“I think I had better see him myself,” said Fossbrooke, after patiently
listening to Tom Lendrick's account of his meeting with his grandfather.
“It is possible I may be able to smooth down matters a little, and
dispose the old gentleman, besides, to accord us some aid in our
Sardinian project, for I have resolved upon that, Tom.”
“Indeed, sir; the gold-mine?”
“No, the lead,--the lead and silver. In the rough calculation I made
last night on this slip of paper, I see my way to something like seven
thousand a year to begin with; untold wealth will follow. There are no
less than eleven products available,--the black lead of pencils and the
white used by painters being the chief; while in my new salt, which I
am disposed to call the 'pyrochloride of plumbium,' we have a sedative
that will allay the pangs of hydrophobia.”
“I wish it would quiet the Chief Baron,” muttered Tom; and Sir Brook,
not hearing him correctly, continued,--“I think so,--I think the Chief
Baron eminently calculated to take a proper estimate of my discovery. A
man of fine intellect is ever ready to accept truth, albeit it come in a
shape and through a channel in which he has himself not pursued it. Will
you write a line to your sister and ask if it would be his Lordship's
convenience to receive me, and at what time?”
“Of course, sir, whatever you wish,” said Tom, in some confusion; “but
might I ask if it be your intention to ask my grandfather to aid me with
his purse?”
“Naturally. I mean that he should, by advancing, let us say, eight
hundred pounds, put you in a position to achieve a speedy fortune. He
shall see, too, that our first care has been your sister's interests.
Six-sixteenths of the profits for fifty years are to be hers; three each
we reserve for ourselves; the remaining four will form a reserve fund
for casualties, a capital for future development, and a sum at interest
to pay superannuations, with some other objects that you will find
roughly jotted down here, for which, however, they will amply suffice. I
take it his Lordship knows something of metallurgy, Tom?” “I believe
he knows a little of everything.” “Chemistry I feel sure he must have
studied.” “I won't answer for the study; but you 'll find that when
you come to talk with him, you 'll scarcely wander very far out of his
geography. But I was going to say, sir, that I 'm not quite easy at the
thought of asking him for money.”
“It's not money--at least, it's no gift--we require of him. We are in
possession of a scheme certain to secure a fortune. We know where a
treasure lies hid, and we want no more than the cost of the journey to
go and fetch it. He shall be more than repaid. The very dispositions
we make in your sister's favor will show him in what spirit we mean to
deal. It is possible--I am willing to own it--it is possible I might
approach a man of inferior intelligence with distrust and fear, but in
coming before Baron Lendrick I have no misgivings. All my experience of
life has shown me that the able men are the generous men. In the ample
stretch of their minds they estimate mankind by larger averages, and
thus they come to see that there is plenty of good in human nature.”
“I believe the old Judge is clever enough, and some speak very well
of his character; but his temper--his temper is something that would
swallow up all the fine qualities that ever were accorded to one man;
and even if you were about to go on a mission I liked better, I 'd
say, Don't ask to see him, don't expose yourself to the risk of some
outrageous affront,--something you could n't bear and would n't resent.”
“I have never yet found myself in the predicament you speak of,”
said Sir Brook, drawing himself up haughtily, “nor do I know of any
contingency in life from which I could retreat on account of its perils.
It may be, indeed it is, more than likely, from what you tell me, that
I shall make no appeal to your grandfather's generosity; but I shall see
him to tender your regrets for any pain you may have caused him, and to
tell also so much of our future intentions as it is becoming the head
of your house should hear. I also desire to see your sister, and say
good-bye.”
“Ask her to let me do so too. I can't go away without seeing her again.”
Tom took a turn or two up and down the room as though he had not made up
his mind whether to say something or not. He looked out of the window,
possibly in search of something to distract his thoughts, and then
turning suddenly about, he said: “I was thinking, sir, that if it was
your opinion--mind, I don't want to insinuate that it ought to be, or
even that it is my own--but that if you came to the conclusion that
my sister was not happy with my grandfather--that her life was one of
depression and suffering--what would you say to her coming along with
us?”
“To Sardinia! Coming to Sardinia, do you mean, Tom?” said the old man,
in astonishment.
“Yes, sir, that is what I meant.”
“Have I not told you the sort of life that lies before us in the
island,--the hardships, the dangers, the bitter privations we shall
have to endure? Is it to these we can invite a young girl, trained and
accustomed to every elegance and every comfort?”
“She 'd not shrink from her share,--that much I 'll warrant you; and the
worst roughing of that rugged life would be easier to bear than this old
man's humor.”
“No, no; it must not be thought of,” said Fossbrooke, sternly. “What
meaning has our enterprise if it be not to secure her future fortune?
She cannot--she shall not--pay any part of the price. Let me think over
this, Tom. It may be that we ought not to leave her; it may be that we
should hit upon something nearer home. I will go up to the Castle and
see the Viceroy.”
He made a light grimace as he said this. Such a visit was by no means to
his taste. If there was anything totally repugnant to his nature, it was
to approach men whom he had known as friends or intimates with anything
like the request for a favor. It seemed to him to invert all the
relations which ought to subsist between men in society. The moment
you had stooped to such a step, in his estimation you had forfeited all
right to that condition of equality which renders intercourse agreeable.
“I must have something for this young fellow,--something that may enable
him to offer his sister a home if she should need it. I will accept
nothing for myself,--on that I am determined. It is a sorry part, that
of suppliant, but so long as it is for another it is endurable. Not that
I like it, though,--not that it sits easy on me,--and I am too old to
acquire a new manner.” Thus muttering to himself, he went along till he
found himself at the chief entrance of the Castle.
“You will have to wait on Mr. Balfour, sir, his Excellency's private
secretary, the second door from the corner,” said the porter, scarcely
deigning a glance at one so evidently unversed in viceregal observances.
Sir Brook nodded and withdrew. From a groom who was holding a
neat-looking cob pony Fossbrooke learned that Mr. Balfour was about to
take his morning's ride. “He'll not see you now,” said the man. “You 'll
have to come back about four or half-past.”
“I have only a question to ask,” said Sir Brook, half to himself as he
ascended the stairs. As he gained the landing and rang, the door opened
and Mr. Balfour appeared. “I regret to detain you, sir,” began Sir
Brook, as he courteously raised his hat. “Mr. Balfour, I believe.”
“You are right as to my name, but quite as wrong if you fancy that you
will detain me,” said that plump and very self-satisfied gentleman, as
he moved forward.
“And yet, sir, such is my intention,” said Sir Brook, placing himself
directly in front of him.
“That is a matter very soon settled,” said Balfour, returning to the
door and calling out, “Pollard, step down to the lower yard, and send a
policeman here.”
Sir Brook heard the order unmoved in manner, and even made way for the
servant to pass down the stairs. No sooner, however, was the man out
of hearing than he said, “It would be much better, sir, not to render
either of us ridiculous. I am Sir Brook Fossbrooke, and I come here to
learn at what time it would be his Excellency's pleasure to receive me.”
The calm quiet dignity in which he spoke, even more than the words, had
its effect on Balfour, who, with more awkwardness than he would like
to have owned, asked Sir Brook to walk in and be seated. “I have had a
message for you from his Excellency these three or four days back, and
knew not where to find you.”
“Did it never occur to you to try what assistance the police might
afford, sir?” said he, with deep gravity.
“One thinks of these generally as a last resource,” said Balfour,
coolly, and possibly not sorry to show how imperturbable he could be
under a sarcasm.
“And now for the message, sir,” said Fossbrooke.
“I'll be shot if I remember it. Wasn't it something about an election
riot? You thrashed a priest, named Malcahy, eh?”
“I opine not, sir,” said Sir Brook, with a faint smile.
“No, no; you are the great man for acclimatization; you want to make the
ornithorhynchus as common as the turkey. Am I right?”
Sir Brook shook his head.
“I never have my head clear out of office hours, that 's the fact,” said
Balfour, impatiently. “If you had called on me between twelve and three,
you 'd have found me like a directory.”
“Put no strain upon your recollection, sir. When I see the Viceroy, it
is probable he will repeat the message.”
“You know him, then?”
“I have known him eight-and-forty years.”
“Oh, I have it,--I remember it all now. You used to be with Colonel
Hanger and Hugh Seymour and O'Kelly and all the Carlton House lot.”
Fossbrooke bowed a cold assent.
“His Excellency told us the other evening that there was not a man in
England who had so many stories of the Prince. Didn't Moore go to you
about his Life of Sheridan?--yes, of course,--and you promised him some
very valuable documents; and sent him five-and-twenty protested bills of
poor Brinsley's, labelled 'Indubitable Records.'”
“This does not lead us to the message, sir,” said Foss-brooke, stiffly.
“Yes, but it does though,--I'm coming to it. I have a system of
artificial memory, and I have just arrived at you now through Carlton
House, milk-punch, and that story about Lord Grey and yourself riding
postilions to Ascot, and you on the wheelers tipping up Grey with your
whip till he grew frantic. Was n't that a fact?”
“I wait for the message, sir; or rather I grow impatient at not hearing
it.”
“I remember it perfectly. It's a place he wants to offer you; it's
a something under the Courts of Law. You are to do next to
nothing,--nothing at all, I believe, if you prefer it, as the last
fellow did. He lived in Dresden for the education of his children, and
he died there, and we did n't know when he died,--at least they suspect
he signed some dozen life certificates that his doctor used to forward
at quarter-day. Mind, I don't give you the story as mine; but the
impression is that he held the office for eight years after his death.”
“Perhaps, sir, you would now favor me with the name and nature of the
appointment.”
“He was called the Deputy-Assistant Sub-something of somewhere in the
Exchequer; and he had to fill, or to register, or to put a seal, or, if
not a seal, a stamp on some papers; but the marrow of the matter is, he
had eight hundred a year for it; and when the Act passed requiring two
seals, he asked for an increase of salary and an assistant clerk, and
they gave him two hundred more, but they refused the clerk. They do such
shabby things in those short sittings over the Estimates!”
“And am I to understand that his Excellency makes me an offer of this
appointment?”
“Well, not exactly; there's a hitch in it,--I may say there are
two hitches: first of all, we 're not sure it's in our gift; and,
secondly--”
“Perhaps I may spare you the secondly,--the firstly is more than enough
for me.”
“Yes, but I'd like to explain. Here's how it is: the Chief Baron claimed
the patronage about twenty years ago, and we made, or the people
who were in power made, some sort of a compromise about an ultimate
nomination, and he was to have the first. Now this man only died
t' other day, having held the office, as I said, upwards of twenty
years,--a most unconscionable thing,--just one of those selfish acts
small official fellows are always doing; and so _I_ thought, as I saw
your name down for something on his Excellency's list, that I 'd mention
_you_ for the post as a sort of sop to Baron Lendrick, saying, 'Look
at our man; we are not going to saddle the country with one of your
long-annuity fellows,--_he_ 's eighty if he's a day.' I say, I 'd press
this point, because the old Judge says he is no longer bound by
the terms of the compromise, for that the office was abolished and
reconstructed by the 58th of Victoria, and that he now insists on the
undivided patronage.”
“I presume that the astute reasons which induced you to think of _me_
have not been communicated to the Viceroy.”
“I should think not. I mention them to you frankly, because his
Excellency said you were one of those men who must be dealt with openly.
'Play on the square with Foss-brooke,' said he; 'and whether he win or
lose, you 'll see no change in him. Try to overreach him, and you 'll
catch a tiger.'”
“I am very grateful for his kind estimate of me. It is, however, no more
than I looked for at his hands.” This he said with a marked feeling,
and then added, in a lighter tone, “I have also a debt of gratitude
to yourself, of which I know not how to acquit myself better than by
accepting this appointment, and taking the earliest opportunity to die
afterwards.”
“No, don't do that; I don't mean that. You can do like that fellow they
made Pope because he looked on the verge of the grave, and who pitched
his crutch into the air when he had put on the tiara.”
“I understand; so that it is only in Baron Lendrick's eyes I am to look
short-lived.”
“Just so; call on him,--have a meeting with him; say that his Excellency
desires to act with every delicacy towards him,--that should it be
discovered hereafter the right of nomination lies with the Court and not
with us, we 'll give him an equivalent somewhere else, till--till--”
“Till I shall have vacated the post,” chimed in Sir Brook, blandly; “a
matter, of course, of very brief space.”
“You see the whole thing,--you see it in all its bearings; and now if
you only could know something about the man you have to deal with, there
would be nothing more to tell you.”
“I have heard about him passingly.”
“Oh, yes, his eccentricities are well known. The world is full of
stories of him, but he is one of those men who play wolf on the
species,--he must be worrying somebody to keep him from worrying
himself; he smashed the last two Governments here, and he 'd have upset
_us_ too if _I_ had n't been here. He hates _me_ cordially; and if you
don't want to rouse his anger, don't let your lips murmur the name,
Cholmondely Balfour.”
“You may rely upon me, sir,” said Sir Brook, bowing. “I have scarcely
ever met a gentleman whose name I am not more likely to recall than your
own.”
“Sharp, that; did you mean it?” said Balfour, with his glass to his eye.
“I am never ambiguous, sir, though it occasionally happens to me to say
somewhat less than I feel. I wish you a good day.”