IT IS ALL SETTLED.
In the last half of this month of October the Squire at Newton was
very pressing on his lawyers up in London to settle the affairs of
the property. He was most anxious to make a new will, but could not
do so till his nephew had completed the sale, and till the money had
been paid. He had expressed a desire to go up to London and remain
there till all was done; but against this his son had expostulated,
urging that his father could not hasten the work up in London by
his presence, but would certainly annoy and flurry everybody in the
lawyer's office. Mr. Carey had promised that the thing should be
done with as little delay as possible, but Mr. Carey was not a man
to be driven. Then again the Squire would be a miserable man up
in London, whereas at the Priory he might be so happy among the
new works which he had already inaugurated. The son's arguments
prevailed,--especially that argument as to the pleasure of the
Squire's present occupations,--and the Squire consented to remain at
home.
There seemed to be an infinity of things to be done, and to the
Squire himself the world appeared to require more of happy activity
than at any previous time of his life. He got up early, and was out
about the place before breakfast. He had endless instructions to give
to everybody about the estate. The very air of the place was sweeter
to him than heretofore. The labourers were less melancholy at their
work. The farmers smiled oftener. The women and children were more
dear to him. Everything around him had now been gifted with the grace
of established ownership. His nephew Gregory, after that last dinner
of which mention was made, hardly came near him during the next
fortnight. Once or twice the Squire went up to the church during
week days that he might catch the parson, and even called at the
parsonage. But Gregory was unhappy, and would not conceal his
unhappiness. "I suppose it will wear off," said the Squire to his
son.
"Of course it will, sir."
"It shall not be my fault if it does not. I wonder whether it would
have made him happier to see the property parcelled out and sold to
the highest bidder after my death."
"It is not unnatural, if you think of it," said Ralph.
"Perhaps not; and God forbid that I should be angry with him because
he cannot share my triumph. I feel, however, that I have done my
duty, and that nobody has a right to quarrel with me."
And then there were the hunters. Every sportsman knows, and the
wives and daughters of all sportsmen know, how important a month in
the calendar is the month of October. The real campaign begins in
November; and even for those who do not personally attend to the
earlier work of the kennel,--or look after cub-hunting, which during
the last ten days of October is apt to take the shape of genuine
hunting,--October has charms of its own and peculiar duties. It is
the busiest month in the year in regard to horses. Is physic needed?
In the Squire's stables physic was much eschewed, and the Squire's
horses were usually in good condition. But it is needful to know,
down to a single line on the form, whether this or that animal wants
more exercise,--and if so, of what nature. We hold that for hunters
which are worked regularly throughout the season, and which live in
loose boxes summer and winter, but little exercise is required except
in the months of September and October. Let them have been fed on
oats throughout the year, and a good groom will bring them into form
in two months. Such at least was the order at the Newton stables;
and during this autumn,--especially during these last days of
October,--this order was obeyed with infinite alacrity, and with many
preparations for coming joys. And there are other cares, less onerous
indeed, but still needful. What good sportsman is too proud, or even
too much engaged, to inspect his horse's gear,--and his own? Only
let his horses' gear stand first in his mind! Let him be sure that
the fit of a saddle is of more moment than the fit of a pair of
breeches;--that in riding the length, strength, and nature of the bit
will avail more,--should at least avail more,--than the depth, form,
and general arrangement of the flask; that the question of boots,
great as it certainly is, should be postponed to the question of
shoes; that a man's seat should be guarded by his girths rather than
by his spurs; that no run has ever been secured by the brilliancy of
the cravat, though many a run has been lost by the insufficiency of a
stirrup-leather. In the stables and saddle-room, and throughout the
whole establishment of the house at Newton, all these matters were
ever sedulously regarded; but they had never been regarded with more
joyful zeal than was given to them during this happy month. There was
not a stable-boy about the place who did not know and feel that their
Mr. Ralph was now to take his place in the hunting-field as the heir
to Newton Priory.
And there were other duties at Newton of which the crowd of
riding-men know little or nothing. Were there foxes in the coverts?
The Squire had all his life been a staunch preserver, thinking more
of a vixen with her young cubs than he would of any lady in the land
with her first-born son. During the last spring and summer, however,
things had made him uncomfortable; and he had not personally inquired
after the well-being of each nursery in the woods as had been his
wont. Ralph, indeed, had been on the alert, and the keepers had not
become slack;--but there had been a whisper about the place that the
master didn't care so much about the foxes as he used to do. They
soon found out that he cared enough now. The head-keeper opened his
eyes very wide when he was told that the Squire would take it as a
personal offence if the coverts were ever drawn blank. It was to be
understood through the county that at Newton Priory everything now
was happy and prosperous. "We'll get up a breakfast and a meet on
the lawn before the end of the month," said the Squire to his son.
"I hate hunt breakfasts myself, but the farmers like them." From all
which the reader will perceive that the Squire was in earnest.
Ralph hunted all through the latter days of October, but the Squire
himself would not go out till the first regular day of the season.
"I like a law, and I like to stick to it," he said. "Five months
is enough for the horses in all conscience." At last the happy day
arrived,--Wednesday, the 2nd of November,--and the father and son
started together for the meet in a dog-cart on four wheels with
two horses. On such occasions the Squire always drove himself, and
professed to go no more than eight miles an hour. The meet was over
in the Berkshire county in the neighbourhood of Swallowfield, about
twelve miles distant, and the Squire was in his seat precisely at
half-past nine. Four horses had gone on in the charge of two grooms,
for the Squire had insisted on Ralph riding with a second horse. "If
you don't, I won't," he had said; and Ralph of course had yielded.
Just at this time there had grown up in the young man's mind a
feeling that his father was almost excessive in the exuberance of his
joy,--that he was displaying too ostensibly to the world at large
the triumph which he had effected. But the checking of this elation
was almost impossible to the son on whose behalf it was exhibited.
Therefore, to Ralph's own regret, the two horses had on this morning
been sent on to Barford Heath. The Squire was not kept waiting a
moment. Ralph lit his cigar and jumped in, and the Squire started in
all comfort and joy. The road led them by Darvell's farm, and for a
moment the carriage was stopped that a word might be spoken to some
workman. "You'd better have a couple more men, Miles. It won't do to
let the frost catch us," said the Squire. Miles touched his hat, and
assented. "The house will look very well from here," said the Squire,
pointing down through a line of trees. Ralph assented cheerily; and
yet he thought that his father was spending more money than Darvell's
house need to have cost him.
They reached Barford Heath a few minutes before eleven, and there was
a little scene upon the occasion. It was the first recognised meet of
the season, and the Squire had not been out before. It was now known
to almost every man there that the owner of Newton Priory had at
last succeeded in obtaining the reversion of the estate for his own
son; and though the matter was one which hardly admitted of open
congratulation, still there were words spoken and looks given, and
a little additional pressure in the shaking of hands,--all of which
seemed to mark a triumph. That other Ralph had not been known in the
county. This Ralph was very popular; and though of course there was
existent some amount of inner unexpressed feeling that the proper
line of an old family was being broken, that for the moment was kept
in abeyance, and all men's faces wore smiles as they were turned
upon the happy Squire. He hardly carried himself with as perfect a
moderation as his son would have wished. He was a little loud,--not
saying much to any one openly about the property, uttering merely
a word or two in a low voice in answer to the kind expressions of
one or two specially intimate friends; but in discussing other
matters,--the appearance of the pack, the prospects of the season,
the state of the county,--he was not quite like himself. In his
ordinary way he was a quiet man, not often heard at much distance,
and contented to be noted as Newton of Newton rather than as a man
commanding attention by his conduct before other men. There certainly
was a difference to-day, and it was of that kind which wine produces
on some who are not habitual drinkers. The gases of his life were in
exuberance, and he was as a balloon insufficiently freighted with
ballast. His buoyancy, unless checked, might carry him too high among
the clouds. All this Ralph saw, and kept himself a little aloof. If
there were aught amiss, there was no help for it on his part; and,
after all, what was amiss was so very little amiss.
"We'll draw the small gorses first," said the old master, addressing
himself specially to Mr. Newton, "and then we'll go into Barford
Wood."
"Just so," said the Squire; "the gorses first by all means. I
remember when there was always a fox at Barford Gorse. Come along. I
hate to see time wasted. You'll be glad to hear we're full of foxes
at Newton. There were two litters bred in Bostock Spring;--two,
by Jove! in that little place. Dan,"--Dan was his second
horseman,--"I'll ride the young one this morning. You have Paddywhack
fresh for me about one." Paddywhack was the old Irish horse which had
carried him so long, and has been mentioned before. There was nothing
remarkable in all this. There was no word spoken that might not have
been said with a good grace by any old sportsman, who knew the men
around him, and who had long preserved foxes for their use;--but
still it was felt that the Squire was a little loud. Ralph the son,
on whose behalf all this triumph was felt, was silenter than usual,
and trotted along at the rear of the long line of horsemen.
One specially intimate friend of his,--a man whom he really
loved,--hung back with the object of congratulating him. "Ralph,"
said George Morris, of Watheby Grove, a place about four miles from
the Priory, "I must tell you how glad I am of all this."
"All right, old fellow."
"Come; you might show out a little to me. Isn't it grand? We shall
always have you among us now. Don't tell me that you are
indifferent."
"I think enough about it, God knows, George. But it seems to me that
the less said about it the better. My father has behaved nobly to
me, and of course I like to feel that I've got a place in the world
marked out for me. But--"
"But what?"
"You understand it all, George. There shouldn't be rejoicing in a
family because the heir has lost his inheritance."
"I can't look at it in that line."
"I can't look at it in any other," said Ralph. "Mind you, I'm not
saying that it isn't all right. What has happened to him has come of
his own doings. I only mean that we ought to be quiet about it. My
father's spirits are so high, that he can hardly control them."
"By George, I don't wonder at it," said George Morris.
There were three little bits of gorse about half-a-mile from Barford
Wood, as to which it seemed that expectation did not run high, but
from the last of which an old fox broke before the hounds were in
it. It was so sudden a thing that the pack was on the scent and away
before half-a-dozen men had seen what had happened. Our Squire had
been riding with Cox, the huntsman, who had ventured to say how happy
he was that the young squire was to be the Squire some day. "So am I,
Cox; so am I," said the Squire. "And I hope he'll be a friend to you
for many a year."
"By the holy, there's Dick a-hallooing," said Cox, forgetting at
once the comparatively unimportant affairs of Newton Priory in the
breaking of this unexpected fox. "Golly;--if he ain't away, Squire."
The hounds had gone at once to the whip's voice, and were in full cry
in less time than it has taken to tell the story of "the find." Cox
was with them, and so was the Squire. There were two or three others,
and one of the whips. The start, indeed, was not much, but the burst
was so sharp, and the old fox ran so straight, that it sufficed to
enable those who had got the lead to keep it. "Tally-ho!" shouted the
Squire, as he saw the animal making across a stubble field before the
hounds, with only one fence between him and the quarry. "Tally-ho!"
It was remarked afterwards that the Squire had never been known to
halloo to a fox in that way before. "Just like one of the young
'uns, or a fellow out of the town," said Cox, when expressing his
astonishment.
But the Squire never rode a run better in his life. He gave a lead to
the field, and he kept it. "I wouldn't 'a spoilt him by putting my
nose afore 'is, were it ever so," said Cox afterwards. "He went as
straight as a schoolboy at Christmas, and the young horse he rode
never made a mistake. Let men say what they will, a young horse will
carry a man a brush like that better than an old one. It was very
short. They had run their fox, pulled him down, broken him up, and
eaten him within half an hour. Jack Graham, who is particular about
those things, and who was, at any rate, near enough to see it all,
said that it was exactly twenty-two minutes and a half. He might
be right enough in that, but when he swore that they had gone over
four miles of ground, he was certainly wrong. They killed within a
field of Heckfield church, and Heckfield church can't be four miles
from Barford Gorse. That they went as straight as a line everybody
knew. Besides, they couldn't have covered the ground in the time.
The pace was good, no doubt; but Jacky Graham is always given to
exaggeration."
The Squire was very proud of his performance, and, when Ralph came
up, was loud in praise of the young horse. "Never was carried so well
in my life,--never," said he. "I knew he was good, but I didn't know
he would jump like that. I wouldn't take a couple of hundred for
him." This was still a little loud; but the Squire at this moment had
the sense of double triumph within, and was to be forgiven. It was
admitted on all sides that he had ridden the run uncommonly well.
"Just like a young man, by Jove," said Jack Graham. "Like what sort
of a young man?" asked George Harris, who had come up at the heel of
the hunt with Ralph.
"And where were you, Master Ralph?" said the Squire to his son.
"I fancy I just began to know they were running by the time you were
killing your fox," said Ralph.
"You should have your eyes better about you, my boy; shouldn't he,
Cox?"
"The young squire ain't often in the wrong box," said the huntsman.
"He wasn't in the right one to-day," said the Squire. This was still
a little loud. There was too much of that buoyancy which might have
come from drink; but which, with the Squire, was the effect of that
success for which he had been longing rather than hoping all his
life.
From Heckfield they trotted back to Barford Wood, the master
resolving that he would draw his country in the manner he had
proposed to himself in the morning. There was some little repining
at this, partly because the distance was long, and partly because
Barford Woods were too large to be popular. "Hunting is over for the
day," said Jack Graham. To this view of the case the Squire, who had
now changed his horse, objected greatly. "We shall find in Barford
big wood as sure as the sun rises," said he. "Yes," said Jack, "and
run into the little wood and back to the big wood, and so on till we
hate every foot of the ground. I never knew anything from Barford
Woods yet for which a donkey wasn't as good as a horse." The Squire
again objected, and told the story of a run from Barford Woods twenty
years ago which had taken them pretty nearly on to Ascot Heath.
"Things have changed since that," said Jack Graham. "Very much for
the better," said the Squire. Ralph was with him then, and still
felt that his father was too loud. Whether he meant that hunting was
better now than in the old days twenty years ago, or that things as
regarded the Newton estate were better, was not explained; but all
who heard him speak imagined that he was alluding to the latter
subject.
Drawing Barford Woods is a very different thing than drawing Barford
Gorses. Anybody may see a fox found at the gorses who will simply
take the trouble to be with the hounds when they go into the covert;
but in the wood it becomes a great question with a sportsman whether
he will stick to the pack or save his horse and loiter about till he
hears that a fox has been found. The latter is certainly the commoner
course, and perhaps the wiser. And even when the fox has been found
it may be better for the expectant sportsman to loiter about till
he breaks, giving some little attention to the part of the wood in
which the work of hunting may be progressing. There are those who
systematically stand still or roam about very slowly;--others, again,
who ride and cease riding by spurts, just as they become weary or
impatient;--and others who, with dogged perseverance, stick always to
the track of the hounds. For years past the Squire was to have been
found among the former and more prudent set of riders, but on this
occasion he went gallantly through the thickest of the underwood,
close at the huntsman's heels. "You'll find it rather nasty, Mr.
Newton, among them brakes," Cox had said to him. But the Squire had
answered that he hadn't got his Sunday face on, and had persevered.
They were soon on a fox in Barford Wood;--but being on a fox in
Barford Wood was very different from finding a fox in Barford Gorse.
Out of the gorse a fox must go; but in the big woods he might choose
to remain half the day. And then the chances were that he would
either beat the hounds at last, or else be eaten in covert. "It's a
very pretty place to ride about and smoke and drink one's friend's
sherry." That was Jack Graham's idea of hunting in Barford Woods, and
a great deal of that kind of thing was going on to-day. Now and then
there was a little excitement, and cries of "away" were heard. Men
would burst out of the wood here and there, ride about for a few
minutes, and then go in again. Cox swore that they had thrice changed
their fox, and was beginning to be a little short in his temper; the
whips' horses were becoming jaded, and the master had once or twice
answered very crossly when questioned. "How the devil do you suppose
I'm to know," he had said to a young gentleman who had inquired,
"where they were?" But still the Squire kept on zealously, and
reminded Ralph that some of the best things of the season were often
lost by men becoming slack towards evening. At that time it was
nearly four o'clock, and Cox was clearly of opinion that he couldn't
kill a fox in Barford Woods that day.
But still the hounds were hunting. "Darned if they ain't back to the
little wood again," said Cox to the Squire. They were at that moment
in an extreme corner of an outlying copse, and between them and
Barford Little Wood was a narrow strip of meadow, over which they had
passed half-a-dozen times that day. Between the copse and the meadow
there ran a broad ditch with a hedge,--a rotten made-up fence of
sticks and bushes, which at the corner had been broken down by the
constant passing of horses, till, at this hour of the day, there was
hardly at that spot anything of a fence to be jumped. "We must cross
with them again, Cox," said the Squire. At that moment he was nearest
to the gap, and close to him were Ralph and George Morris, as well
as the huntsman. But Mr. Newton's horse was standing sideways to the
hedge, and was not facing the passage. He, nevertheless, prepared to
pass it first, and turned his horse sharply at it; as he did so, some
bush or stick caught the animal in the flank, and he, in order to
escape the impediment, clambered up the bank sideways, not taking
the gap, and then balanced himself to make his jump over the ditch.
But he was entangled among the sticks and thorns and was on broken
ground, and jumping short, came down into the ditch. The Squire fell
heavily head-long on to the field, and the horse, with no further
effort of his own, but unable to restrain himself, rolled over his
master. It was a place as to which any horseman would say that a
child might ride through if on a donkey without a chance of danger,
and yet the three men who saw it knew at once that the Squire had
had a bad fall. Ralph was first through the gap, and was off his own
horse as the old Irish hunter, with a groan, collected himself and
got upon his legs. In rising, the animal was very careful not to
strike his late rider with his feet; but it was too evident to Cox
that the beast in his attempt to rise had given a terrible squeeze to
the prostrate Squire with his saddle.
In a moment the three men were on their knees, and it was clear that
Mr. Newton was insensible. "I'm afraid he's hurt," said Morris. Cox
merely shook his head, as he gently attempted to raise the Squire's
shoulder against his own. Ralph, as pale as death, held his father's
hand in one of his own, and with the other endeavoured to feel the
pulse of the heart. Presently, before any one else came up to them, a
few drops of blood came from between the sufferer's lips. Cox again
shook his head. "We'd better get him on to a gate, Mr. Ralph, and
into a house," said the huntsman. They were quickly surrounded by
others, and the gate was soon there, and within twenty minutes a
surgeon was standing over our poor old friend. "No; he wasn't dead,"
the surgeon said; "but--." "What is it?" asked Ralph, impetuously.
The surgeon took the master of the hunt aside and whispered into his
ear that Mr. Newton was a dead man. His spine had been so injured by
the severity of his own fall, and by the weight of the horse rolling
on him while he was still doubled up on the ground, that it was
impossible that he should ever speak again. So the surgeon said, and
Squire Newton never did speak again.
[Illustration: In a moment the three men were on their knees,
and it was clear that Mr. Newton was insensible.]
He was carried home to the house of a gentleman who lived in those
parts, in order that he might be saved the longer journey to the
Priory;--but the length of the road mattered but little to him. He
never spoke again, nor was he sensible for a moment. Ralph remained
with him during the night,--of course,--and so did the surgeon.
At five o'clock on the following morning his last breath had been
drawn, and his life had passed away from him. George Morris also
had remained with them,--or rather had come back to the house after
having ridden home and changed his clothes, and it was by him that
the tidings were at last told to the wretched son. "It is all over,
Ralph!" "I suppose so!" said Ralph, hoarsely. "There has never been a
doubt," said George, "since we heard of the manner of the accident."
"I suppose not," said Ralph. The young man sat silent, and composed,
and made no expression of his grief. He did not weep, nor did his
face even wear that look of woe which is so common to us all when
grief comes to us. They two were still in the room in which the
body lay, and were standing close together over the fire. Ralph was
leaning on his elbow upon the chimneypiece, and from time to time
Morris would press his arm. They had been standing together thus for
some twenty minutes when Morris asked a question.
"The affair of the property had been settled, Ralph?"
"Don't talk of that now," said the other angrily. Then, after
a pause, he put up his face and spoke again. "Nothing has been
settled," he said. "The estate belongs to my cousin Ralph. He should
be informed at once,--at once. He should he telegraphed to, to come
to Newton. Would you mind doing it? He should be informed at once."
"There is time enough for that," said George Morris.
"If you will not I must," replied Ralph.
The telegram was at once sent in duplicate, addressed to that other
Ralph,--Ralph who was declared by the Squire's son to be once more
Ralph the heir,--addressed to him both at his lodgings in London and
at the Moonbeam. When the messenger had been sent to the nearest
railway station with the message, Ralph and his friend started for
Newton Priory together. Poor Ralph still wore his boots and breeches
and the red coat in which he had ridden on the former fatal day, and
in which he had passed the night by the side of his dying father's
bed. On their journey homeward they met Gregory, who had heard of the
accident, and had at once started to see his uncle.
"It is all over!" said Ralph. Gregory, who was in his gig, dropped
the reins and sat in silence. "It is all done. Let us get on, George.
It is horrid to me to be in this coat. Get on quickly. Yes, indeed;
everything is done now."
He had lost a father who had loved him dearly, and whom he had dearly
loved,--a father whose opportunities of showing his active love had
been greater even than fall to the lot of most parents. A father
gives naturally to his son, but the Squire had been almost unnatural
in his desire to give. There had never been a more devoted father,
one more intensely anxious for his son's welfare;--and Ralph had
known this, and loved his father accordingly. Nevertheless, he could
not keep himself from remembering that he had now lost more than
a father. The estate as to which the Squire had been so full of
interest,--as to which he, Ralph, had so constantly endeavoured to
protect himself from an interest that should be too absorbing,--had
in the last moment escaped him. And now, in this sad and solemn hour,
he could not keep himself from thinking of that loss. As he had stood
in the room in which the dead body of his father had been lying, he
had cautioned himself against this feeling. But still he had known
that it had been present to him. Let him do what he would with his
own thoughts, he could not hinder them from running back to the fact
that by his father's sudden death he had lost the possession of the
Newton estate. He hated himself for remembering such a fact at such a
time, but he could not keep himself from remembering it. His father
had fought a life-long battle to make him the heir of Newton, and had
perished in the moment of his victory,--but before his victory was
achieved. Ralph had borne his success well while he had thought that
his success was certain; but now--! He knew that all such subjects
should be absent from his mind with such cause for grief as weighed
upon him at this moment,--but he could not drive away the reflection.
That other Ralph Newton had won upon the post. He would endeavour to
bear himself well, but he could not but remember that he had been
beaten. And there was the father who had loved him so well lying
dead!
When he reached the house, George Morris was still with him. Gregory,
to whom he had spoken hardly a word, did not come beyond the
parsonage. Ralph could not conceal from himself, could hardly conceal
from his outward manner, the knowledge that Gregory must be aware
that his cause had triumphed. And yet he hated himself for thinking
of these things, and believed himself to be brutal in that he could
not conceal his thoughts. "I'll send over for a few things, and stay
with you for a day or two," said George Morris. "It would be bad that
you should be left here alone." But Ralph would not permit the visit.
"My father's nephew will be here to-morrow," he said, "and I would
rather that he should find me alone." In thinking of it all, he
remembered that he must withdraw his claims to the hand of Mary
Bonner, now that he was nobody. He could have no pretension now to
offer his hand to any such girl as Mary Bonner!