hand slowly over his
forehead. “I suppose I was dreaming, Beattie, just before you came up;
but I thought I saw them all in the Hall, talking and laughing over
my death. Burrowes was telling how old I must be, because I moved the
amendment to Flood in the Irish Parliament in '97; and Eames mentioned
that I was Curran's junior in the great Bagenal record; and old Tysdal
set them all in a roar by saying he had a vision of me standing at
the gate of heaven, and instead of going in, as St. Peter invited me,
stoutly refusing, and declaring I would move for a new trial! How like
the rascals!”
“Don't you think you'd be better in your own room? There's too much
light and glare here.”
“Do you think so?”
“I am sure of it. You need quiet, and the absence of all that stimulates
the action of the brain.”
“And what do _you_, sir,--what does any one,--know about the brain's
operations? You doctors have invented a sort of conventional cerebral
organ, which, like lunar caustic, is decomposed by light; and in your
vulgar materialism you would make out that what affects _your_ brain
must act alike upon _mine_. I tell you, sir, it is darkness--obscurity,
physical or moral, it matters not which--that irritates _me_, just as I
feel provoked this moment by this muddling talk of yours about brain.”
“And yet I 'm talking about what my daily life and habits suggest _some_
knowledge of,” said Beattie, mildly.
“So you are, sir, and the presumption is all on my side. If you'll
kindly lend me your arm, I'll go back to my room.”
Step by step, slowly and painfully, he returned to his chamber, not
uttering a word as he went.
“Yes, this is better, doctor; this half light soothes; it is much
pleasanter. One more kindness. I wrote to Lady Lendrick this morning to
come up here. I suppose my combative spirit was high in me, and I wanted
a round with the gloves,--or, indeed, without them; at all events, I
sent the challenge. But _now_, doctor, I have to own myself a craven. I
dread the visit Could you manage to interpose? Could you suggest that
it is by your order I am not permitted to receive her? Could you
hint”--here he smiled half maliciously--“that you do not think the time
has come for anodynes,--eh, doctor?”
“Leave it to me. I 'll speak to Lady Lendrick.”
“There 's another thing: not that it much matters; but it might perhaps
be as well to send a few lines to the morning papers, to say the
accounts of the Chief Baron are more favorable to-day; he passed a
tranquil night, and so on. Pemberton won't like it, nor Hayes; but
it will calm the fears of a very attached friend who calls here twice
daily. You'd never guess him. He is the agent of the Globe Office, where
I 'm insured. Ah, doctor, it was a bright thought of Philanthropy
to establish an industrial enterprise that is bound, under heavy
recognizances, to be grieved at our death.”
“I must not make you talk, Sir William. I must not encourage you
to exert yourself. I 'll say good-bye, and look in upon you this
afternoon.”
“Am I to have a book? Well; be it so. I I 'll sit and muse over the
Attorney-General and his hopes.”
“I have got two very interesting miniatures here. I 'll leave them with
you; you might like to look at them.”
“Miniatures! whose portraits are they?” asked the other, hastily, as he
almost snatched them from his hand. “What a miserable juggler! what a
stale trick this!” said he, as he opened the case which contained the
young man's picture. “So, sir, you lend yourself to such attempts as
these.”
“I don't understand you,” said Beattie, indignantly.
“Yes, sir, you understand me perfectly. You would do, by a piece of
legerdemain, what you have not the courage to attempt openly. These are
Tom Lendrick's children.”
“They are.”
“And this simpering young lady is her mother's image; pretty, pretty, no
doubt; and a little--a shade, perhaps--of _espièglerie_ above what her
mother possessed. She was the silliest woman that ever turned a fool's
head. She had the ineffable folly, sir, to believe she could persuade
me to forgive my son for having married her; and when I handed her to a
seat,--for she was at my knees,--she fainted.”
“Well. It is time to forgive him now. As for her, she is beyond
forgiveness, or favor, either,” said Beattie, with more energy than
before.
“There is no such trial to a man in a high calling as the temptation
it offers him to step beyond it. Take care, sir, that with all your
acknowledged ability, this temptation be not too much for you.” The tone
and manner in which the old judge delivered these words recalled the
justice-seat. “It is an honor to me to have you as my doctor, sir.
It would be to disparage my own intelligence to accept you as my
confessor.”
“A doctor but discharges half his trust when he fails to warn his
patient against the effects of irritability.”
“The man who would presume to minister to my temper or to my nature
should be no longer medico of mine. With what intention, sir, did you
bring me these miniatures?”
“That you might see two bright and beautiful faces whose owners are
bound to you by the strongest ties of blood.”
“Do you know, sir,--have you ever heard,--how their father, by his
wilfulness, by his folly, by his heartless denial of my right to
influence him, ruined the fortune that cost my life of struggle and
labor to create?”
The doctor shook his head, and the other continued: “Then I will tell
it to you, sir. It is more than seventeen years to-day when the then
Viceroy sent for me, and said, 'Baron Lendrick, there is no man, after
Plunkett, to whom we owe more than to yourself.' I bowed, and said,
'I do not accept the qualification, my Lord, even in favor of the
distinguished Chancellor. I will not believe myself second to any.' I
need not relate what ensued; the discussion was a long one,--it was also
a warm one; but he came back at last to the object of the interview,
which was to say that the Prime Minister was willing to recommend my
name to her Majesty for the Peerage,--an honor, he was pleased to say,
the public would see conferred upon me with approval; and I refused!
Yes, sir, I refused what for thirty-odd years had formed the pride and
the prize of my existence! I refused it, because I would not that her
Majesty's favor should descend to one so unworthy of it as this
fellow, or that his low-born children should inherit a high name of my
procuring. I refused, sir, and I told the noble Marquess my reasons. He
tried--pretty much as you have tried--to bring me to a more forgiving
spirit; but I stopped him by saying, 'When I hear that your Excellency
has invited to your table the scurrilous author of the lampoon against
you in the “Satirist,” I will begin to listen to the claims that may be
urged on the score of forgiveness; not till then.'”
“I am wrong--very wrong--to let you talk on themes like this; we must
keep them for calmer moments.” Beattie laid his finger on the pulse as
he spoke, and counted the beats by his watch.
“Well, sir, what says Death? Will he consent to a 'nolle prosequi,' or
must the cause go on?”
“You are not worse; and even that, after all this excitement, is
something. Good-bye now till evening. No books,--no newspapers,
remember. Doze; dream; do anything but excite yourself.”
“You are cruel, sir; you cut off all my enjoyments together. You deny
me the resources of reading, and you deny me the solace of my wife's
society.” The cutting sarcasm of the last words was shown in the
spiteful sparkle of his eye, and the insolent curl of his mouth; and
as the doctor retired, the memory of that wicked look haunted him
throughout the day.