Castello had now become a very dreary abode. Lord and Lady Culduff had
taken their departure for Paris. Temple had gone up to town to try and
manage an exchange, if by good luck any one could be found to believe
that Bogota was a desirable residence, and a fine field for budding
diplomacies; and none remained but Nelly and Augustus to relieve each
other in watches beside their father's sick-bed.
Young, and little experienced in life as she was, Nelly proved a great
comfort and support to her brother in these trying hours. At first he
told her nothing of the doubts and fears that beset him. In fact they
had assumed no shape sufficiently palpable to convey.
It was his daily custom to go over the letters that each morning
brought, and in a few words--the very fewest he could employ--acquaint
Mr. Underwood, the junior partner, of his father's precarious state, and
protest against being able, in the slightest degree, to offer any views
or guidance as to the conduct of matters of business. These would
now and then bring replies in a tone that showed how little Underwood
himself was acquainted with many of the transactions of the house,
and how completely he was accustomed to submit himself to Colonel
Bramleigh's guidance. Even in his affected retirement from business,
Bramleigh had not withdrawn from the direction of the weightiest of
the matters which regarded the firm, and jealously refused any--the
slightest--attempt of his partner to influence his judgment.
One of Underwood's letters completely puzzled Augustus; not only by the
obscurity of its wording, but by the evident trace in it of the writer's
own inability to explain his meaning. There was a passage which ran
thus: “'Mr. Sedley was down again, and this time the amount is two
thousand five hundred; and though I begged he would give me time to
communicate with you before honoring so weighty a draft, he replied--I
take pains to record his exact words:--'There is no time for this;
I shall think myself very fortunate, and deem Colonel Bramleigh more
fortunate still, if I am not forced to call upon you for four times as
much within a fortnight.'” After referring to other matters, there was
this at the end of the letter--
“S------has just repaid the amount he so lately drew from the bank; he
appeared chagrined and out of spirits, merely saying, 'Tell the Colonel
the negotiation has broke down, and that I will write to-morrow.'”
The promised letter from Sedley had not come, but in its place was a
telegram from him, saying, “I find I must see and speak with you, I
shall go over by Saturday, and be with you on Sunday morning.”
“Of course he cannot see papa,” said Nelly; “the doctor more strongly
than ever insists on perfect repose.”
“And it's little worth his while to make the journey to see me,” said
he, dispiritedly.
“Perhaps he only wants your sanction, your concurrence to something he
thinks it wise to do--who knows?”
“Just so, Nelly; who knows? All these weighty speculations entered upon
to convert thousands into tens of thousands have no sympathy of mine. I
see no object in such wealth. The accumulation of what never spares one
a moment for its enjoyment, seems to me as foolish as the act of a man
who would pass his life scaling a mountain to obtain a view, and drop
down of fatigue before he had once enjoyed it. You and I, I take it,
would be satisfied with far humbler fortune?”
“You and I, Gusty,” said she, laughingly, “are the ignoble members of
this family.”
“Then there comes another difficulty; Sedley will at once see that I
have not shared my father's confidence, and he will be very cautious
about telling me of matters which have not been intrusted to me
already.”
“Perhaps we are only worrying ourselves for nothing, Gusty. Perhaps
there are no secrets after all; or at worst, only those trade secrets
which are great mysteries in the counting house, but have no interest
for any not deep in speculation.”
“If I only thought so!”
“Have you sufficient confidence in Mr. Cutbill to take him into your
counsel? He will be back here to morrow.”
“Scarcely, Nelly. I do not exactly distrust, but I can't say that I
like him.”
“I hated him at first; but either I have got used to his vulgarity, or
I fancy that he is really good-natured, or from whatever the cause, I
incline to like him better than when he came, and certainly he behaved
well to poor Jack.”
“Ah, there 's another trouble that I have not thought of. Jack, who does
not appear to know how ill my poor father is, asks if he could not be
induced to write to--somebody--I forget whom, in his behalf. In fact,
Nelly, there is not a corner without its special difficulty, and
I verily believe there never was a man less made to meet them than
myself.”
“I 'll take as much of the load as I have strength for,” said she,
quietly.
“I know that; I know it well, Nelly. I can scarcely say what I 'd do
without you now. Here comes the doctor. I 'm very anxious to hear what
he 'll say this evening.”
Belton had made a long visit to the sick room, and his look was graver
than usual as he came down the stairs. “His head is full of business; he
will give his brain no respite,” said he; “but for that, I 'd not call
his case hopeless. Would it not be possible to let him suppose that all
the important matters which weigh upon him were in safe hands and in
good guidance?”
Augustus shook his head doubtingly.
“At least could he not be persuaded to suffer some one--yourself, for
example--to take the control of such affairs as require prompt action
till such time as he may be able to resume their management himself?”
“I doubt it, Doctor; I doubt it much. Men who, like my father, have had
to deal with vast and weighty interests, grow to feel that inexperienced
people--of my own stamp, for instance--are but sorry substitutes in time
of difficulty; and I have more than once heard him say, 'I'd rather lash
the tiller and go below, than give over the helm to a bad steersman.'”
“I would begin,” continued the doctor, “by forbidding him all access to
his letters. You must have seen how nervous and excited he becomes
as the hour of the post draws nigh. I think I shall take this
responsibility on myself.”
“I wish you would.”
“He has given me, in some degree, the opportunity; for he has already
asked when he might have strength enough to dictate a letter, and I
have replied that I would be guided by the state in which I may find him
to-morrow for the answer. My impression is that what he calls a letter
is in reality a will. Are you aware whether he has yet made one?”
“I know nothing--absolutely nothing--of my father's affairs.”
“The next twelve hours will decide much,” said the doctor, as he moved
away, and Augustus sat pondering alone over what he had said, and trying
to work out in his mind whether his father's secrets involved anything
deeper and more serious than the complications of business and the
knotty combinations of weighty affairs.
Wearied out--for he had been up the greater part of the night--and
fatigued, he fell off at last into a heavy sleep, from which he was
awoke by Nelly, who, gently leaning on his shoulder, whispered, “Mr.
Sedley has come, Gusty; he is at supper in the oak parlor. I told him
I thought you had gone to lie down for an hour, for I knew you were
tired.”
“No, not tired, Nelly,” said he, arousing himself, half-ashamed of being
caught asleep. “I came in here to think, and I believe I dropped into a
doze. What is he like,--this Mr. Sedley? What manner of man is he?”
“He is small and gray, with a slight stoop, and a formal sort of
manner. I don't like him. I mean his manner checked and repelled me, and
I was glad to get away from him.”
“My father thinks highly of his integrity, I know.”
“Yes, I am aware of that. He is an excellent person, I believe; rather
non-attractive.”
“Well,” said he, with a half-sigh, “I'll go and see whether my
impression of him be the same as yours. Will you come in, Nelly?”
“Not unless you particularly wish it,” said she, gravely.
“No; I make no point of it, Nelly. I 'll see you again by-and-by.”
Augustus found Mr. Sedley over his wine He had despatched a hasty meal,
and was engaged looking over a mass of papers and letters with which a
black leather bag at his side seemed to be filled. After a few words
of greeting, received by the visitor with a formal politeness, Augustus
proceeded to explain how his father's state precluded all questions of
business, and that the injunctions of the doctor were positive on this
head.
“His mind is clear, however, isn't it?” asked Sedley.
“Perfectly. He has never wandered, except in the few moments after
sleep.”
“I take it I shall be permitted to see him?”
“Certainly; if the doctor makes no objection, you shall.”
“And possibly, too, I may be allowed to ask him a question or two?
Matters which I know he will be well prepared to answer me.”
“I am not so confident about that. Within the last hour Doctor Belton
has declared perfect quiet, perfect repose, to be of the utmost
importance to my father.”
“Is it not possible, Mr. Bramleigh, that I may be able to contribute to
this state by setting your father's mind at rest, with reference to what
may press very heavily on him?”
“That is more than I can answer,” said Augustus, cautiously.
“Well,” said Sedley, pushing back his chair from the table, “if I am not
permitted to see Colonel Bramleigh, I shall have made this journey for
nothing--without, sir, that you will consent to occupy your father's
position, and give your sanction to a line of action?”
“You know my father, Mr. Sedley, and I need not tell you how so
presumptuous a step on my part might be resented by him.”
“Under ordinary circumstances, I am sure he would resent such
interference: but here, in the present critical emergency, he might
feel, and not without reason, perhaps, more displeased at your want of
decision.”
“But when I tell you, Mr. Sedley, that I know nothing of business, that
I know no more of the share list than I do of Sanscrit, that I never
followed the rise and fall of the funds, and am as ignorant of what
influences the exchanges as I am of what affects the tides,--when I have
told you all this, you will, I am sure, see that any opinion of mine
must be utterly valueless.”
“I don't exactly know, Mr. Bramleigh, that I'd have selected you if I
wanted a guide to a great speculation or a large investment; but the
business which has brought me down here is not of this nature. It is,
besides, a question as to which, in the common course of events, you
might be obliged to determine what line you would adopt. After your
father, you are the head of this family, and I think it is time you
should learn that you may be called upon tomorrow, or next day, to
defend your right, not only to your property, but to your name.”
“For Heaven's sake, what do you mean?”
“Be calm, sir, and grant me a patient hearing, and you shall hear
the subject on which I have come to obtain your father's opinion; and
failing that, yours--for, as I have said, Mr. Bramleigh, a day or two
more may make the case one for your own decision. And now, without
entering into the history of the affair, I will simply say that an old
claim against your father's entailed estates has been recently revived,
and under circumstances of increased importance; that I have been, for
some time back, in negotiation to arrange this matter by a compromise,
and with every hope of success; but that the negotiations have been
unexpectedly broken off by the demands of the claimant,--demands so far
above all calculation, and, indeed, I may say above all fairness,--that
I have come over to ask whether your father will accede to them or
accept the issue of the law as to his right.”
Augustus sat like one stunned by a heavy blow, not utterly unconscious,
but so much overcome and so confused that he could not venture to utter
a word.
“I see I have shocked you by my news, Mr. Bramleigh; but these are
things not to be told by halves.”
“I know nothing of all this; I never so much as heard of it,” gasped out
Augustus. “Tell me all that you know about it.”
“That would be a somewhat long story,” said the other, smiling; “but I
can, in a short space, tell you enough to put the main facts before you,
and enable you to see that the case is, with all its difficulties of
proof, a very weighty and serious one, and not to be dismissed, as your
father once opined, as the mere menace of a needy adventurer.”
With as much brevity as the narrative permitted, Sedley told the story
of Pracontal's claim. It was, he said, an old demand revived; but under
circumstances that showed that the claimant had won over adherents to
his cause, and that some men with means to bring the case to trial had
espoused his side. Pracontal's father, added he, was easily dealt with;
he was a vulgar fellow, of dissipated habits, and wasteful ways; but
his taste for plot and intrigue--very serious conspiracies, too, at
times--had so much involved him that he was seldom able to show himself,
and could only resort to letter-writing to press his demands. In fact,
it was always his lot to be in hiding on this charge or that; and the
police of half Europe were eager in pursuit of him. With a man so
deeply compromised, almost outlawed over the whole Continent, it was not
difficult to treat, and it happened more than once that he was for years
without anything being heard of him; and, in fact, it was clear that he
only preferred his claim as a means of raising a little money, when all
other means of obtaining supplies had failed him. At last, news of his
death arrived. He died at Monte Video; and it was at first believed that
he had never married, and consequently, that his claim, if it deserved
such a name, died with him. It was only three years ago that the demand
was revived, and this man, M. Anatole Pracontal, as he called himself,
using his maternal name, appeared in the field as the rightful owner of
the Bramleigh estates.
“Now this man is a very different sort of person from his father. He
has been well educated, mixed much with the world, and has the manners
and bearing of a gentleman. I have not been able to learn much of his
career; but I know that he served as a lieutenant in a French hussar
regiment, and subsequently held some sort of employment in Egypt. He has
never stooped to employ threat or menace, but frankly appealed to the
law to establish his claim; and his solicitor, Kelson, of Furnivars Inn,
is one of the most respectable men in the profession.”
“You have seen this Monsieur Pracontal yourself?”
“Yes. By a strange accident I met him at your brother's, Captain
Bramleigh's, breakfast table. They had been fellow-travellers, without
the slightest suspicion on either side how eventful such a meeting
might be. Your brother, of course, could know nothing of Pracontal's
pretensions; but Pracontal, when he came to know with whom he had been
travelling, must have questioned himself closely as to what might have
dropped from him inadvertently.”
Augustus leaned his head on his hand in deep thought, and for several
minutes was silent. At last he said, “Give me your opinion, Mr.
Sedley,--I don't mean your opinion as a lawyer, relying on nice
technical questions or minute points of law, but simply your judgment as
a man of sound sense, and, above all, of such integrity as I know you
to possess,--and tell me what do you think of this claim? Is it,--in one
word, is it founded on right?”
“You are asking too much of me, Mr. Bramleigh. First of all, you ask
me to disassociate myself from all the habits and instincts of my daily
life, and give you an opinion on a matter of law, based on other rules
of evidence than those which alone I suffer myself to be guided by.
I only recognize one kind of right,--that which the law declares and
decrees.”
“Is there not such a thing as a moral right?”
“There may be; but we are disputatious enough in this world, with all
our artificial aids to some fixity of judgment, and for Heaven's sake
let us not soar up to the realms of morality for our decisions, or we
shall bid adieu to guidance forever.”
“I 'm not of your mind there, sir. I think it is quite possible to
conceive a case in which there could be no doubt on which side lay the
right, and not difficult to believe that there are men who would act, on
conviction, to their own certain detriment.”
“It's a very hopeful view of humanity, Mr. Bramleigh,” said the lawyer,
and he took a pinch of snuff.
“I am certain it is a just one. At least, I will go this far to sustain
my opinion. I will declare to you here, that if the time should ever
come that it may depend upon me to decide this matter, if I satisfy my
mind that M. Pracontal's claim be just and equitable,--that, in fact, he
is simply asking for his own,--I 'll not screen myself behind the law's
delays or its niceties; I 'll not make it a question of the longest
purse or the ablest advocate, but frankly admit that the property is
his, and cede it to him.”
“I have only one remark to make, Mr. Bramleigh, which is, keep this
determination strictly to yourself; and above all things, do not
acquaint Colonel Bramleigh with these opinions.”
“I suspect that my father is not a stranger to them,” said Augustus,
reddening with shame and irritation together.
“It is therefore as well, sir, that there is no question of a
compromise to lay before you. You are for strict justice and no favor.”
“I repeat, Mr. Sedley, I am for him who has the right.”
“So am I,” quickly responded Sedley; “and we alone differ about the
meaning of that word; but let me ask another question. Are you aware
that this claim extends to nearly everything you have in the world;
that the interest alone on the debt would certainly swallow up all your
funded property, and make a great inroad, besides, on your securities
and foreign bonds?”
“I can well believe it,” said the other, mournfully.
“I must say, sir,” said Sedley, as he rose and proceeded to thrust the
papers hurriedly into his bag, “that though I am highly impressed--very
highly impressed, indeed, with the noble sentiments you have delivered
on this occasion--sentiments, I am bound to admit, that a long
professional career has never made me acquainted with till this
day--yet, on the whole, Mr. Bramleigh, looking at the question with a
view to its remote consequences, and speculating on what would result if
such opinions as yours were to meet a general acceptance, I am bound,
to say I prefer the verdict of twelve men in a jury-box to the most
impartial judgment of any individual breathing; and I wish you a very
good-night.”
What Mr. Sedley muttered to himself as he ascended the stairs, in what
spirit he canvassed the character of Mr. Augustus Bramleigh, the reader
need not know; and it is fully as well that our story does not require
it should be recorded. One only remark, however, may be preserved; it
was said as he reached the door of his room, and apparently in a sort
of summing up of all that had occurred to him,--“These creatures, with
their cant about conscience, don't seem to know that this mischievous
folly would unsettle half the estates in the kingdom; and there 's not
a man in England would know what he was born to, till he had got his
father in a madhouse.”