"Ill-luck is a _betise_," said the great Cardinal Richelieu; and on the
long run, I fear, his eminence was right. If you could drop Dick Avenel
and Mr. Digby in the middle of Oxford-street--Dick in a fustian jacket,
Digby in a suit of superfine--Dick with five shillings in his pocket,
Digby with a thousand pounds--and if, at the end of ten years, you
looked up your two men, Dick would be on his road to a fortune,
Digby--what we have seen him! Yet Digby had no vice; he did not drink,
nor gamble. What was he, then? Helpless. He had been an only son--a
spoiled child--brought up as a "gentleman;" that is, as a man who was
not expected to be able to turn his hand to any thing. He entered, as we
have seen, a very expensive regiment, wherein he found himself, at his
father's death, with L4000, and the incapacity to say "No." Not
naturally extravagant, but without an idea of the value of money--the
easiest, gentlest, best-tempered man whom example ever led astray. This
part of his career comprised a very common history--the poor man living
on equal terms with the rich. Debt; recourse to usurers; bills signed
sometimes for others, renewed at twenty per cent.; the L4000 melted like
snow; pathetic appeal to relations; relations have children of their
own; small help given grudgingly, eked out by much advice, and coupled
with conditions. Amongst the conditions there was a very proper and
prudent one--exchange into a less expensive regiment. Exchange effected;
peace; obscure country quarters; _ennui_, flute-playing, and idleness.
Mr. Digby had no resources on a rainy day--except flute-playing; pretty
girl of inferior rank; all the officers after her; Digby smitten; pretty
girl very virtuous; Digby forms honorable intentions; excellent
sentiments; imprudent marriage. Digby falls in life; colonel's lady will
not associate with Mrs. Digby; Digby cut by his whole kith and kin; many
disagreeable circumstances in regimental life; Digby sells out; love in
a cottage; execution in ditto. Digby had been much applauded as an
amateur actor; thinks of the stage; genteel comedy--a gentlemanlike
profession. Tries in a provincial town, under another name; unhappily
succeeds; life of an actor; hand-to-mouth life; illness; chest affected;
Digby's voice becomes hoarse and feeble; not aware of it; attributes
failing success to ignorant provincial public; appears in London; is
hissed; returns to provinces; sinks into very small parts; prison;
despair; wife dies; appeal again to relations; a subscription
made to get rid of him; send him out of the country; place in
Canada--superintendent to an estate, L150 a-year; pursued by ill-luck;
never before fit for business, not fit now; honest as the day, but keeps
slovenly accounts; child cannot bear the winter of Canada; Digby wrapped
up in the child; return home; mysterious life for two years; child
patient, thoughtful, loving; has learned to work; manages for father;
often supports him; constitution rapidly breaking; thought of what will
become of this child--worst disease of all. Poor Digby!--Never did a
base, cruel, unkind thing in his life; and here he is, walking down the
lane from Colonel Pompley's house! Now, if Digby had but learned a
little of the world's cunning, I think he would have succeeded even with
Colonel Pompley. Had he spent the L100 received from Lord l'Estrange
with a view to effect--had he bestowed a fitting wardrobe on himself and
his pretty Helen; had he stopped at the last stage, taken thence a smart
chaise and pair, and presented himself at Colonel Pompley's in a way
that would not have discredited the Colonel's connection, and then,
instead of praying for home and shelter, asked the Colonel to become
guardian to his child in case of his death, I have a strong notion that
the Colonel, in spite of his avarice, would have stretched both ends so
as to take in Helen Digby. But our poor friend had no such arts. Indeed,
of the L100 he had already very little left, for before leaving
town he had committed what Sheridan considered the extreme of
extravagance--frittered away his money in paying his debts; and as for
dressing up Helen and himself--if that thought had ever occurred to him,
he would have rejected it as foolish. He would have thought that the
more he showed his poverty, the more he would be pitied--the worst
mistake a poor cousin can commit. According to Theophrastus, the
partridge of Paphlagonia has two hearts; so have most men: it is the
common mistake of the unlucky to knock at the wrong one.