As Sir William waited breakfast for Haire on Saturday morning, a car
drove up to the door, and the butler soon afterwards entered with a card
and a letter. The card bore the name “Sir Brook Fossbrooke,” and the
letter was sealed with the viceregal arms, and had the name “Wilmington”
on the corner. Sir William broke it open, and read,--
“My dear Chief Baron,--This will come to your hand through Sir Brook
Fossbrooke, one of my oldest and choicest friends. He tells me
he desires to know you, and I am not aware of any more natural or
legitimate ambition. It would be presumption in me to direct your
attention to qualities you will be more quick to discover and more able
to appreciate than myself. I would only add that your estimate will,
I feel assured, be not less favorable that it will be formed of one
of whose friendship I am proud. It may be that his visit to you will
include a matter of business; if so, give it your courteous attention:
and believe me ever, my dear Chief Baron, your faithful friend,
“Wilmington.”
“Show the gentleman in,” said the Judge; and he advanced towards the
door as Sir Brook entered. “I am proud to make your acquaintance, Sir
Brook,” said he, presenting his hand.
“I would not have presumed to call on you at such an hour, my Lord Chief
Baron, save that my minutes are numbered. I must leave for England this
evening; and I wished, if possible, to meet you before I started.”
“You will, I hope, join me at breakfast?”
“I breakfasted two hours ago,--if I dare to dignify by the name my meal
of bread and milk. But, pray, let me not keep you from yours,--that is,
if you will permit me to speak to you while so occupied.”
“I am at your orders, sir,” said the old Judge, as he seated himself and
requested his visitor to sit beside him.
“His Excellency tells me, my Lord, that there is just now vacant a
situation of which some doubt exists as to the patron,--a Registrarship,
I think he called it, in your Court?”
“There is no doubt whatever, sir. The patronage is mine.”
“I merely quote the Viceroy, my Lord,--I assert nothing of myself.”
“It may not impossibly save time, sir, when I repeat that his Excellency
has misinformed you. The office is in my gift.”
“May I finish the communication with which he charged me?”
“Sir, there is no case before the court,” said the Judge. “I can
hear you, as a matter of courtesy; but it cannot be your object to be
listened to on such terms?”
“I will accept even so little. If it should prove that the view taken by
his Excellency is the correct one--pray, sir, let me proceed--”
“I cannot; I have no temper for a baseless hypothesis. I will not,
besides, abuse your time any more than my own forbearance; and I
therefore say that if any portion of your interest in making my
acquaintance concerns that question you have so promptly broached, the
minutes employed in the discussion would be thrown away by us both.”
“Mr. Haire,” said the servant, at this moment; and the Chief Baron's old
friend entered, rather heated by his walk.
“You are late by half an hour, Haire; let me present you to Sir Brook
Fossbrooke, whose acquaintance I am now honored in making. Sir Brook
is under a delusive impression, Haire, which I told you a few days ago
would demand some decisive step on my part; he thinks that the vacant
registrarship is at the disposal of the Crown.”
“I ask pardon,” said Fossbrooke. “As I understood his Excellency, they
only claim the alternate appointment.”
“And they shall not assert even that, sir.”
“Sir William's case is strong,--it is irrefutable. I have gone over it
myself,” broke in Haire.
“There, sir! listen to that. You have now wherewithal to go back and
tell the Viceroy that the opinion of the leading man of the Irish Bar
has decided against his claim. Tell him, sir, that accident timed your
visit here at the same moment with my distinguished friend's, and that
you in this way obtained a spontaneous decision on the matter at issue.
When you couple with that judgment the name of William Haire, you will
have said enough.”
“I bow to this great authority,” said Sir Brook, with deep courtesy,
“and accepting your Lordship's statement to the fullest, I would only
add, that as it was his Excellency's desire to have named me to this
office, might I so far presume, on the loss of the good fortune that I
had looked for, to approach you with a request, only premising that it
is not on my own behalf?”
“I own, sir, that I do not clearly appreciate the title to your claim.
You are familiar with the turf, Sir Brook, and you know that it is only
the second horse has a right to demand his entry.”
“I have not been beaten, my Lord. You have scratched my name and
prevented my running.”
“Let us come back to fact, sir,” said the Chief Baron, not pleased with
the retort. “How can you base any right to approach me with a request on
the circumstance that his Excellency desired to give you what belonged
to another?”
“Yes, that puts it forcibly--unanswerably--to my thinking,” said Haire.
“I may condole with disappointment, sir, but I am not bound to
compensate defeat,” said the old Judge; and he arose and walked the room
with that irritable look and manner which even the faintest opposition
to him often evoked, and for which even the utterance of a flippant
rebuke but partly compensated him.
“I take it, my Lord Chief Baron,” said Fossbrooke, calmly, “that I
have neither asked for condolence nor compensation. I told you, I hoped
distinctly that what I was about to urge was not on my own behalf.”
“Well, sir, and I think the plea is only the less sustainable. The
Viceroy's letter might give a pretext for the one; there is nothing in
our acquaintance would warrant the other.”
“If you knew, sir, how determined I am not to take offence at words
which certainly imperil patience, you would possibly spare me some
of these asperities. I am in close relations of friendship with your
grandson; he is at present living with me; I have pledged myself to his
father to do my utmost in securing him some honorable livelihood, and
it is in his behalf that I have presented myself before you to-day. Will
you graciously accord me a hearing on this ground?”
There was a quiet dignity of manner in which he said this, a total
forgetfulness of self, and a manly simplicity of purpose so palpable,
that the old Judge felt he was in presence of one whose character called
for all his respect; at the same time he was not one to be suddenly
carried away by a sentiment, and in a very measured voice he replied,
“If I 'm flattered, sir, by the interest you take in a member of my
family, I am still susceptible of a certain displeasure that it should
be a stranger should stand before me to ask me for any favor to my own.”
“I am aware, my Lord Chief Baron, that my position is a false one, but
so is your own.”
“Mine, sir! mine? What do you mean? Explain yourself.”
“If your Lordship's interest had been exerted as it might have been,
Dr. Lendrick's son would never have needed so humble a friend as he has
found in me.”
“And have you come here, sir, to lecture me on my duty to my family?
Have you presented yourself under the formality of a viceregal letter
of introduction to tell a perfect stranger to you how he should have
demeaned himself to his own?”
“Probably I might retort, and ask by what right you lecture me on my
manners and behavior? But I am willing to be taught by so consummate a
master of everything; and though I was once a courtier, I believe that
I have much to learn on the score of breeding. And now, my Lord, let us
leave this unpromising theme, and come to one which has more interest
for each of us. If this registrarship, this place, whatever it be, would
be one to suit your grandson, will the withdrawal of _my_ claim serve
to induce your Lordship to support _his?_ In one word, my Lord, will you
let him have the appointment?”
“I distinctly refuse, sir,” said the Judge, waving his hand with an air
of dignity. “Of the young gentleman for whom you intercede I know but
little; but there are two disqualifications against him, more than
enough, either of them, to outweigh your advocacy.”
“May I learn them?” asked Sir Brook, meekly.
“You shall, sir. He carries my name without its prestige; he inherits
_my_ temper, but not my intellect.” The blood rushed to his face as he
spoke, and his chest swelled, and his whole bearing bespoke the fierce
pride that animated him; when suddenly, as it were, recollecting
himself, he added: “I am not wont to give way thus, sir. It is only in
a moment of forgetfulness that I could have obtruded a personal
consideration into a question of another kind. My friend here will tell
you if it has been the habit of my life to pension my family on the
public.”
“Having failed in one object of my coming, let me hope for better
success in another. May I convey to your Lordship your grandson's regret
for having offended you? It has caused him sincere sorrow and much
self-reproach. May I return with the good tidings of your forgiveness?”
“The habits of my order are opposed to rash judgments, and consequently
to hasty reversions. I will consider the case, and let you hear my
opinion upon it.”
“I think that is about as much as you will do with him,” muttered Haire
in Sir Brook's ear, and with a significant gesture towards the door.
“Before taking my leave, my Lord, would it be too great a liberty if I
beg to present my personal respects to Miss Lendrick?”
“I will inform her of your wish, sir,” said the Judge, rising, and
ringing the bell. After a pause of some minutes, in which a perfect
silence was maintained by all, the servant returned to say, “Miss
Lendrick would be happy to see Sir Brook.”
“I hope, sir,” said the Chief Baron, as he accompanied him to the door,
“I have no need to request that no portion of what has passed here
to-day be repeated to my granddaughter.”
A haughty bow of assent was all the reply.
“I make my advances to her heart,” said the Judge, with a tone of more
feeling in his voice, “through many difficulties. Let these not be
increased to me,--let her not think me unmindful of my own.”
“Give her no reason to think so, my Lord, and you may feel very
indifferent to the chance words of a passing acquaintance.”
“For the third time to-day, sir, have you dared to sit in judgment over
my behavior to my family. You cannot plead want of experience of life,
or want of converse with men, to excuse this audacity. I must regard
your intrusion, therefore, as a settled project to insult me. I accept
no apologies, sir,” said the old man, with a haughty wave of his hand,
while his eyes glittered with passion. “I only ask, and I hope I ask as
a right, that I may not be outraged under my own roof. Take your next
opportunity to offend me when I may not be hampered by the character
of your host. Come down into the open arena, and see how proud you will
feel at the issue of the encounter.” He rang the bell violently as he
spoke, and continued to ring it till the servant came.
“Accompany this gentleman to the gate,” said he to the man.
Not a change came over Sir Brook's face during the delivery of this
speech; and as he bowed reverentially and withdrew, his manner was all
that courtesy could desire.
“I see he's not going to visit Lucy,” muttered Haire, as Sir Brook
passed the window.
“I should think not, sir. There are few men would like to linger where
they have been so ingloriously defeated.” He walked the room with a
proud defiant look for some minutes, and then, sinking faintly into a
chair, said, in a weak, tremulous tone, “Haire, these trials are too
much for me. It is a cruel aggravation of the ills of old age to have a
heart and a brain alive to the finest sense of injury.”
Haire muttered something like concurrence.
“What is it you say, sir? Speak out,” cried the Judge.
“I was saying,” muttered the other, “I wish they would not
provoke--would not irritate you; that people ought to see the state your
nerves are in, and should use a little discretion how they contradict
and oppose you.” The bland smile of the Chief-Justice, and an assenting
gesture of his hand, emboldened Haire to continue, and he went on: “I
have always said, Keep away such as excite him; his condition is not one
to be bettered by passionate outbreaks. Calm him, humor him.”
“What a pearl above price is a friend endowed with discretion! Leave me,
Haire, to think over your nice words. I would like to ponder them alone
and to myself. I 'll send for you by and by.”