KENELM turned from the sight of Punch and Punch's friend the cur, as
his servant, entering, said a person from the country, who would not
give his name, asked to see him.
Thinking it might be some message from his father, Kenelm ordered the
stranger to be admitted, and in another minute there entered a young
man of handsome countenance and powerful frame, in whom, after a
surprised stare, Kenelm recognized Tom Bowles. Difficult indeed would
have been that recognition to an unobservant beholder: no trace was
left of the sullen bully or the village farrier; the expression of the
face was mild and intelligent,--more bashful than hardy; the brute
strength of the form had lost its former clumsiness, the simple dress
was that of a gentleman,--to use an expressive idiom, the whole man
was wonderfully "toned down."
"I am afraid, sir, I am taking a liberty," said Tom, rather nervously,
twiddling his hat between his fingers.
"I should be a greater friend to liberty than I am if it were always
taken in the same way," said Kenelm, with a touch of his saturnine
humour; but then yielding at once to the warmer impulse of his nature,
he grasped his old antagonist's hand and exclaimed, "My dear Tom, you
are so welcome. I am so glad to see you. Sit down, man; sit down:
make yourself at home."
"I did not know you were back in England, sir, till within the last
few days; for you did say that when you came back I should see or hear
from you," and there was a tone of reproach in the last words.
"I am to blame, forgive me," said Kenelm, remorsefully. But how did
you find me out? you did not then, I think, even know my name. That,
however, it was easy enough to discover; but who gave you my address
in this lodging?"
"Well, sir, it was Miss Travers; and she bade me come to you.
Otherwise, as you did not send for me, it was scarcely my place to
call uninvited."
"But, my dear Tom, I never dreamed that you were in London. One don't
ask a man whom one supposes to be more than a hundred miles off to pay
one an afternoon call. You are still with your uncle, I presume? and
I need not ask if all thrives well with you: you look a prosperous
man, every inch of you, from crown to toe."
"Yes," said Tom; "thank you kindly, sir, I am doing well in the way of
business, and my uncle is to give me up the whole concern at
Christmas."
While Tom thus spoke Kenelm had summoned his servant, and ordered up
such refreshments as could be found in the larder of a bachelor in
lodgings. "And what brings you to town, Tom?"
"Miss Travers wrote to me about a little business which she was good
enough to manage for me, and said you wished to know about it; and so,
after turning it over in my mind for a few days, I resolved to come to
town: indeed," added Tom, heartily, "I did wish to see your face
again."
"But you talk riddles. What business of yours could Miss Travers
imagine I wished to know about?"
Tom coloured high, and looked very embarrassed. Luckily, the servant
here entering with the refreshment-tray allowed him time to recover
himself. Kenelm helped him to a liberal slice of cold pigeon-pie,
pressed wine on him, and did not renew the subject till he thought his
guest's tongue was likely to be more freely set loose; then he said,
laying a friendly hand on Tom's shoulders, "I have been thinking over
what passed between me and Miss Travers. I wished to have the new
address of Will Somers; she promised to write to his benefactor to ask
permission to give it. You are that benefactor?"
"Don't say benefactor, sir. I will tell how it came about if you will
let me. You see, I sold my little place at Graveleigh to the new
Squire, and when Mother removed to Luscombe to be near me, she told me
how poor Jessie had been annoyed by Captain Stavers, who seems to
think his purchase included the young women on the property along with
the standing timber; and I was half afraid that she had given some
cause for his persecution, for you know she has a blink of those soft
eyes of hers that might charm a wise man out of his skin and put a
fool there instead."
"But I hope she has done with those blinks since her marriage."
"Well, and I honestly think she has. It is certain she did not
encourage Captain Stavers, for I went over to Graveleigh myself on the
sly, and lodged concealed with one of the cottagers who owed me a
kindness; and one day, as I was at watch, I saw the Captain peering
over the stile which divides Holmwood from the glebe,--you remember
Holmwood?"
"I can't say I do."
"The footway from the village to Squire Travers's goes through the
wood, which is a few hundred yards at the back of Will Somers's
orchard. Presently the Captain drew himself suddenly back from the
stile, and disappeared among the trees, and then I saw Jessie coming
from the orchard with a basket over her arm, and walking quick towards
the wood. Then, sir, my heart sank. I felt sure she was going to
meet the Captain. However, I crept along the hedgerow, hiding myself,
and got into the wood almost as soon as Jessie got there, by another
way. Under the cover of the brushwood I stole on till I saw the
Captain come out from the copse on the other side of the path, and
plant himself just before Jessie. Then I saw at once I had wronged
her. She had not expected to see him, for she hastily turned back,
and began to run homeward; but he caught her up, and seized her by the
arm. I could not hear what he said, but I heard her voice quite sharp
with fright and anger. And then he suddenly seized her round the
waist, and she screamed, and I sprang forward--"
"And thrashed the Captain?"
"No, I did not," said Tom; "I had made a vow to myself that I never
would be violent again if I could help it. So I took him with one
hand by the cuff of the neck, and with the other by the waistband, and
just pitched him on a bramble bush,--quite mildly. He soon picked
himself up, for he is a dapper little chap, and became very blustering
and abusive. But I kept my temper, and said civilly, 'Little
gentleman, hard words break no bones; but if ever you molest Mrs.
Somers again, I will carry you into her orchard, souse you into the
duck-pond there, and call all the villagers to see you scramble out of
it again; and I will do it now if you are not off. I dare say you
have heard of my name: I am Tom Bowles.' Upon that his face, which
was before very red, grew very white, and muttering something I did
not hear, he walked away.
"Jessie--I mean Mrs. Somers--seemed at first as much frightened at me
as she had been at the Captain; and though I offered to walk with her
to Miss Travers's, where she was going with a basket which the young
lady had ordered, she refused, and went back home. I felt hurt, and
returned to my uncle's the same evening; and it was not for months
that I heard the Captain had been spiteful enough to set up an
opposition shop, and that poor Will had been taken ill, and his wife
was confined about the same time, and the talk was that they were in
distress and might have to be sold up.
"When I heard all this, I thought that after all it was my rough
tongue that had so angered the Captain and been the cause of his
spite, and so it was my duty to make it up to poor Will and his wife.
I did not know how to set about mending matters, but I thought I'd go
and talk to Miss Travers; and if ever there was a kind heart in a
girl's breast, hers is one."
"You are right there, I guess. What did Miss Travers say?"
"Nay; I hardly know what she did say, but she set me thinking, and it
struck me that Jessie--Mrs. Somers--had better move to a distance, and
out of the Captain's reach, and that Will would do better in a less
out-of-the-way place. And then, by good luck, I read in the newspaper
that a stationary and a fancywork business, with a circulating
library, was to be sold on moderate terms at Moleswich, the other side
of London. So I took the train and went to the place, and thought the
shop would just suit these young folks, and not be too much work for
either; then I went to Miss Travers, and I had a lot of money lying by
me from the sale of the old forge and premises, which I did not know
what to do with; and so, to cut short a long story, I bought the
business, and Will and his wife are settled at Moleswich, thriving and
happy, I hope, sir."
Tom's voice quivered at the last words, and he turned aside quickly,
passing his hand over his eyes.
Kenelm was greatly moved.
"And they don't know what you did for them?"
"To be sure not. I don't think Will would have let him self be
beholden to me. Ah! the lad has a spirit of his own, and Jessie--Mrs.
Somers--would have felt pained and humbled that I should even think of
such a thing. Miss Travers managed it all. They take the money as a
loan which is to be paid by instalments. They have sent Miss Travers
more than one instalment already, so I know they are doing well."
"A loan from Miss Travers?"
"No; Miss Travers wanted to have a share in it, but I begged her not.
It made me happy to do what I did all myself; and Miss Travers felt
for me and did not press. They perhaps think it is Squire Travers
(though he is not a man who would like to say it, for fear it should
bring applicants on him), or some other gentleman who takes an
interest in them."
"I always said you were a grand fellow, Tom. But you are grander
still than I thought you."
"If there be any good in me, I owe it to you, sir. Think what a
drunken, violent brute I was when I first met you. Those walks with
you, and I may say that other gentleman's talk, and then that long
kind letter I had from you, not signed in your name, and written from
abroad,--all these changed me, as the child is changed at nurse."
"You have evidently read a good deal since we parted."
"Yes; I belong to our young men's library and institute; and when of
an evening I get hold of a book, especially a pleasant story-book, I
don't care for other company."
"Have you never seen any other girl you could care for, and wish to
marry?"
"Ah, sir," answered Tom, "a man does not go so mad for a girl as I did
for Jessie Wiles, and when it is all over, and he has come to his
senses, put his heart into joint again as easily as if it were only a
broken leg. I don't say that I may not live to love and to marry
another woman: it is my wish to do so. But I know that I shall love
Jessie to my dying day; but not sinfully, sir,--not sinfully. I would
not wrong her by a thought."
There was a long pause.
At last Kenelm said, "You promised to be kind to that little girl with
the flower-ball; what has become of her?"
"She is quite well, thank you, sir. My aunt has taken a great fancy
to her, and so has my mother. She comes to them very often of an
evening, and brings her work with her. A quick, intelligent little
thing, and full of pretty thoughts. On Sundays, if the weather is
fine, we stroll out together in the fields."
"She has been a comfort to you, Tom."
"Oh, yes."
"And loves you?"
"I am sure she does; an affectionate, grateful child."
"She will be a woman soon, Tom, and may love you as a woman then."
Tom looked indignant and rather scornful at that suggestion, and
hastened to revert to the subject more immediately at his heart.
"Miss Travers said you would like to call on Will Somers and his wife;
will you? Moleswich is not far from London, you know."
"Certainly, I will call."
"I do hope you will find them happy; and if so, perhaps you will
kindly let me know; and--and--I wonder whether Jessie's child is like
her? It is a boy; somehow or other I would rather it had been a
girl."
"I will write you full particulars. But why not come with me?"
"No, I don't think I could do that, just at present. It unsettled me
sadly when I did again see her sweet face at Graveleigh, and she was
still afraid of me too! that was a sharp pang."
"She ought to know what you have done for her, and will."
"On no account, sir; promise me that. I should feel mean if I humbled
them,--that way."
"I understand, though I will not as yet make you any positive promise.
Meanwhile, if you are staying in town, lodge with me; my landlady can
find you a room."
"Thank you heartily, sir; but I go back by the evening train; and,
bless me! how late it is now! I must wish you good-by. I have some
commissions to do for my aunt, and I must buy a new doll for Susey."
"Susey is the name of the little girl with the flower-ball?"
"Yes. I must run off now; I feel quite light at heart seeing you
again and finding that you receive me still so kindly, as if we were
equals."
"Ah, Tom, I wish I was your equal,--nay, half as noble as Heaven has
made you!"
Tom laughed incredulously, and went his way.
"This mischievous passion of love," said Kenelm to himself, "has its
good side, it seems, after all. If it was nearly making a wild beast
of that brave fellow,--nay, worse than wild beast, a homicide doomed
to the gibbet,--so, on the other hand, what a refined, delicate,
chivalrous nature of gentleman it has developed out of the stormy
elements of its first madness! Yes, I will go and look at this
new-married couple. I dare say they are already snarling and spitting
at each other like cat and dog. Moleswich is within reach of a walk."