A PROJECTED PARTNERSHIP.
Though by no means in either the mental or physical condition in which a
lady should be who is called upon to play the part of hostess, Harry was
not displeased that Solomon had not returned alone. The presence of this
stranger, whom she greeted mechanically, and almost without a glance at
his features, was welcome to her, because it was likely to distract from
herself her husband's regards. What she would like to have done would
have been to shut herself up alone in her chamber, to weep and pray. As
it was, she had to be cheerful, to affect an interest in her husband's
late expedition, and pleasure at his unexpected return. Mrs. Basil was
here invaluable; you would never have imagined that it was the same
woman--so stricken and full of anguish but a few minutes before, and now
so self-possessed and cheerful. But she had been used to playing parts
throughout her life, and acting was easy to her. She dreaded silence,
lest with it should come observation and remark upon the agitation and
distress only too visible in Harry's countenance; and yet it was
difficult, even for her, to keep up the ball of small-talk, for Solomon
was always slow and scant of speech, and the new-comer rarely opened his
mouth, and then only to utter a monosyllable. His manner, too, was
embarrassing; he turned his white and stony face from one woman to the
other, like an automaton, but with a weird and searching gaze.
They had never so much as heard his name before, for Richard had been
cautious never to mention Balfour in his letters, since they were, of
course, perused by the authorities, and friendships were not encouraged
at Lingmoor; but, on the other hand, it was evident that these ladies
had an interest for the visitor. Presently, while they were yet all
below stairs, arrived Charles and Agnes, which effected, indeed,
diversion enough, but also a great disturbance and alteration for the
worse in Mr. Coe's temper. No sooner, as it seemed to him, had his back
been turned, then, than the intimacy between this girl and his son,
which he had strictly forbidden, had been recommenced, and with the
connivance and encouragement of his wife too, or else how should the lad
dare thus to bring her home? For the first time Solomon was openly rude
to Agnes; and the latter, being a girl of spirit, resented it by quietly
rising to depart. Charley, rash and impetuous, rose to accompany her.
Solomon stormed displeasure; and it seemed that the presence of the
visitor would have been wholly inadequate to prevent a family scene,
when Agnes herself interposed with dignity. "No, Charles; I would rather
go alone. If your father objects to my presence here, it shall not be
intruded; and if he considers your company a condescension, I can not
accept it upon such terms."
Charles would have taken her arm, in defiance of all consequences, and
led her off under Solomon's nose; but this opposition on her part
offended him. He was almost as angry with her for thwarting him as he
was with his father. It was a triangular duel, the combatants in which
were narrowly watched by the disregarded stranger. When Agnes got her
way and departed, "That's a girl of character," observed he, with a
cynical smile.
"She is a girl without a penny," answered Solomon, gloomily, with a
scowl at his son, "upon whom this young fool wishes to throw himself
away."
"What! so early?" observed Mr. Balfour, good-humoredly addressing
Charles. "When I was your age, I thought of enjoying life, and not of
marriage. I don't wonder, however, that any girl should strive to
enslave so handsome a young fellow as your son, Sir. It is quite
natural, and there is no need to blame her, and far less _him_."
Ashamed, perhaps, of having exhibited such violence of temper before his
guest, Solomon was very willing to be mollified, and grimly smiled
approval of these sentiments; Charles, too, though fully resolved to set
himself right with Agnes on the morrow, was not displeased with the
visitor's remark; but the two women justly resented it as an impertinent
freedom. If Charles's thoughts had not been so preoccupied with his own
wrongs--the deprivation of his Agnes's society, which he had promised
himself for the rest of the day, and the snub which he conceived she had
administered to him--he would have noticed too, for he was by no means
wanting in observation, that the new-comer's manner to his hostess and
Mrs. Basil was not what it should have been. It was not absolutely rude,
but it was studiously careless of their presence. He no longer stared at
them as at first, but, on the contrary, seemed to ignore the fact of
their existence--never addressed them; and if either spoke to him,
replied as briefly as possible, and then turned at once to Solomon or
his son. Mrs. Basil concluded that he was a vulgar fellow, who, having
penetration enough to discover that the males had the upper hand in the
establishment, did not give himself the trouble to conciliate the less
important members of it; but Harry, always timid and suspicious, was
alarmed at him; his air had, in her eyes, something hostile in it as
well as contemptuous. She could not understand, and therefore
mistrusted, the influence he had evidently obtained over her husband,
and which already had superseded that of Mrs. Basil.
That Solomon should no longer take pains to make himself agreeable to
the latter, now that he had obtained from her his object, was, to any
one who knew his character, explicable enough; but why should this
stranger have taken her place as his counselor and friend? The idea of
some personal advantage was, of course, at the bottom of it; but it was
clear, not only to sage Mrs. Basil, but even to Harry--since even a
moderately skillful looker-on sees more of the game than the best
player--that in any contest of wits Solomon would have small chance with
his new friend. The opinion of Mrs. Basil was, that some new
speculation, in some manner connected with the Crompton sale, had been
entered into by the two men, and that Mr. Balfour would in the end
secure the oyster, while Mr. Coe was left with the shell. But Harry had
darker forebodings still; she was instinctively confident that there was
enmity at work in the new-comer, as well as the readiness common to all
speculators to overreach a friend. There was a look in his pallid face,
when it glanced, as he thought unheeded, on either Charles or Solomon,
which, to her mind, boded ill. If it did so, it was certainly
unsuspected by those on whom it fell. Mr. Coe had apparently never found
a companion so agreeable to him; and, curiously enough, this idea seemed
to be shared by Charles. According to his own account, Mr. Balfour had
been abroad in Western America for many years, and had there retrieved a
fortune which, originally inherited, had been speedily dissipated in the
pleasures of the town. His long absence from such scenes had by no means
dulled his taste for them, and his conversation ran on little else. He
had a light rattling way with him--that, to Harry's view, resembled
youthful spirit no more than galvanism in a corpse resembles life, and
which was certainly not in harmony with his age and appearance--and very
graphic powers of description; he expressed himself curious about the
changes in public amusements since he left town, near twenty years ago,
and seriously placed himself under Charles's guidance on the expeditions
of pleasure for which the latter was always ready. To this, strangely
enough, Solomon made no objection, notwithstanding that his own
purse-strings had to be drawn pretty wide to supply these extravagances.
His new friend had only to suggest that he should give the lad a
five-pound note to enjoy himself with, and the thing was done at once.
As for himself, Mr. Balfour seemed to be made of money, so freely did he
spend it; and if he did not offer the use of his purse to his young
companion, it was only, as he told him, because he feared to offend his
pride. "Besides," said he, when they were alone together on one of these
expeditions of amusement, from which Solomon, whose notions of enjoyment
were mainly confined to money-making, always excused himself upon
pretense of having business to do, "it is only right your father should
be made to fork out; he is as rich as Croesus. It is quite unreasonable
that he should stint you in enjoyment when, one day or another, you will
have all the pleasures of life to pick and choose from."
It would have tested Solomon's new-born friendship severely if he could
have heard Mr. Balfour dilate upon this topic, which he did with such
earnestness and fervor that the lad was soon convinced of those great
expectations which the cautious reticence of his parents had so long
concealed from him. On the other hand, Charley's companion deduced an
argument from this fair prospect which was not so welcome to the lad; he
maintained that, under the circumstances, it would be madness to risk
his father's displeasure by uniting himself irretrievably to Agnes, or
to any other young woman. "My good offices will be always at your
disposal, my lad," urged he, gravely, "and I don't deny that, at
present, I have considerable influence with Mr. Coe; but it would not be
proof against so flagrant an act of disobedience as that which you
contemplate. The great bulk of his property is at his own disposal; and
his nature, if I may speak plainly to you in so important a matter, is
obstinate and implacable. At all events, there is no hurry, since you
and this charming young lady are but boy and girl at present. Life is
uncertain, and you may be your own master any day; wait till you are so,
or wait for a little, at all events, to see what may turn up; and in the
mean time, lad, enjoy yourself." The last part of Mr. Balfour's advice,
at all events, was palatable enough, and that much of it Charles
accepted; in doing which, as was anticipated, the whole intention of his
Mentor became fulfilled. Plunged in dissipation, the young man thought
less and less of his love; gave himself little trouble, though he still
avowed his unalterable attachment, to set himself right with her; grew
more and more dissatisfied with his own home, at the same time that that
of Agnes became less and less attractive; and, in short, he drifted away
daily farther and farther from the safe moorings of love and duty.
Harry perceived all this with a dread so deep that it even drove her to
invoke her husband's aid against this man, who, inexplicable as his
hostility might be, was bent, she firmly believed, upon the ruin of her
darling boy. With Solomon, as she well knew, the fact of his son's
dissipation was not likely to move him to interfere; he saw that the
companionship of Balfour was gradually producing an estrangement between
Charles and the portionless artist's daughter, and so far he cordially
approved of it, nor cared to question by what means this new friend made
himself agreeable. She had no argument available except that of expense,
and, to her astonishment and dismay, this failed to affect her prudent
spouse.
"Just let things be a while," was Solomon's reply, "and mind your own
business. It is quite true the lad's throwing my money in the gutter at
a fine rate; but in the end I shall get it all back again, and more with
it. This Balfour takes me for a foolish doting father, but he shall pay
for all himself before I've done with him. I throw a sprat to catch a
whale; and neither you nor any other fool shall interfere with my
fishing."
Harry dared not say more; her husband had been in the worst of humors
ever since he had returned from Crompton, and was all the more brutal
and tyrannical to her that he had to be civil and conciliatory to his
new friend, and involuntarily indulgent, upon his account, to Charles.
The unhappy mother was powerless to check the evil the growth of which
was so patent to her loving instinct, and there was none to whom she
could look for help. Mrs. Basil had no longer any influence with
Solomon, and, besides, she was seriously ill, and had now been confined
to her own room for weeks. In her extremity, Harry had even resolved to
make a personal appeal to this man Balfour; to ask him in what her
husband had injured him, to adjure him to forgive the wrong, or at least
not to visit it upon her Charley's innocent head. But she shrank with an
inexplicable terror from putting this design into effect; she felt she
should humiliate herself to no purpose; he would deny, in his cold,
cynical way, that he entertained any thing but friendship for her astute
husband and affection for her bright and impulsive son. Besides, to say
truth, she was afraid to speak with the man; and she had a suspicion
that this weird and shadowy fear was in some degree shared by Mrs.
Basil; at times she even imagined that it was not so much indisposition
as a desire to avoid his presence that caused the landlady to absent
herself from the family circle.
Mr. Coe, at all events, entertained no such prejudice against his guest;
day by day he grew more communicative with him, and more solicitous to
hear his opinions, with which he seldom failed to agree. The two men
were in reality, as it was easy to see, as opposite in character as the
poles. Mr. Balfour was, and apparently always had been, a man of
pleasure; but he had seen men and cities, and his remarks were shrewd,
and selfish, and worldly-wise enough. It was rarely that his talk ever
strayed to matters of business, so that Solomon was perforce a listener;
but that unambitious part he played to admiration.
Upon one occasion, however, their after-dinner converse happened to turn
upon partnerships; Solomon urged their great convenience, how one man
brought money and the other brains, and how pleasant it must be for the
former to live at ease while the latter gathered honey for him, both for
present use and for the wintry store. He rose with the familiar subject
to quite a flight of poetry.
Mr. Balfour, with half-shut eves and a mocking smile, dilated upon the
sentiment involved in such communities of enterprise, the sympathy
engendered by them, and the happy social effects that were produced by
them. His host either did not, or would not, perceive that these remarks
were ironical, and pursued the subject to its details, proportions of
profits, balance-sheets, etc., until Charles rose with a yawn, and left
his two elders together.
"Well, Balfour," said Solomon, frankly, as soon as they were alone,
"this talk reminds me of the matter that first introduced us to one
another--your purchase of that outlying bit of the Crompton property,
Wheal Danes."
[Illustration: "I WILL GIVE YOU A THOUSAND POUNDS FOR THAT CROMPTON
LOT."]
"Ay," replied the other, carelessly lighting another cigar. It was
quite wonderful to see how many cigars Mr. Balfour got through daily;
you might have almost thought that he had been denied tobacco for years
by his physician, and had only just been permitted to resume the habit.
"Yes; you disappointed me there immensely, I must confess. I went down
to the sale on purpose to secure it."
"So you told me, or, at least, so I guessed from your manner; and yet I
don't know why you should have been so sweet upon it. It's only a bare
bit of ground with a round hole in it, close by the sea."
"That's all," said Solomon, puffing at his clay pipe. "What on earth
could have made you buy it?"
"Well, I told you once. I lost my yacht off Turlock, when coming to
England last autumn, and very nearly my life with it. When one escapes
with a whole skin from such a storm as wrecked me there, the first piece
of dry land one comes to seems very attractive. I happened to be cast
ashore beneath that very spot, and so I took a fancy to it. If I had
been a good Papist I should have built a chapel there to my patron saint
in gratitude for my preservation; as it was, I resolved to erect a villa
for myself there. It will have an excellent view, and the situation is
healthy. If you seek for any other reason for the purchase, I have none
to give you; it was a whim, if you like, but then I can afford to
indulge my whims."
"This one cost you a good deal, however; you gave five hundred pounds
for it, did you not?"
Balfour nodded assent.
"A great sum for a few barren acres," said Solomon, thoughtfully.
"Yes; and so the trustees of the estate thought, Mr. Coe. They closed
with my offer sharp enough, and withdrew the lot from public
competition; else, perhaps, I should have got it cheaper."
"Not if I had been bidding against you," observed the host,
significantly.
"You don't say so! You were never shipwrecked thereabouts, were you? Oh,
I remember: you were brought up in the neighborhood. You had some tender
recollection of the spot, perhaps, with relation to madame up stairs.
What creatures of sentiment you men of business sometimes are--dear me!"
"I did live near the spot," said Solomon, slowly, "though I should
deceive you if I pretended that that had any thing to do with my wish to
possess it."
"You would not deceive me, my good friend," answered Balfour, coolly;
"but, as you were about to say, it would not be frank. Let us be frank
and open, above all things."
"I wish to be so, I assure you," was Solomon's meek reply. "When I
offered you a hundred pounds for your bargain, I think I showed you that
deception was no part of my nature. In all matters of business I always
go straight to the point at once."
"As in the present instance, for example," remarked the guest, with an
imperturbable smile.
"I am coming to the point, Mr. Balfour--once for all. I will give you a
thousand pounds down for that Crompton lot--twice the money that you
gave for it within a month; that's twelve hundred per cent, per annum."
Balfour shook his head. "I am not a religious man, my dear Sir--far from
it. But I believe, like Miss Joanna yonder, in inspirations: all my
whims are inspirations, and therefore sacred. It was an inspiration that
made me buy Wheal Danes, and I mean to keep it. If you offered me ten
thousand pounds, I'd keep it."
Solomon was silent for a while, his heavy brows knit in thought; then
once again he advanced to the attack. "You may keep it, and yet share
the profit, Mr. Balfour."
"The profit?"
"Ay, the profit. I told you I was going to be frank with you, but you
would never guess _how_ frank. I am about to put thousands a year into
your pocket, on condition that you will let me fill my own at the same
rate. We were talking of partnerships just now; let us be partners in
Wheal Danes."
"Balfour and Coe sounds natural enough," returned the other, coolly.
"But I must hear your plan."
"My plan is a secret--invaluable, indeed, as such--but which, once told,
will be worth nothing--that is, to _me_."
"You may do as you like, my friend, about revealing it," yawned Mr.
Balfour. "I care nothing for your plan; only, until I hear it I stick to
my plot, my lot, my acreage. Tell me the whole story without
reservation--don't attempt to deceive me on the slightest point--and
then you shall have your way. We will divide this land of gold between
us, or, as seems to me much more likely, browse like twin donkeys on its
crop of thistles."
"I have nothing but your bare word to trust to," said Solomon,
doubtfully; "but still, I must risk it. Come, it's a bargain. Then,
here's my hand upon it."
"Never mind my hand, my good friend," returned the other, coolly. "In
the part of the world from which I hailed last, folks didn't shake
hands, and I've fallen out of the habit. Come, give us this story of
Wheal Danes."
"It's a very old one, Mr. Balfour. The plot of ground you purchased gets
its strange name from an ancient tin mine that is comprised in it, once
worked by the Romans, but disused since their time. There are many such
in Cornwall."
"So I've heard," said Balfour, while the other sipped his glass. It was
curious to contrast the grave and earnest manner of the host with the
careless and uninterested air of his guest, who presently, as the
narrative proceeded, leaned his face upon his hand and gazed into the
fire, an occasional glance sideways at his companion through his fingers
alone testifying that his attention was still preserved. He never
stirred a limb nor winked an eyelid when Solomon came out with his great
secret.
"This mine that is said to be worked out, Mr. Balfour, and which you
have purchased by mere accident, as being in the same lot with your
proposed building-ground, will, I have reason to believe, turn out a
gold mine."
"You don't say so! I did not know that there _was_ gold in Cornwall."
"There is as good, or at least there are metals that bring gold--tin and
copper; and Wheal Danes is full of the latter. The old Romans worked it
for tin only, and left their prize just as it was getting to be worth
having. There's a copper vein in the lowest level of that mine that may
be worth all the old Carew estate."
"And you have seen this vein?"
"No; but my wife's father, John Trevethick, as good a judge as any man
on earth, or under it, saw it, and told me of its existence on his
death-bed--"
"When did he die, and how? Was it a lingering, painful death, or was he
struck down suddenly?" interposed Balfour. "I ask," added he, hastily,
for Solomon looked up in wonder at his companion's vehemence, "because
the credibility of such a story as you tell me would depend upon the
state of the man's brain."
"He did die a painful and a lingering death, but his wits were clear
enough," answered Solomon. "It was ten years ago, and more, but I mind
it as well as though it was but yesterday--indeed, I've thought of
little else since. 'The best legacy I have to leave you, Sol, lies in
these last words of mine,' said he; 'so do you listen, and lay them to
heart.' Then he told me how, as a boy, he had once explored Wheal Danes
in play with other boys, and found the copper lode in a certain spot. He
was not so young even then but that he knew the value of such a find,
and he had held his tongue; and though he visited the place pretty
often--for he couldn't help that--he kept the secret close from that
time until his death."
"He had never told any other person but yourself, you think?" inquired
Balfour, curiously.
"No one to speak of. There was one fellow who had an inkling of the
thing, it seems, but he is dead now. I read of it in the newspaper quite
lately. He died in jail, or rather in escaping from it, and had never
been in a position to profit by his suspicion. You may say, in fact,
that not a living soul besides John Trevethick ever knew this secret.
For fifty years he strove to possess himself of this mine; he even
offered for it, valueless as it was thought to be, four times the money
you did; only Carew was mad and obstinate; and now, for ten years, I
have had my own eyes fixed upon it, and got the earliest news of when it
was in the market, as I thought, when, here, without a hint to guide
you, a whiff of fortune blows it to your hand. It's a hard case _I_ call
it--devilish hard."
"Well, it _is_ hard," said Balfour; "that is, supposing all you say is
true. But frankly, my good Sir, I don't believe you. I mean no offense;
but, since you have not seen the lode with your own eyes, you must
pardon me for doubting its existence."
"Well, then, Sir, I _have_ seen it, and that's the long and short of it.
I would not take such a thing on trust from an angel."
"So I suspected," observed Balfour, coolly. "But as you have told me one
lie you may tell me another. What am I to believe now?"
"The mine is yours, Sir," answered Solomon, gruffly. "Let us go down
together and look at it. If Trevethick and I were mistaken--and I'll bet
you a thousand pounds that we were not--it is but coming back again,
and--"
"And being made the laughing-stock of all the folks among whom I mean to
spend my days," interrupted Balfour. "No, no. If we go, I'll not have a
soul to know of it. And mind you, if this turns out to be a mare's nest,
I sha'n't be pleased, my friend."
"It will not do that, Sir, you may take my word for it," answered
Solomon, earnestly; "and as for going _incog._, that matter's easy. I
can start for Gethin, which is my home, and but a stone's-throw from the
very place, on pretense of business; and you, a day or two after, may
come down to the inn at Turlock, just to see your purchase. We need not
be so much as seen together, if you so prefer it."
"I would much prefer it," observed Balfour, sententiously.
"Very good. Then here's my plan: my father-in-law used to visit Wheal
Danes at night; from his doing so, instead of its drawing dangerous
attention to the place, as one would think, the rumor arose that the old
mine was haunted; corpse-candles, with no hand to carry them, were seen
there going up and down the levels, and so the poor fools shunned it
after dark. Well, let _us_ take torch and ladder, and play at
corpse-candle. What say you?"
"Well, I'll come," said Balfour, reluctantly, "though I don't much like
the chance of being made a fool of. What day will suit you best to
start? All's one to me."
"I'll start to-morrow," said Solomon, with excitement. "Do you come
down, as if into Midlandshire, on Friday: that's an unlucky day with
Turlock folk, but not with you, I reckon?"
"You're right there, man," answered Balfour, slowly. "Well?"
"On Saturday, at midnight, I will meet you at the old pit's mouth. Come,
there's my hand upon it."
This time Balfour took his companion's hand, and griped it firmly.
"Then, that's a bargain, partner," cried Solomon, gayly. "Fill up your
glass. Here's luck to the old mine!"
"Here's luck," echoed Balfour, looking steadily at his host, "and to our
next merry midnight meeting!"
"Ay, good! Here's luck!" quoth Solomon.