THE EFFECTS OF AN EXPLOSION.
Mrs. Featherstone made no attempt to detain Mark and Mabel as they
took leave of her shortly after that scene in the Gold Room, though
her attitude at parting was conceived in a spirit of frosty
forgiveness.
In the carriage Mark sat silent for some time, staring straight before
him, moodily waiting for Mabel's first words. He had not to wait long;
she had laid her hand softly upon his, and as he turned, he saw that
her eyes were wet and shining. 'Mark,' she said, 'it is you I love,
not that book; and now, when I know all it has cost you--oh, my dear,
my dear--did you think it would make me love you less?'
He could not answer her by words, but he drew her nearer to him till
her head rested upon his shoulder, and so they sat, silent, with hands
clasped, until they reached home.
Seldom again, and only under strong compulsion, did Mabel make any
reference to 'Illusion,' nor was it till long after that he suspected
the depth and reason of her resentment against Vincent--he was content
to feel that her love for himself was unchanged.
But though she strove, and successfully, to hide it from her husband,
this lowering of her ideal caused her a secret anguish; it had always
been difficult to reconcile Mark as his nature seemed revealed in
private life, with the Mark who had written 'Illusion.' One of her
dreams had been that, as their intimacy grew, all reserve would
vanish, and he would speak to her of his inmost thoughts and fancies,
which it seemed almost as if he thought her unable to appreciate as
yet.
Now all this was over, there were no hidden depths to fathom in his
mind, no sublime heights to which she could rise; such as she knew him
now, he was and must remain--not a strong and solitary genius with
lofty thoughts of which he feared to speak freely, not a guide on whom
she could lean unquestioning through life, only a man with a bright
but shallow nature, impulsive and easily led. Even the Quixotic honour
which had led him to entangle himself in complications at another's
bidding showed a mind incapable of clear judgment--or he would have
renounced the rash promise when it began to involve others. Sadly
enough she realised the weakness implied in this, and yet it only
infused a new element of pity and protection in the love she felt for
him, and she adapted herself bravely to the changed conditions of her
life.
After Holroyd had spoken, she had never questioned that his version
was the true one, and Caffyn's charge an infamous fabrication--whatever
she might have been driven to think in that one instant of sickening
doubt.
To a more suspicious nature, perhaps, some of the facts connected with
Vincent's visit to Laufingen might even then have presented
difficulties, but if Mabel had remembered all that had occurred there
more clearly than she did, she would have attached but little
importance to it. The loyal faith she had in her husband's honour
would have accepted as obvious a far less plausible explanation.
On the day following the rehearsal Messrs. Chilton and Fladgate were
made aware of the facts relating to the authorship of 'Illusion,'
whereupon they both expressed a not unnatural annoyance at having
been, as they considered, made the victims of a deception. Mr.
Fladgate, especially, who had always prided himself immensely upon the
sagacity which had led him to detect Mark at once, and who had never
wearied of telling the story, indulged in some strong observations.
Vincent vindicated as well as he could the scheme in which he was the
most guiltless of accessories after the fact, and Mark kept in the
background and said as little as possible; he felt distinctly
uncomfortable, however, when Mr. Chilton drily inquired whether the
same mystification attached to 'Sweet Bells Jangled,' and on being
reassured as to this, observed that it was a little unfortunate that
the matter had not been explained before the latter book had been
brought out. 'If you think you are prejudiced in any way,' Mark said,
flushing angrily, 'we can easily come to some other arrangement!'
'Oh,' said Mr. Chilton, 'I was not thinking of it from a pecuniary
point of view exactly--we shall not lose much--as far as money is
concerned, I dare say!'
'My partner,' explained Mr. Fladgate, 'was thinking of the results
this will have upon our reputation in the trade;' on which Vincent
tried to appease him by promising to make it abundantly clear that the
firm were no parties to the concealment, and as soon as the partners
understood that it was not proposed to disturb any existing
arrangements respecting 'Illusion,' beyond disclosing the truth, and
having some necessary revisions inserted in any future edition, they
parted amicably enough, though Mark was made to understand his altered
standing in the most unmistakable manner.
And in a few days, by means which it is not necessary to particularise
here, the version of the affair given by Vincent at Grosvenor Gardens
was made known to all those who might find it of interest.
The announcement, when it became generally known, caused a certain
amount of surprise and remark, but not nearly so much as might have
been expected. Hawthorne, in his preface to the 'Scarlet Letter,' has
remarked the utter insignificance of literary achievements and aims
beyond the narrow circle which recognises them as important and
legitimate, and the lesson the discovery of this is to the man who
dreams of literary fame. If Vincent needed to learn that lesson, he
learnt it then; no fresh laurels were brought out for him--and the old
ones had withered already; people were beginning to feel slightly
ashamed of their former raptures over 'Illusion,' or had transferred
them to a newer object, and they could not be revived in cold blood,
even for the person legitimately entitled. Jacob had intercepted the
birthright, and for this Esau there was not even the _réchauffé_ of a
blessing.
The people who had lionised Mark were enraged now, and chiefly with
Holroyd; the more ill-natured hinted that there was something shady on
both sides--or why should all that secrecy have been necessary?--but
the less censorious were charitably disposed to think that Ashburn's
weak good-nature had been unscrupulously abused by his more gifted
friend.
Vincent's conduct, if it showed nothing more than a shrinking from
notoriety, was sufficiently offensive, such distaste being necessarily
either cynical or hypocritical. So upon the whole, the reaction which
attends all sudden and violent popularity, and which had already set
in here, was, if anything, furthered by the disclosure.
But this did not greatly distress him. Neglect and fame were alike to
him, now that his lady had withdrawn her countenance from him. He had
resigned himself to the loss of the fairest dream of his life, but it
had been a consolation to him in his loneliness to feel that he might
be her friend still, that he might see her sometimes, that though she
could never love him, he would always possess her confidence and
regard--not much of a consolation, perhaps, to most men, but he had
found a sort of comfort in it. Now that was all over, and his solitude
was left more desolate still; he knew there was no appeal for him, and
that, so long as Mabel believed that he had sacrificed her husband to
his deliberate selfishness, she would never relent towards him. There
were times when he asked himself if he was bound to suffer all this
misconception from the one woman he had ever loved--but he knew always
that in clearing himself he would lay her happiness in ruins, and
resolved to bear his burden to the end, sustained by the conviction,
which every day became clearer, that he would not have to bear it much
longer.
As for Mark, the announcement of the true authorship of 'Illusion'
brought him nothing short of disaster, social and financial. It
produced a temporary demand for 'Sweet Bells Jangled' at the
libraries, but now that things had been explained to them, the most
unlikely persons were able to distinguish the marked inferiority of
the later book.
Those reviews which had waited at first from press of matter or
timidity now condemned it unanimously, and several editors of
periodicals who had requested works from Mark's pen wrote to say that,
as the offer had been made under a misapprehension, he would
understand that they felt compelled to retract the commissions.
Mark's career as a novelist was ended, he had less chance than ever of
getting a publisher's reader to look at his manuscript, the affair had
associated his name with ridicule instead of the scandal which is a
marketable commodity, and might have launched him again; his name upon
a book now would only predestine it to obscurity.
Mabel was made aware in countless little ways of her husband's descent
in popular estimation; he was no longer forced into a central
position in any gathering they happened to form part of, but stood
forlornly in corners, like the rest of humanity. Perhaps he regretted
even the sham celebrity he had enjoyed, for his was a disposition that
rose to any opportunity of self-display--but in time the contrast
ceased to mortify him, for most of the invitations dropped; he was
only asked to places now as the husband of Mabel, and in the height of
the season most of their evenings were passed at home, to the perfect
contentment of both, however.
Mrs. Featherstone had given up her theatricals, in spite of Vincent's
attempt to dissuade her; she had lost some of the principal members of
her little company, and it was too late to recruit them; but her chief
reason was a feeling that she would only escape ridicule very narrowly
as it was, and that the safest course was to allow her own connection
with the affair to be forgotten as speedily as possible.
But she could not forgive Mark, and would have dropped the
acquaintance altogether, if Gilda had not, in the revival of her
affection for Mabel, done all in her power to keep it alive.
Mr. Langton, deeply as he had resented the misrepresentation which had
cost him his daughter, was not a man to do anything which might give
any opening for gossip; he repressed his wife's tendency to become
elegiac on her daughter's account, and treated Mark in public as
before. But on occasions when he dined there _en famille_, and sat
alone with his father-in-law over dessert, there was no attempt to
conceal from him that he was only there on sufferance, and those were
terrible after-dinner sittings to the unfortunate Mark, who was
catechised and lectured on his prospects until he writhed with
humiliation and helpless rage.
At Malakoff Terrace the feeling at the discovery of Mark's true
position was not one of unmixed sorrow--the knowledge that he was,
after all, an ordinary being, one of themselves, had its consolations,
particularly as no lustre from his glorification had shone on them.
Mr. Ashburn felt less like an owl who had accidentally hatched a
cherub, than he had done lately, and his wife considered that a snare
and a pitfall had been removed from her son's path. Cuthbert thought
his elder brother a fool, but probably had never felt more amiable
towards him, while Martha wondered aloud how her sister-in-law liked
it--a speculation which employed her mind not unpleasantly. Only
Trixie felt a sincere and unselfish disappointment; she had been so
proud of her brother's genius, had sympathised so entirely with his
early struggles, had heard of his triumphs with such delight, that it
was hard for her to realise that the book which had done so much for
him was not his work after all. But the blow was softened even to
Trixie, for 'Jack' had been making quite an income lately, and in the
autumn they were going to be married and live in Bedford Park. And of
course Mark had done nothing wrong, she told herself, and he knew all
the time what was coming, so she need not pity him so very much, and
she was sure 'Sweet Bells' was nicer than 'Illusion,' whatever people
chose to say, and ever so much easier to understand.
Several days had passed since the announcements with regard to
'Illusion' had appeared in the literary and other periodicals, and
still Uncle Solomon made no sign--a silence from which Mark augured
the worst. One afternoon Mr. Humpage came to see Mabel: he had heard
of the whole affair from the Langtons, and reproached himself not a
little, now that he knew how utterly without foundation had been his
bitterness against Mark. Mr. Humpage did not approach the question
from the Langton point of view, and was not concerned that Mabel
should have married a man who had turned out to be a nonentity. He had
done all he could to prevent the marriage in his resentment at finding
the daughter of an old friend engaged to the author who had
caricatured him, and his only feeling now was of complete reaction;
the young man was perfectly innocent, and his nephew Harold had
suspected it all this time and never said a word to enlighten him. So
now the old gentleman came in a spirit of violent repentance which
would not allow him to rest until he had re-established his old
relations with his favourite Mabel. She was only too glad to find the
coolness at an end, and he was just expressing his opinion of the part
his nephew had taken, when, to Mabel's dismay, Mr. Lightowler was
announced.
She wished with all her heart that Mark had not happened to be out, as
she glanced apprehensively at her second visitor's face; and yet, as
she saw almost at once, he came in peace--there was none of the
displeasure on his big face which she had expected to see there; on
the contrary, it was expanded with a sort of satisfaction.
Mr. Humpage rose as soon as the other had seated himself. 'Well, my
dear,' he said, lowering his voice as he eyed his enemy with strong
disfavour, 'it's time I went, I dare say. As to what I was saying
about my scamp of a nephew--I only hope _I_ did nothing to encourage
him in the disgraceful way he chose to act; I never meant to, I assure
you. But he won't trouble you any more for a little time, for I
understand he's on his way with one of these theatrical companies to
America, and I hope he'll stay there--he'll get nothing out of me, I'm
ashamed of the fellow, and heartily glad his poor mother was taken
when she was.'
He had spoken rather louder in his excitement, and Uncle Solomon
overheard it, and struck in immediately. 'What, has that nephew of
yours been turning out bad, hey?' he cried; he was quite a child of
nature in his utter freedom from all conventional restraints, as may
have been perceived before this. 'You don't say so, Humpage? Now I'm
sorry to year it; I really am sorry to year that! Not but what, if you
look into it, you'll find there's been a backwardness in doing one's
duty somewhere about, yer know. P'raps, if you'd been more of an uncle
to him, now, if you don't mind my saying so, he'd have turned out
different. You should have kept a tighter hand on him, and as likely
as not he wouldn't have felt the temptation to go wrong.'
'I was speaking to Mrs. Ashburn, Mr. Lightowler,' said the other,
turning round with a rather ugly snarl.
'I 'eard you,' replied Uncle Solomon, calmly, 'that was why I spoke.
Come, come, 'Umpage, don't be nasty--we've been neighbours long enough
to drop nagging. It's no reason because I've got a nephew myself, who
knows his duty and tries to be a pride to an uncle who's behaved
handsomely towards him, it's no reason, I say, why I can't feel for
them that mayn't be able to say as much for themselves.'
'I'm much obliged,' said Mr. Humpage, 'but I don't ask you or anybody
else to feel for me. I am perfectly well able to do everything that's
necessary in that way for myself.'
'Oh, certainly,' was the retort, 'no one can say I ever intruded on
any one. I shan't take the liberty of feeling for you any more after
that, not if you had twenty nephews and all of 'em in the "Police
News," I promise you. And, talking of nephews, Mabel, I wonder if you
came across a letter I wrote to the "Chigbourne and Lamford Gazette,"
a week or so back--I meant to send you a copy, but I forgot--I
forgot.'
'No,' said Mabel, unable to make anything of this extraordinary
mildness, 'I didn't see it.'
'Didn't you now?' he rejoined complacently, 'and yet it got copied
into some of the London papers, too, I was told. Well, I brought a
cutting with me, in case--would you like to hear it?'
Mabel made some assent--she always felt more or less paralysed in the
presence of this terrible relative--and he drew out a folded slip, put
on his spectacles, and proceeded to read:--
'"To the Editor.--Sir--I write you for the purpose of
putting you right with respect to a point on which you
seem to have got hold of an unaccurate version of a
matter which I may say I have some slight connection
with. In your issue of the ----th inst., I note that your
London letter prints the following paragraph:
'"_Society here is eagerly anticipating the coming
performance, at one of the most recherché mansions in
Belgravia, of a dramatic version of Mrs. Ashburn (née
Ernstone's) celebrated romance of 'Illusion.' I have been
favoured with an opportunity of assisting at some of the
rehearsals, and am in a position to state that the
representation cannot fail to satisfy even the most
ardent of the many admirers of the book. The guests will
include all the leaders of every phase of the beau monde,
and a repetition of the play will probably be found
necessary. By the way, it is a somewhat romantic
circumstance, that the talent displayed by the young
authoress has already been the means of procuring her a
brilliant parti, which will remove all necessity for any
reliance upon her pen for a subsistence in the future._
'"Now, sir, allow me to correct two glaring errors in the
above. To start with, the author of "Illusion" is not an
authoress at all--his real name being Mark Ashburn, as I
ought to know, considering I happen to occupy the
position of being his uncle. Next, it is quite true that
my nephew has contracted a matrimonial alliance, which
some might call brilliant; but I was not aware till the
present that the party brought him enough to allow him to
live independent for the rest of his life, being under
the impression that there would have been no match of any
sort if it had not been for a near relative (who shall be
nameless here) on the author's side coming forward and
offering to make things comfortable for the young couple.
But he will have to rely on his pen for all that, as he
is quite aware that he is not expected to lay on his
oars, without doing anything more to repay the sacrifices
that have been wasted on him. Kindly correct, and oblige
yours,
'"SOLOMON LIGHTOWLER (the author's uncle)."'
'You know,' he observed when he came to the end, 'it doesn't do to let
these sort o' stories go flying about without contradicting them--but
I put it very quietly and delicately, you see.'
Mabel bit her lip. Was it possible that this dreadful old man knew
nothing--how was she ever to break it to him?
Mr. Humpage had listened to the letter with a grim appreciation. 'You
don't write a bad letter, Lightowler, I must say,' he remarked, with
an irrepressible chuckle, 'but you are a little behind the day with
your facts, ain't you?'
'What d'ye mean by behind the day?' demanded Uncle Solomon.
'Oh, Uncle Antony,' cried Mabel, '_you_ tell him--I can't!'
It is much to be feared that Mr. Humpage was by no means sorry to be
entrusted with such a charge. But if he was not naturally kinder
hearted, he was more acquainted with the amenities of ordinary society
than Mr. Lightowler, and some consideration for Mabel restrained him
then from using his triumph as he might have done. He explained
briefly the arrangement between Vincent and Mark as he understood it,
and the manner in which it had lately been made known. When he had
finished, Uncle Solomon stared stupidly from one to the other, and
then, with a voice that had grown strangely thick, he said, 'I'll
trouble you to say that all over again slowly, if you've no objection.
My head began buzzing, and I couldn't follow it all.'
Mr. Humpage complied, and when he finished for the second time, his
hearer's face was purple and distorted, and Mabel pitied him from her
own experience.
'Dear Mr. Lightowler,' she said, 'you mustn't blame Mark; he had no
choice, he had _promised_.'
'Promised!' Uncle Solomon almost howled; 'what business had he got to
make a promise like that? See what a fool he's made o' _me_--with that
letter of mine in all the London papers! I heard those Manor House
girls gigglin' and laughin' when they drove by the other day, and
thought it was just because they were idjits.... I wish to God I'd let
him starve as a City clerk all his days before I let him bring me to
this. I've lived all this time and never been ridiclous till now, and
he's done it. Ah! and that's not the only thing he's done
either--he's swindled me, done me out o' my money as I've earned. I
could 'ave him up at the Old Bailey for it--and I've a good mind to
say I will, too. I'll----'
'Stop,' said Mabel, 'you have gone quite far enough. I know this is a
great disappointment to you, but I am his wife--you have no right to
say such things to me.'
'No right!' he stormed, 'that's all you know about it. No right,
haven't I? Let me tell you that ever since I was made to think that
feller was a credit to me at last, I've bin allowing him at the rate
of four hundred a year; d'ye think I'd 'a done that for kindly lending
his name to another feller's book? D'ye think he didn't know that well
enough when he took the money? Trust him for takin' all he could get
hold of! But I'll 'ave it back; I'll post him as a swindler, I'll
shame him! Look 'ere; d'ye see this?' and he took out some folded
sheets of blue foolscap from his inner pocket. 'I was goin' to take
this to Ferret on my way home--and it's the codicil to my will, this
is. I was goin' to take it to get it altered, for I've not been
feelin' very well lately, I've not been feelin' very well. This was
made when I thought Mark was a nephew to be proud of--d----n him--and
I can tell yer I left him a pretty tidy plum under it. Now see what I
do with it. No fire, isn't there? Well, it doesn't make any odds.
There ... and there ... and there;' and he tore the papers
passionately across and across several times. 'There's an end of
_your_ husband's chances with me. And that don't make me intestit
neither; there's the will left, and Mark and none of his will ever get
a penny piece under it; he can make his mind easy over that, tell
him.'
His coarse violence had something almost appalling in it, and at first
Mabel had blanched under its force, but her own anger rose now.
'I am glad to think we shall owe nothing to you in future,' she said.
'If Mark has really taken your money, it was because--because he had
this secret to keep; but he will give it all back. Now leave the
house, please. Uncle Antony, will you get him to go away.'
Uncle Solomon, white and shaking, almost shrunken after his outburst
of passion, was standing in the midst of a thick litter of torn paper,
looking like a tree which has shed its last leaves in a sudden gust.
'Don't you touch me, 'Umpage, now,' he said hoarsely; 'I'm quite
capable of going by myself. I--I dessay I let my temper get the better
o' me just now,' he said to Mabel, rather feebly. 'I don't blame you
for taking your husband's part, though he is a--ah, I shall go off my
'ead if I speak any more about it. I'll go--where's your door got to?
Let me alone; I'll find my way. I shall get rid of this dizziness out
in the air;' and he stumbled out of the room, a truly pitiable sight,
with the fondest ambition of his later life mortally wounded.
'Dear Uncle Antony,' cried Mabel, who felt almost sorry for him, 'go
after him, do. Oh, I know you're not friends, but never mind that
now--he ought not to go home alone.'
'Hot-headed old ass!' growled Mr. Humpage; 'but there, there, my dear,
I'll go. I'll keep him in sight at the stations, and see he comes to
no harm.'
Mark had to hear of this when he came home that evening.
'And you really did take his money?' cried Mabel, after hearing his
account. 'Oh, Mark, what made you do that?'
Mark hardly knew himself; he certainly would not have done it if he
had ever imagined the truth would be known; perhaps his ideas of right
and wrong had become rather mixed, or perhaps he persuaded himself
that if he did not exactly deserve the money yet, he would not be long
in doing so.
'Well, darling,' he replied, 'he would have been bitterly offended if
I hadn't, you know, and I didn't know then that it was all done on
account of "Illusion." But, after all, I've only had one year's
allowance, and I'll give him back that to-morrow. He shan't say I
swindled him.'
'I think you ought to do that, dear,' said Mabel. But in her heart
she felt a heavy wonder that he should ever have consented to take the
money at all.
Mark had received a fairly large sum for his second book, out of which
he was well able to refund the allowance, and the next day he went
down to Woodbine Villa, where, instead of the violent scene of
recrimination he had prepared himself to go through, a very different,
if not less painful, experience awaited him. Uncle Solomon had reached
his house safely the day before, but, in relating what he had heard to
his sister, had given way to a second burst of passion, which had
ended in a seizure of some kind.
Mark was allowed to see him, on his own earnest entreaty, and was
struck with remorse when he saw the lamentable state to which his own
conduct had had no small share in reducing the old man. Were the
consequences of that one act of folly and meanness _never_ to cease?
he wondered, wretchedly, as he stood there. His uncle allowed his hand
to be shaken; he even took Mark's cheque with his stiff hand, and made
a sign that his sister was to take charge of it. He could speak, but
his brain had lost all command over his tongue, and what he said had a
ghastly inappropriateness to the occasion. He saw this dully himself,
and gave up the attempt at last, and began to cry piteously at his
inability to convey his meaning; whether he wished for a
reconciliation then or nursed his rage to the last, Mark never knew.
He went down on several other occasions during his uncle's lingering
illness, but always with the same result. Mr. Lightowler suffered all
the tortures of perfect consciousness, combined with the powerlessness
to express any but the most simple wish: if he desired to undo the
past in any way, no one divined his intention or helped him to carry
it out; and when the end came suddenly, it was found that he had not
died intestate, and the will, after giving a certain annuity to the
sister who had lived with him, left the bulk of his estate to go in
founding Lightowler scholarships in the School for Commercial
Travellers' Orphans. The Ashburn family were given trifling legacies;
Mark, however, 'having seen fit to go his own way in life, and render
useless all the expense to which I have been put for his advancement,'
was expressly excepted from taking any benefit under the will.
But Mark had expected nothing else, and long before his anticipations
were verified he had found it necessary to consider seriously how he
was to support himself for the future. Literature, as has been said,
was now out of the question; in fact, its fascination for him had
faded. Mabel had a fair income settled upon her, but in ordinary
self-respect he could not live upon that, and so he sought about for
some opening. At first he had firmly resolved never to go back to his
old school life, after having done so much to escape from it; but as
he began to see that any profession that required capital was closed
to him, and business being equally impossible, he was forced to think
of again becoming a schoolmaster. And then he heard by accident that
old Mr. Shelford was about to resign his post at St. Peter's, and it
occurred to him that it might be worth his while to go and see him,
and find out if the vacancy was unfilled, and if there was any chance
for himself. It was not a pleasant thing to do, for he had not seen
the old gentleman lately, and dreaded equally innocent congratulations
and brusque irony, according to the state of his information. He went
up to St. Peter's, timing his arrival after school, when the boys
would all have left, except the classes which remained an hour longer
for extra subjects. Mr. Shelford always lingered for some time, and he
would be very certain to find him. Mark went along the dark corridors,
rather shrinking as he did so from the idea of being recognised by a
passing member of the staff, till he came to the door he knew.
Mr. Shelford was still in cap and gown, dictating the week's marks to
his monitor, who was entering them, with a long-suffering expression
on his face, into a sort of ledger. 'Now we come to Robinson,' the old
gentleman was saying; 'you're sure you've got the right place, eh? Go
on, then. _Latin repetition_, thirty-eight; Latin prose,
thirty-six--if you don't take care, Master Maxwell, Robinson'll be
carrying off the prize this term, he's creeping up to you, sir,
creeping up; Roman History'--and here he saw Mark, and dismissed the
monitor unceremoniously enough.
He evidently knew the whole story of 'Illusion,' for his first words
after they were alone together were, 'And so you've been a sort of
warming-pan all this time, eh?'
'That's all,' said Mark, gloomily.
'Well, well,' the old gentleman continued, not unkindly, 'you made a
rash promise and kept it like a man, even when it must have been
uncommonly disagreeable. I like you for that, Ashburn. And what are
you thinking of turning to now?'
Mark explained his errand not very fluently, and Mr. Shelford heard
him out with his mouth working impatiently, and his eyes wrinkled till
Mark thought how much he had aged lately.
'Well,' he said, pushing back his cap and leaning back in his chair,
'have you thought this out, Ashburn? You were rid of this life a short
time back, and I was glad of it, for you never were fit for it. And
now you're coming back again! I make no doubt they'll be very willing
to have you here, and if a word from me to the Council--but is there
really nothing else but this? Why, I'm counting the days to my own
deliverance now, and it's odd to find some one asking me to recommend
him for my oar and chain! No, no, a dashing young fellow like you,
sir, can do better for himself than a junior mastership for his final
goal. Take warning by me, as I used to tell you--do you want to come
to this sort of thing? sitting from morning to noon in this stifling
den, filled with a rabble of impident boys--d'ye think they'll have
any respect for your old age and infirmities? not they--they'll call
you "Old Ashes"--for they're a yumorous race, boys are, they'll call
you "Old Ashes," or "Cinders" to your nose, as soon as they think
you're old enough to stand it. Why, they don't put any more kittens in
my desk now--they've found out I like cats. So they put
blackbeetles--do you like blackbeetles, eh? Well, you'll come to
beetles in time. It's a mistake, Ashburn, it's a mistake for
impulsive, hot-tempered men like you to turn schoolmaster--leave it
to cold, impassive fellows who don't care enough about the boys to be
sensitive or partial--they're the men to stand the life!'
Here a demon voice shrilled, ''Ullo, Shellfish, Old Shells, yah!'
through the keyhole, and his footsteps were heard down the flags
outside running for dear life. The old gentleman, crimson with rage,
bounded to the door: 'Stop that scoundrel, that impident boy, bring
him back!' But the boy had gone, and he came back panting and
coughing: 'That's a commentary on what I've been saying,' he said;
'I'm an old fool to show I care--but I can't help it, and they know
it, confound 'em! Well, to come back to you, Ashburn, you're married
now, I hear; you won't find a mastership much support as time goes on,
unless you started a boarding-house--the idea of never escaping from
these young ruffians, ugh! No, no, didn't you tell me once you were
called to the Bar?'
'Not called,' corrected Mark, 'I have passed the examination, though;
there is only the ceremony to be gone through.'
'Why not go through it, and try your fortune as a barrister, then,
you're just the man for a jury? We shall have you taking silk in ten
years.'
Mark laughed bitterly. 'How am I to live till I get a practice?' he
said; 'I've only a couple of hundred or so left in the world, and that
would scarcely pay for my fees and chambers for more than a year.'
'Ah, is that so? I see,' said the old gentleman, 'yes, yes--but, see
here, Ashburn, start all the same with what you've got, who knows how
soon you may get work--can't your father-in-law do anything for you?
and while you're waiting, why not take some pupils under the rose, eh?
I was asked the other day to recommend a coach to two young rascals
who want to be forked into the Civil Service. You could do that for
them if you liked, and they'd bring you others. And--and I'm going to
take a liberty very likely, but I've put by a little money in the
course of my life, and I've no one to leave it to. I don't know how it
is, but I feel an interest in you, Ashburn; perhaps I want somebody
to be sorry for me when I'm gone, anyway, I--I wish you'd let me see
you through any money difficulties till you're fairly started--it
won't be long now, I'll wager, you can treat it as a loan if you
prefer it. I want you to give yourself a chance at the Bar. Don't
refuse me now, or I shall take it unkindly.'
Mark was deeply touched, he had not suspected Mr. Shelford of really
caring about him, and the kindness and sympathy of this offer made him
feel how little he deserved such friendship; and then the familiar
class-rooms, dusty and stuffy at the close of a summer day, had
brought back all his old weariness of school routine. He had outlived
his yearning for literary fame, but he still wished to make a figure
somewhere, somehow--why might not he do so at the Bar, in that line
where solid learning is less necessary than the fluent tongue and
unfailing resource, which he felt he could reckon upon.
He shook the other's hand gratefully. 'I don't know how to thank you,'
he said, 'you've put some heart in me again. I will try my luck as you
advise; perhaps with coaching and the money I have by me I need not
take advantage of all your kindness, but there is no one I would come
to for help like you when I can keep up no longer. I'll take my call
at Michaelmas!'
And they walked out together, Mr. Shelford taking his arm
affectionately through the streets. Mark, as has been said already,
had a certain knack of attracting interest and liking without doing
anything either to excite or deserve them in the slightest, and the
old gentleman felt now almost as if he had gained a son.
He was anxious to prevent Mark from returning to the old life, because
he had observed his unfitness for it; he himself, however, in spite of
his diatribes against boys and scholastic life, was far fonder of both
than he would have confessed, and would miss them as a few who knew
him best would miss him when the time came for parting.
From that day he became a frequent visitor at Campden Hill, where he
found with Mabel the appreciation and tender regard which he had
never expected to meet again on this side of the grave.
Mark carried out his resolve, of which his father-in-law approved,
allowing him to use his chambers during the Long Vacation. The pupils
came there, and the coach's manner captivated them from the first, and
made the work easy for both; they came out high on the list, and were
succeeded by others, whose fees paid the rent of the chambers he took
in the Temple shortly after. Call-night came, and as he stood with the
others at the Benchers' table and listened to the Treasurer's address,
he felt an exultant confidence in himself once more; he had been
promised a brief from Mr. Ferret, who took this form of disapproving
of Uncle Solomon's testamentary caprices, and this time Mark did not
shrink from it--he had read hard lately, and with better results. He
knew that he should be at no loss for words or self-possession; he had
been a brilliant and effective speaker, as the Union debates had
frequently proved, and he looked forward now to entering the legal
arena as the field for retrieving his lost name. Mabel should be proud
of him yet!
He was deceiving no one now, Vincent was not injured by the fraud--for
he had his book back; it was true that Mabel did not suspect the real
history of the transaction, but it would do her no good to know that
he had once made a false step. Caffyn was over in America, and
harmless wherever he might see fit to go--his sting was drawn for
ever.
No wonder, then, that he seemed to look round upon a cloudless
horizon--but that had been the case with him so many times since he
had first complicated his life by that unhappy act of his, and each
time the small cloud, the single spy of serried battalions, had been
slowly creeping up all the while.
He forgot that--he generally did forget unpleasant reminiscences--it
never occurred to him that the cloud might be rising yet again above
the level haze on the sky line, and the hurricane burst upon him once
more.