MR. RYLE'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
Etiquette, touching the important ceremonies of buryings and
christenings, is much more observed in the country than in towns. To
rural districts this remark especially applies. In a large town people
don't know their next-door neighbours, don't care for their neighbours'
opinions. In a smaller place the inhabitants are almost as one family,
and their actions are chiefly governed by that pertinent remark, "What
will people say?" In these narrow communities, numbers of which are
scattered about England, it is considered necessary on the occasion of a
funeral to invite all kith and kin. Omit to do so, and it would be set
down as a slight; affording the parish a theme of gossip for weeks
afterwards. Hence Mr. Chattaway, being a connection--brother-in-law, in
fact, of the deceased gentleman's wife--was invited to follow the
remains of Thomas Ryle to the grave. In spite of the bad terms they had
been on; in spite of Mrs. Ryle's own bitter feelings against Chattaway
and Trevlyn Hold generally; in spite of Mr. Ryle's death having been
caused by Chattaway's bull--Mr. Chattaway received a formal invitation
to attend as mourner the remains to the grave. And it would never have
entered into Mr. Chattaway's ideas of manners to decline it.
An inquest had been held at the nearest inn. The verdict returned was
"Accidental Death," with a deodand of five pounds upon the bull. Which
Mr. Chattaway had to pay.
The bull was already condemned. Not to annihilation; but to be taken to
a distant fair, and there sold; whence he would be conveyed to other
pastures, where he might possibly gore somebody else. It was not
consideration for the feelings of the Ryle family which induced Mr.
Chattaway to adopt this step, and so rid the neighbourhood of the
animal; but consideration for his own pocket. Feeling ran high in the
vicinity; fear also; the stoutest hearts could feel no security that the
bull might not have a tilt at them: and Chattaway, on his part, was as
little certain that an effectual silencer would not be dealt out to the
bull some quiet night. Therefore he resolved to part with him. Apart
from his misdoings, he was a valuable animal, worth a great deal more
than Mr. Chattaway cared to lose; and the bull was dismissed.
The day of the funeral arrived, and those bidden to it began to assemble
about one o'clock: that is, the undertaker's men, the clerk, and the
bearers. Of the latter, Jim Sanders made one. "Better he had gone than
his master," said Nora, in a matter-of-fact, worldly spirit of
reasoning, as her thoughts went back to the mysterious hole she had
gratuitously, and the reader will say absurdly, coupled with Jim's fate.
A table was laid out in the entrance-room groaning under an immense cold
round of beef, bread-and-cheese, and large supplies of ale. To help to
convey a coffin to church without being first regaled with a good meal,
was a thing Barbrook had never heard of, and never wished to hear of.
The select members of the company were shown to the drawing-room, where
the refreshment consisted of port and sherry, and "pound" cake. These
were the established rules of hospitality at all well-to-do funerals:
wine and cake for the gentry; cold beef and ale for the men. They had
been observed at Squire Trevlyn's; at Mr. Ryle's father's; at every
substantial funeral within the memory of Barbrook. Mr. Chattaway, Mr.
Berkeley (a distant relative of Mr. Ryle's first wife), Mr. King the
surgeon, and Farmer Apperley comprised the assemblage in the
drawing-room.
At two o'clock, after some little difficulty in getting it into order,
the sad procession started. It had then been joined by George and
Trevlyn Ryle. A great many spectators had collected to view and attend
it. The infrequency of a funeral in the respectable class, combined with
the circumstances attending the death, drew them together: and before
the church was reached, where it was met by the clergyman, it had a
train half-a-mile long after it; chiefly women and children. Many
dropped a tear for the premature death of one who had lived amongst them
as a good master and kind neighbour.
They left him in his grave, by the side of his long-dead wife, Mary
Berkeley. As George stood at the head of his father's coffin, during the
ceremony in the churchyard, the gravestone with its name was in front of
him; his mother's name: "Mary, the wife of Thomas Ryle, and only
daughter of the Rev. George Berkeley." None knew with what feeling of
loneliness the orphan boy turned from the spot, as the last words of the
minister died away.
Mrs. Ryle, in her widow's weeds, was seated in the drawing-room on their
return, as the gentlemen filed into it. In Barbrook custom, the
relatives of the deceased, near or distant, were expected to assemble
together for the remainder of the day; or for a portion of it. The
gentlemen would sometimes smoke, and the ladies in their deep mourning
sat with their hands folded in their laps, resting on their snow-white
handkerchiefs. The conversation was only allowed to run on family
matters, future prospects, and the like; and the voices were amicable
and subdued.
As the mourners entered, they shook hands severally with Mrs. Ryle.
Chattaway put out his hand last, and with perceptible hesitation. It was
many a year since his hand had been given in fellowship to Mrs. Ryle, or
had taken hers. They had been friendly once, and in the old days he had
called her "Maude": but that was over now.
Mrs. Ryle turned from the offered hand. "No," she said, speaking in
quiet but decisive tones. "I cannot forget the past sufficiently for
that, James Chattaway. On this day it is forcibly present to me."
They sat down. Trevlyn next his mother, called there by her. The
gentlemen disposed themselves on the side of the table facing the fire,
and George found a chair a little behind them; no one seemed to notice
him. And so much the better; the boy's heart was too full to bear much
notice then.
On the table was placed the paper which had been written by the surgeon,
at the dictation of Mr. Ryle, the night when he lay in extremity. It had
not been unfolded since. Mr. King took it up; he knew that he was
expected to read it. They were waiting for him to do so.
"I must premise that the dictation of this is Mr. Ryle's," he said. "He
expressly requested me to write down his _own words_, just as they came
from his lips. He----"
"Is it a will?" interrupted Farmer Apperley, a little man, with a red
face and a large nose. He had come to the funeral in top boots, which
constituted his idea of full dress.
"You can call it a will, if you please," replied Mr. King. "I am not
sure that the law would do so. It was in consequence of his not having
made a will that he requested me to write down these few directions."
The farmer nodded; and Mr. King began to read.
"In the name of God: Amen. I, Thomas Ryle.
"First of all, I bequeath my soul to God: trusting that He will pardon
my sins, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
"It's a dreadful blow, this meeting my death by Chattaway's bull. The
more so, that I am unable to leave things straightforward for my wife
and children. They know--at least, my wife knows, and all the parish
knows--the pressure that has been upon me, through Chattaway coming down
upon me as he has done. I have been as a bird with its wings clipped. As
soon as I tried to get up, I was pulled down again.
"Ill luck has been upon me besides. Beasts have died off, crops have
failed. The farm's not good for much, for all the money that has been
laid out upon it, and I alone know the labour it has cost. When you
think of these things, my dear wife and boys, you'll know why I do not
leave you better provided for. Many and many a night have I lain awake
upon my bed, fretting, and planning, and hoping, all for your sakes.
Perhaps if that bull had spared me to old age, I might have left you
better off.
"I should like to bequeath the furniture and all that is in the house,
the stock, the beasts, and all that I die possessed of, to my dear wife,
Maude--but it's not of any use, for Chattaway will sell up--except the
silver tankard, and that should go to Trevlyn. But for having 'T.R.'
upon it, it should go to George, for he is the eldest. T.R. stood for my
father, and T.R. has stood for me, and T.R. will stand for Trevlyn.
George, though he is the eldest, won't grudge it him, if I know anything
of his nature. And I give to George my watch, and I hope he'll keep it
for his dead father's sake. It is only a silver one; but it's a very
good one, and George can have his initials engraved on the shield. The
three seals, and the gold key, I give to him with it. The red cornelian
has our arms on it. For we had arms once, and my father and I have
generally sealed our letters with them: not that they have done him or
me any good. And let Treve keep the tankard faithfully, and never part
with it. And remember, my dear boys, that your poor father would have
left you better keepsakes had it been in his power. You must prize these
for the dead giver's sake. But there! it's of no use talking, for
Chattaway will sell up, watch and tankard, and all.
"And I should like to leave that bay foal to my dear little Caroline. It
will be a pretty creature when it's bigger. You must let it have the run
of the three cornered paddock, and I should like to see her on it, sweet
little soul!--but Chattaway's bull has stopped it. And don't grudge the
cost of a little saddle for her; and Roger can break it in; and mind you
are all true and tender with my dear little girl. You are good
lads--though Treve is hasty when his temper's put out--and I know you'll
be to her what brothers ought to be. I always meant that foal for Carry,
since I saw how pretty it was likely to grow, though I didn't say so;
and now I give it to her. But where's the use? Chattaway will sell up.
"If he does sell up, to the last stick and stone, he won't get his debt
in full. Perhaps not much above half of it; for things at a forced sale
don't bring their value. You have put down 'his debt,' I suppose; but it
is not his debt. I am on my death-bed, and I say that the two thousand
pounds was made a present of to me by the Squire on _his_ death-bed. He
told me it was made all right with Chattaway; that Chattaway understood
the promise given to me, not to raise the rent; and that he'd be the
same just landlord to me that the Squire had been. The Squire could not
lay his hand on the bond, or he would have given it me then; but he said
Chattaway should burn it as soon as he entered, which would be in an
hour or two. Chattaway knows whether he has acted up to this; and now
his bull has done for me.
"And I wish to tell Chattaway that if he'll act a fair part as a man
ought, and let my wife and the boys stop on the farm, he'll stand a much
better chance of getting the money, than he would if he turns them out
of it. I don't say this for their sakes more than for his; but because
from my heart I believe it to be the truth. George has his head on his
shoulders the right way, and I would advise his mother to keep him on
the farm; he will be getting older every day. Not but that I wish her to
use her own judgment in all things, for her judgment is good. In time,
they may be able to pay off Chattaway; in time they may be able even to
buy back the farm, for I cannot forget that it belonged to my
forefathers, and not to the Squire. That is, if Chattaway will be
reasonable, and let them stop on it, and not be hard and pressing. But
perhaps I am talking nonsense, for he may turn them off and do for them,
as his bull has done for me.
"And now, my dear George and Treve, I repeat it to you, be good boys to
your mother. Obey her in all things. Maude, I have left all to you in
preference to dividing it between you and them, for which there is no
time; but I know you'll do the right thing by them: and when it comes to
your turn to leave--if Chattaway don't sell up--I wish you to bequeath
to them in equal shares what you die possessed of. George is not your
son, but he is mine, and----But perhaps I'd better not say what I was
going to say. And, my boys, work while it's day. In that Book which I
have not read so much as I ought to have read, it says, 'The night
cometh when no man can work.' When we hear that read in church, or when
we get the Book out on a Sunday evening and read it to ourselves, that
night seems a long, long way off. It seems so far off that it can hardly
ever be any concern of ours; and it is only when we are cut off suddenly
that we find how very near it is. That night has come for me; and that
night will come for you before you are aware of it. So, _work_--and
score that, doctor. God has placed us in this world to work, and not to
be ashamed of it; and to work for Him as well as for ourselves. It was
often in my mind that I ought to work more for God--that I ought to
think more of Him; and I used to say, 'I will do so when a bit of this
bother's off my mind.' But the bother was always there, and I never did
it. And now the end's come; and I can see things would have been made
easier to me if I _had_ done it--score it again, doctor--and I say it as
a lesson to you, my children.
"And I think that's about all; and I am much obliged to you, doctor, for
writing this. I hope they'll be able to manage things on the farm, and I
would ask my neighbour Apperley to give them his advice now and then,
for old friendship's sake, until George shall be older, and to put him
in a way of buying and selling stock. If Chattaway don't sell up, that
is. If he does, I hardly know how it will be. Perhaps God will put them
in some other way, and take care of them. And I would leave my best
thanks to Nora, for she has been a true friend to us all, and I don't
know how the house would have got on without her. And now I'm growing
faint, doctor, and I think the end is coming. God bless you all, my dear
ones. Amen."
A deep silence fell on the room as Mr. King ceased. He folded the paper,
and laid it on the table near Mrs. Ryle. The first to speak was Farmer
Apperley.
"Any help that I can be of to you and George, Mrs. Ryle, and to all of
you, is heartily at your service. It will be yours with right goodwill
at all times and seasons. The more so, that you know if I had been cut
off in this way, my poor friend Ryle would have been the first to offer
to do as much for my wife and boys, and have thought no trouble of it.
George, you can come over and ask me about things, just as you would ask
your father; or send for me up here to the farm; and whatever work I may
be at at home, though it was putting out a barn on fire, I'd come."
"And now it is my turn to speak," said Mr. Chattaway. "And, Mrs. Ryle, I
give you my promise, in the presence of these gentlemen, that if you
choose to remain on the farm, I will put no hindrance upon it. Your
husband thought me hard--unjust; he said it before my face and behind my
back. My opinion always has been that he entirely mistook Squire Trevlyn
in that last interview he had with him. I do not think it was ever the
Squire's intention to cancel the bond; Ryle must have misunderstood him
altogether: at any rate, I heard nothing of it. As successor to the
estate, the bond came into my possession; and in my wife and children's
interest I could not consent to destroy it. No one but a soft-hearted
man--and that's what Ryle was, poor fellow--would have thought of asking
such a thing. But I was willing to give him every facility for paying
it, and I did do so. No! It was not my hardness that was in fault, but
his pride and nonsense, and his thinking I ought not to ask for my own
money----"
"If you bring up these things, James Chattaway, I must answer them,"
interrupted Mrs. Ryle. "I would prefer not to be forced to do it
to-day."
"I do not want to bring them up in any unpleasant spirit," answered Mr.
Chattaway; "or to say it was his fault or my fault. We'll let bygones be
bygones. He is gone, poor man; and I wish that savage beast of a bull
had been in four quarters before he had done the mischief! All I would
now say, is, that I'll put no impediment to your remaining on the farm.
We will not go into business details this afternoon, but I will come in
any day you like to appoint, and talk it over. If you choose to keep on
the farm at its present rent--it is well worth it--to pay me interest
for the money owing, and a yearly sum towards diminishing the debt, you
are welcome to do it."
Just what Nora had predicted! Mr. Chattaway loved money far too much to
run the risk of losing part of the debt--as he probably would do if he
turned them from the farm. Mrs. Ryle bowed her head in cold
acquiescence. She saw no way open to her but that of accepting the
offer. Mr. Chattaway probably knew there was no other.
"The sooner things are settled, the better," she remarked. "I will name
eleven o'clock to-morrow morning."
"Very good; I'll be here," he answered. "And I am glad it is decided
amicably."
The rest of those present also appeared glad. Perhaps they had feared
some unpleasant recrimination might take place between Mrs. Ryle and
James Chattaway. Thus relieved, they unbent a little, and crossed their
legs as if inclined to become more sociable.
"What shall you do with the boys, Mrs. Ryle?" suddenly asked Farmer
Apperley.
"Treve, of course, will go to school as usual," she replied.
"George----I have not decided about George."
"Shall I have to leave school?" cried George, looking up with a start.
"Of course you will," said Mrs. Ryle.
"But what will become of my Latin; my studies altogether?" returned
George, in tones of dismay. "You know, mamma----"
"It cannot be helped, George," she interrupted, speaking in the
uncompromising, decisive manner, so characteristic of her; as it was of
her sister, Diana Trevlyn. "You must turn your attention to something
more profitable than schooling, now."
"If a boy of fifteen has not had schooling enough, I'd like to know when
he has had it?" interposed Farmer Apperley, who neither understood nor
approved of the strides education and intellect had made since he was a
boy. Substantial people in his day had been content to learn to read and
write and cipher, and deem that amount of learning sufficient to grow
rich upon. As did the Dutch professor, to whom George Primrose wished to
teach Greek, but who declined the offer. He had never learned Greek; he
had lived, and ate, and slept without Greek; and therefore he did not
see any good in Greek. Thus was it with Farmer Apperley.
"What do you learn at school, George?" questioned Mr. Berkeley.
"Latin and Greek, and mathematics, and----"
"But, George, where will be the good of such things to you?" cried
Farmer Apperley, not allowing him to end the catalogue. "Latin and Greek
and mathematics! What next, I wonder!"
"I don't see much good in giving a boy that sort of education myself,"
put in Mr. Chattaway, before any one else had time to speak. "Unless he
is to take up a profession, the classics only lie fallow in the mind. I
hated them, I know that; I and my brother, too. Many and many a caning
we have had over our Latin, until we wished the books at the bottom of
the sea. Twelve months after we left school we could not have construed
a page, had it been put before us. That's all the good Latin did for
us."
"I shall keep up my Latin and Greek," observed George, very
independently, "although I may have to leave school."
"Why need you keep it up?" asked Mr. Chattaway, turning full upon
George.
"Why?" echoed George. "I like it, for one thing. And a knowledge of the
classics is necessary to a gentleman."
"Necessary to what?" cried Mr. Chattaway.
"To a gentleman," repeated George.
"Oh," said Mr. Chattaway. "Do you think of being one?"
"Yes, I do," repeated George, in tones as decisive as any ever used by
his step-mother.
This bold assertion nearly took away the breath of Farmer Apperley. Had
George Ryle announced his intention of becoming a convict, Mr.
Apperley's consternation had been scarcely less. The same word bears
different constructions to different minds. That of "gentleman" in the
mouth of George, could only bear one to the simple farmer.
"Hey, lad! What wild notions have ye been getting into your head?" he
asked.
"George," said Mrs. Ryle almost at the same moment, "are you going to
give me trouble at the very outset? There is nothing for you to look
forward to but work. Your father said it."
"Of course I look forward to work," returned George, as cheerfully as he
could speak that sad afternoon. "But that will not prevent my being a
gentleman."
"George, I fancy you may be somewhat misusing terms," remarked the
surgeon, who was an old inhabitant of that rustic district, and a little
more advanced than the rest. "What you meant to say was, that you would
be a good man, honourable and upright; nothing mean about you. Was it
not?"
"Yes," said George, after an imperceptible hesitation. "Something of
that sort."
"The boy did not express himself clearly, you see," said Mr. King,
looking round on the rest. "He means well."
"Don't you ever talk about being a gentleman again, my lad," cried
Farmer Apperley, with a sagacious nod. "It would make the neighbours
think you were going in for bad ways. A gentleman is one who follows the
hounds in white smalls and scarlet coat, goes to dinners and drinks
wine, and never puts his hands to anything, but leads an idle life."
"That is not the sort of gentleman I meant," said George.
"It is to be hoped not," replied the farmer. "A man may do this if he
has a good fat balance at his banker's, but not else."
George made no remark. To have explained how very different his ideas of
a gentleman were from those of Farmer Apperley might have involved him
in a long conversation. His silence was looked suspiciously upon by Mr.
Chattaway.
"Where idle and roving notions are taken up, there's only one cure for
them!" he remarked, in short, uncompromising tones. "And that is hard
work."
But that George's spirit was subdued, he might have hotly answered that
he had taken up neither idle nor roving notions. As it was, he sat in
silence.
"I doubt whether it will be prudent to keep George at home," said Mrs.
Ryle, speaking generally, but not to Mr. Chattaway. "He is too young to
do much on the farm. And there's John Pinder."
"John Pinder would do his best, no doubt," said Mr. Chattaway.
"The question is--if I do resolve to put George out, what can I put him
to?" resumed Mrs. Ryle.
"My father thought it best I should remain on the farm," interposed
George, his heart beating a shade faster.
"He thought it best that I should exercise my own judgment in the
matter," corrected Mrs. Ryle. "The worst is, it takes money to place a
lad out," she added, looking at Farmer Apperley.
"It does that," replied the farmer.
"There's nothing like a trade for boys," said Mr. Chattaway,
impressively. "They earn a living, and are kept out of mischief. It
appears to me that Mrs. Ryle will have expense enough upon her hands,
without the cost and keep of George added to it. What good can so young
a boy do the farm?"
"True," mused Mrs. Ryle, agreeing for once with Mr. Chattaway. "He could
not be of much use at present. But the cost of placing him out?"
"Of course he could not," repeated Mr. Chattaway, with an eagerness
which might have betrayed his motive, but that he coughed it down.
"Perhaps I may be able to put him out for you without cost. I know of an
eligible place where there's a vacancy. The trade is a good one, too."
"I am not going to any trade," said George, looking Mr. Chattaway full
in the face.
"You are going where Mrs. Ryle thinks fit to send you," returned Mr.
Chattaway, in his hard, cold tones. "If I can get you into the
establishment of Wall and Barnes without premium, it will be a
first-rate thing for you."
All the blood in George Ryle's body seemed to rush to his face. Poor
though they had become, trade had been unknown in their family, and its
sound in George's ears, as applied to himself, was something terrible.
"That is a retail shop!" he cried, rising from his seat.
"Well?" said Mr. Chattaway.
They remained gazing at each other. George with his changing face
flushing to crimson, fading to paleness; Mr. Chattaway with his composed
leaden features. His light eyes were sternly directed to George, but he
did not glance at Mrs. Ryle. George was the first to speak.
"You shall never force me there, Mr. Chattaway."
Mr. Chattaway rose from his seat, took George by the shoulder, and
turned him towards the window. The view did not take in much of the road
to Barbrook; but a glimpse of it might be caught sight of here and
there, winding along in the distance.
"Boy! Do you remember what was carried down that road this
afternoon--what you followed next to, with your younger brother? _He_
said that you were not to oppose your mother, but obey her in all
things. These are early moments to begin to turn against your father's
dying charge."
George sat down, heart and brain throbbing. He did not see his duty very
distinctly before him then. His father certainty had charged him to obey
his mother's requests; he had left him entirely subject to her control;
but George felt perfectly sure that his father would never have placed
him in a shop; would not have allowed him to enter one.
Mr. Chattaway continued talking, but the boy heard him not. He was
bending towards Mrs. Ryle, enlarging persuasively upon the advantages of
the plan. He knew that Wall and Barnes had taken a boy into their house
without premium, he said, and he believed he could induce them to waive
it in George's case. He and Wall had been at school together; had passed
many an impatient hour over the Latin previously spoken of; had often
called in to have a chat with him in passing. Wall was a
ten-thousand-pound man now; and George might become the same in time.
"How would you like to place Christopher at it, Mr. Chattaway?" asked
George, his heart beating rebelliously.
"Christopher!" indignantly responded Mr. Chattaway. "Christopher's heir
to Trev----Christopher isn't you," he concluded, cutting his first
retort short. In the presence of Mrs. Ryle it might not be altogether
prudent to allude to the heirship of Cris to Trevlyn Hold.
The sum named conciliated the ear of Mr. Apperley, otherwise he had not
listened with any favour to the plan. "Ten thousand pounds! And Wall
hardly a middle-aged man! That's worth thinking of, George."
"I could never live in a shop; the close air, the confinement, the
pettiness of it, would stifle me," said George, with a groan, putting
aside for the moment his more forcible objections.
"You'd rather live in a thunder-storm, with the rain coming down on your
head in bucketfuls," said Mr. Chattaway, sarcastically.
"A great deal," said George.
Farmer Apperley did not detect the irony of Mr. Chattaway's remark, or
the bitterness of the answer. "You'll say next, boy, that you'd rather
turn sailor, exposed to the weather night and day, perched midway
between sky and water!"
"A thousand times," was George's truthful answer. "Mother, let me stay
at the farm!" he cried, the nervous motion of his hands, the strained
countenance, proving how momentous was the question to his grieved
heart. "You do not know how useful I should soon become! And my father
wished it."
Mrs. Ryle shook her head. "You are too young, George, to be of use. No."
George seemed to turn white. He was approaching Mrs. Ryle with an
imploring gesture; but Mr. Chattaway caught his arm and pushed him
towards his seat again. "George, if I were you, I would not, on this
day, cross my mother."
George glanced at her. Not a shade of love, of relenting, was there on
her countenance. Cold, haughty, self-willed, it always was; but more
cold, more haughty, more self-willed than usual now. He turned and left
the room, crossed the kitchen, and passed into the room whence his
father had been carried only two hours before.
"Oh, father! father!" he sobbed; "if you were only back again!"