THE POSITION.
"Among my relations," said Mrs. Sharp, reclining, for fear of
asserting herself, as soon as her lord looked up again. "I have always
been thought to possess a certain amount of stupid common sense.
Nothing of depth, or grand stratagems, I mean, but a way of being
right nearly nine times out of ten. And I think that this feeling is
coming over me, just now."
"My dear, if it is so, do relieve yourself. Do not consider my ideas
for a moment, but let me know what your own are."
"Luke, how you love to ridicule me! Well, if my opinion is of no
account, I can only ask questions, as you tell me. In the first place,
how did you get the girl away?"
"Most easily; under her father's orders. Hannah can write the old
gentleman's hand to any extent, and his style as well. For the glory
of the Lord she did so."
"And how did you bring her to do such shocking things? She must have
had a strong idea that they were not honest."
"Far otherwise. She took an enthusiastic view of the matter from the
very first. I made it quite clear to her how much there was at stake;
and the hardest job for a long time was to prevent her from being too
zealous. She scorns to take anything for herself, unless it can be put
religiously. And for a long time I was quite afraid that I could not
get a metal band on her. But she found out, before it was quite too
late, that the mission of the "Brotherly-love-abounders," upon the
west coast of Africa, had had all their missionaries eaten up, and
required a round sum to replace them. I promised her £5000 for that,
when her own mission ends in glory."
"Then you are quite certain to have her tight. I might trust you for
every precaution, Luke. But how have you managed to keep them so
quiet, while the neighbourhood was alive with it? And in what corner
of the world have you got them? And who was the poor girl that really
did die?"
"One question at a time, if you please, Miranda, though they all hang
pretty much upon one hook. I have kept them so quiet, because they are
in a corner of a world where no one goes; in a lonely cottage at the
furthest extremity of the old Stow Wood, where their nearest road is a
timber-track three-quarters of a mile away. They are waited on by a
deaf old woman, who believes them to be Americans, which accounts to
her mind for any oddness. Their washing is done at home, and all their
food is procured through Cripps the swine-herd, whose forest farm lies
well away, so that none of his children go to them. Cripps is indebted
to me, and I hold a mortgage of every rod of his land, and a bill of
sale of his furniture and stock. He dare not play traitor and claim
the reward, or I should throw him into prison for forgery, upon a
little transaction of some time back. Moreover, he has no motive; for
I have promised him the same sum, and his bill of sale cancelled, when
the wedding is happily celebrated. Meanwhile he is making fine
pickings out of me, and he caters at a profit of cent. per cent. There
is nobody else who knows anything about it, except a pair of gipsy
fellows, too wide awake to come near the law for any amount of
guineas. One of them is old Kershoe, the celebrated horse-stealer,
whom I employed to drive and horse the needful vehicle from London. He
knew where to get his horses without any postmaster being the wiser,
and his vehicle was a very tidy carriage, bought by the gipsies for a
dwelling-place, and furbished up so that the chaises of the age are
not to be compared with it. The inquiries made at all livery-stables,
and posting-houses, and so on, by order of Overshute and the good
Squire, and some of them through my own agency, have afforded me
genial pleasure and some little share of profit."
"Really, my dear," said Mrs. Sharp; "you were scarcely right in
charging for them. You should have remembered that you knew all about
it."
"That was exactly what I did, my dear; and I felt how expensive that
knowledge was. As a little set-off against the pig-master's bills, I
made heavy entries against the good Squire. The fault is his own. He
should not have driven me into costly proceedings by that lowest of
all things the arrogance of birth. Well, the other gipsy man is no
other than Joe Smith, who jumped the broomstick with the lovely
Princess Cinnaminta. You must have heard of her, Miranda. Half the
ladies in Oxford were most bitterly jealous of her, some years back."
"I am sure then that I never was, Mr. Sharp!--a poor creature sitting
under sacks, and doing juggling!"
"Nothing of the kind. You never saw her. She is a woman of superior
mind and most refined appearance. Indeed, her eyes are such as
never----"
"Oh, that is where you have been, Luke, is it, while we have been here
for a fortnight, trembling----"
"Nonsense, Miranda; don't be so absurd. The poor thing has just lost
her only child, and I believe she will go mad with it. It was her
pretty sister, young Khebyra, who died of collapse, and was buried the
same night. This case was most extraordinary. The fever struck her,
without any illness, just as the plague and the cholera have done,
with a headlong, concentrated leap; as a thunderstorm gathers itself
sometimes into one blue ball of lightning. She was laughing at ten
o'clock, and her poor young jaw tied up at noon; and a great panic
burst among them."
"Luke!" exclaimed Mrs. Sharp, strongly shuddering; "you never mean to
say that you came home to me, from being among such people, without a
change of clothes, or anything!"
"How could I come home without anything, my dear? But I was not
'among' them at all that day, nor at any other period. I never go to
work in that coarse sort of way. Familiarity begets contempt. However,
I was soon informed of this most sad occurrence; and for a while it
quite upset me, coming as it did at such a very busy time. However,
when I had time to dwell more calmly on the subject, I began to see a
chance of turning this keen blow to my benefit.
"The gipsy camp was broken up with fatalistic terror--the most abject
of all terrors; as the courage of the fatalist is the fiercest of all
courage. They carried off their Royal stock, the heiress of the gipsy
throne--as soon as some fine thief is hanged--quite as the bees are
said to carry off their queen, when a hornet comes. Poor Cinnaminta
was caught away just when I might have made her useful; and only two
men were left to attend to the burial of her sister. Of these, my
friend Joseph Smith was one, as he ought to be, being Cinnaminta's
spouse.
"It was a very active time for me, I assure you, Miranda dear. The
complication was almost too much to be settled in so short a time. And
some of my hair, which had been quite strong, was lying quite flat in
the morning. Perhaps you remember telling me."
"Yes, that I do, Luke! I could not make it out. Your hair had always
stood so well; and a far better colour than the young men have got!
And you told me that it was gone like that from taking Cockle's
antibilious pills!"
"Miranda, I have never deceived you. I did take a couple, and they
helped me on. But, without attributing too much to them, I did make a
lucky turn of it. Their manner of sepulture is brief and wise; or, at
any rate, that of this tribe is; though they differ, I believe, very
widely. These wait till they are sure that the sun has set, and then
they begin to excavate. I was able to suggest that, in this great
hurry and scattering of the tribes of Israel, the wisest plan would be
to adopt and adapt a very quiet corner already hollowed, and indicated
by name (which is so much more abiding than substance) as a legendary
gipsy Aceldama. The idea was caught at, as it well deserved to be, in
the panic, and lack of time, and terror of the poor dead body. The
poor thing was buried there with very hasty movements, her sister and
the rest being hurried away; and it is quite remarkable how this (the
merest episode) has, by the turn of events, assumed a primary
importance.
"Foresight, and insight, and second-sight almost, would be attributed
to me by any one who did not know the facts. Scarcely anybody would
believe, as this thing worked in my favour so much, that I can
scarcely claim the invention, any more than I can take any credit for
the weather. Indeed, I may say, without the smallest presumption or
profanity, that something higher than mere fortune has favoured my
plans from the very first. I had provided for at least one whole day's
start, before any alarm should be given; but the weather secured me, I
may say, six weeks, before anything could be done in earnest, And then
the discovery of that body, by a girl who was frightened into fits
almost, and its tardy disinterment, and the universal conclusion about
it, which I perhaps helped in some measure to shape, also the illness
with which it pleased Providence to visit Messrs. Oglander and
Overshute--I really feel that I have the deepest cause to be grateful,
and I trust that I am so."
"Certainly, my dear, your cause is just," said Mrs. Sharp, as her
husband showed some symptoms of dropping off to sleep again; "but in
carrying it out you have inflicted pain and sad, sad anxiety on a poor
old man. Can he ever forgive you, or make it up?"
"I should hope for his own sake," replied the lawyer, "that he will
cast away narrow-mindedness; otherwise we shall not permit him to rush
into the embraces of his daughter. But if he proves relentless, it
matters little, except for the opinion of the world. He cannot touch
'Portwine's' property at all; and he may do what he likes with his own
little wealth. His outside value is some £40,000. However, if I
understand him aright, we shall manage to secure his money too, tied
up, I dare say--but what matters that? He is a most fond papa, and his
joy will soon wash away all evil thoughts."
"How delightful it will be!" cried the lady, with a sigh, "to restore
his long-lost child to him. Still it will be a most delicate task. You
must leave all that to me, Luke."
"With pleasure, my dear Miranda; your kind heart quite adapts you for
such a melting scene. And, indeed, I would rather be out of the way.
But I want your help for more than that."
"You shall have it, Luke, with all my heart and soul! It is too late
now to draw back; though, if you had asked my advice, I would have
tried to stop you. But just one question more--how did you get rid of
John Smith and his inquiries? They say that he is such a very shrewd
man."
"Do you not know, will nobody ever know, the difference between small,
uneducated cunning and the clear intelligence of a practised mind? To
suppose that John Smith would ever give me any trouble! He has been
most useful. I directed his inquiries; and exhausted the inquisitive
spirit through him."
"But you did not let him know----"
"Miranda, now, I shall go to bed, if I am so very fast asleep. Can no
woman ever dream of large utility? I have had no better friend,
throughout this long anxiety, than John Smith. And without the
expenditure of one farthing, I have guided him into the course that he
should take. When he hears of anything, the first thing he asks
is--'Now, what would Lawyer Sharp be inclined to think of this?'
Perhaps I have taken more trouble than was needful. But, at any rate,
it would be disgraceful indeed if John Smith could cause me
uneasiness. The only man I have ever had the smallest fear of has been
Russel Overshute. Not that the young fellow is at all acute; but that
he cannot be by any means imbued with the proper respect for my
character."
"How very shocking of him, my dear Luke, when your character has been
so many years established!"
"Miranda, it is indeed shocking!--but what can be expected of a
Radical? Ever since that villainous Reform Bill passed, the spirit of
true reverence is destroyed. But he must have some respect for me, as
soon as he knows all. Although, to confess the pure truth, my dear,
things have worked in my favour so, that I scarcely deserve any credit
at all, except for the original conception. That, however, was a brave
one."
"It was, indeed; and I am scarcely brave enough to be comfortable.
There is never any knowing how the world may take things. It is true
that old Fermitage was not your client, and you had been very badly
treated, and had a right to make the most of any knowledge obtained by
accident. But old Mr. Oglander is your client, and has trusted you
even in the present matter. I do not think that my father would have
considered it quite professional to behave so."
Mrs. Luke Sharp was alarmed at her own boldness in making such a
speech as this. She dropped her eyes under her husband's gaze; but he
took her remarks quite calmly.
"My dear, we will talk of that another time. The fact that I do a
thing--after all my experience--should prove it to be not
unprofessional. At the present moment, I want to go to bed; and if you
are anxious to begin hair-splitting, bed is my immediate refuge. But
if you wish to know about the future of your son, you must listen, and
not try to reason."
"I did not mean to vex you, Luke. I might have been certain that you
knew best. And you always have so many things behind, that Solomon
himself could never judge you. Tell me all about my darling Kit, and I
will not even dare to cough or breathe."
"My dear, it would grieve me to hear you cough, and break my heart if
you did not breathe. But I fear that your Kit is unworthy of your
sighs. He has lost his young heart beyond redemption, without having
the manners to tell his mother!"
"They all do it, Luke; of course they do. It is no good to find fault
with them. I have been expecting that sort of thing so long. And when
he went to Spiers for the melanochaitotrophe, with the yellow stopper
to it, I knew as well as possible what he was about. I knew that his
precious young heart must be gone; for it cost him seven and
sixpence!"
"Yes, my dear; and it went the right way, in the very line I had laid
for it. I will tell you another time how I managed that, with Hannah
Patch, of course, to help me. The poor boy was conquered at first
sight; for the weather was cold, with snow still in the ditches, and I
gave him sixpenny-worth of brandy-balls. So Kit went shooting, and got
shot, according to my arrangement. Ever since that, the great job has
been to temper and guide his rampant energies."
"And of course he knows nothing--oh no, he would be so very unworthy,
if he did! Oh, do say that he knows nothing, Luke!"
"My dear, I can give you that pleasing assurance; although it is a
puzzling one to me. Christopher Fermitage Sharp knows not Grace
Oglander from the young woman in the moon. He believes her to have
sailed from a new and better world. Undoubtedly he is my son, Miranda;
yet where did he get his thick-headedness?"
"Mr. Sharp!"
"Miranda, make allowance for me. Such things are truly puzzling.
However, you perceive the situation. Here is a very fine young
fellow--in his mother's opinion and his own--desperately smitten with
a girl unknown, and romantically situated in a wood. There is reason
to believe that this young lady is not insensible to his merits; he
looks very nice in his sporting costume, he has no one to compete with
him, he is her only bit of life for the day, he leaves her now and
then a romantic rabbit, and he rescues her from a ruffian. But here
the true difficulty begins. We cannot well unite them in the holy
bonds, without a clear knowledge on the part of either of the true
patronymic of the other. The heroine knows that the hero rejoices in
the good and useful name of 'Sharp'; but he knows not that his
lady-love is one Grace Oglander of Beckley Barton.
"Here, again, you perceive a fine stroke of justice. If Squire
Oglander had only extended his hospitalities to us, Christopher must
have known Grace quite well, and I could not have brought them
together so. At present he believes her to be a Miss Holland, from the
United States of America; and as she has promised Miss Patch not to
speak of her own affairs to anybody (according to her father's wish,
in one of the Demerara letters), that idea of his might still
continue; although she has begun to ask him questions, which are not
at all convenient. But things must be brought to a point as soon as
possible. Having the advantage of directing the inquiries, or at any
rate being consulted about them, I see no great element of danger yet;
and of course I launched all the first expeditions in every direction
but the right one. That setting up of the tombstone by poor old Joan
was a very heavy blow to the inquisitive."
"But, my dear, that did not make the poor girl dead a bit more than
she was dead before."
"Miranda, you do not understand the world. The evidence of a tombstone
is the strongest there can be, and beats that of fifty living
witnesses. I won a most difficult case for our firm when I was an
ardent youth, and the victory enabled me to aspire to your hand, by
taking a mallet and a chisel, and a little nitric acid, and converting
a 'Francis,' by moonlight, into a 'Frances.' I kept the matter to
myself, of course; for your good father was a squeamish hand. But you
have heard me speak of it."
"Yes, but I thought it so wrong, my dear, even though, as you said,
truth required it."
"Truth did require it. The old stonemason had not known how to spell
the word. I corrected his heterography; and we confounded the tricks
of the evil ones. All is fair in love and law, so long as violence is
done to neither. And now I wish Kit's unsophisticated mind to be led
to the perception of that great truth. It is needful for him to be
delicately admitted to a knowledge of my intentions. There is nobody
who can do this as you can. He takes rather clumsy and obstinate views
of things he is too young to understand. The main point of all, with a
mind like his, is to dwell upon the justice of our case and the depth
of our affection, which has led to such a sacrifice of the common
conventional view of things."
"My dear, but I have had nothing to do with it. Conception, plan, and
execution are all your own, and no other person's. Why, I had not even
dreamed----"
"Still, you must put it to him, Miranda, as if it was your doing more
than mine. He has more faith in your--well, what shall I call it? I
would not for a moment wrong him by supposing that he doubts his own
father's integrity--in your practical judgment, let us say, and
perception of the nicest principles. It is absolutely necessary that
you should appear to have acted throughout in close unison with me. In
fact, it would be better to let the boy perceive that the whole idea
from the very first was yours; as in simple fact it must have been, if
circumstances had permitted me to tell you all that I desired. To any
idea of yours he takes more kindly perhaps than to those which are
mine. This is not quite correct, some would say; but I am above
jealousy. I always desire that he should love his mother, and make a
pattern of her. His poor father gets knocked about here and there, and
cannot halt to keep himself rigidly upright, though it always is his
ambition. But women are so different, and so much better. Even Kit
perceives that truth. Let him know, my darling, that your peace of
mind is entirely staked upon his following out the plan which you mean
to propose to him."
"But, my dear Luke, I have not the least notion of any plan of any
sort."
"Never mind, Miranda; make him promise. I will tell you all about it
afterwards. It is better not to let him know too much. Knowledge
should come in small doses always, otherwise it puffs up young people.
Alas! now I feel that I am not as I was! Twenty years ago I could have
sat up all night talking, and not shown a sign of it next day. I have
not had any sleep for the last twelve nights. Do you see any rays in
my eyes, dear wife? They are sure indications of heart disease. When I
am tired they always come."
"Oh, Luke, Luke, you will break my heart! You shall not say another
word. Have some more negus--I insist upon it! It is no good to put
your hand over the glass--and then come to bed immediately. You are
working too hard for your family, my pet."