HOW THE LETTERS WERE RECEIVED.
We must now describe the feelings of Mr. Scarborough's correspondents as
they received his letters. When Mr. Grey begun to read that which was
addressed to him he declared that on no consideration would he go down
to Tretton. But when he came to inquire within himself as to his
objection he found that it lay chiefly in his great dislike to Augustus
Scarborough. For poor Mountjoy, as he called him, he entertained a
feeling of deep pity,--and pity we know, is akin to love. And for the
squire, he in his heart felt but little of that profound dislike which
he was aware such conduct as the squire's ought to have generated. "He
is the greatest rascal that I ever knew," he said again and again, both
to Dolly and to Mr. Barry. But yet he did not regard him as an honest
man regards a rascal, and was angry with himself in consequence. He knew
that there remained with him even some spark of love for Mr.
Scarborough, which to himself was inexplicable. From the moment in which
he had first admitted the fact that Augustus Scarborough was the true
heir-at-law, he had been most determined in taking care that that
heirship should be established. It must be known to all men that
Mountjoy was not the eldest son of his father, as the law required him
to be for the inheritance of the property, and that Augustus was the
eldest son; but in arranging that these truths should be notorious it
had come to pass that he had learned to hate Augustus with an intensity
that had redounded to the advantage both of Mountjoy and their father.
It must be so. Augustus must become Augustus Scarborough, Esquire, of
Tretton,--but the worse luck for Tretton and all connected with it. And
Mr. Grey did resolve that, when that day should come, all relation
between himself and Tretton should cease.
It had never occurred to him that, by redeeming the post-obit bonds,
Mountjoy would become capable of owning and enjoying any property that
might be left to him. With Tretton, all the belongings of Tretton, in
the old-fashioned way, would, of course, go to the heir. The belongings
of Tretton, which were personal property, would, in themselves, amount
to wealth for a younger son. That which Mr. Scarborough would in this
way be able to bequeath might, probably, be worth thirty thousand
pounds. Out of the proceeds of the real property the debts had been
paid. And because Augustus had consented so to pay them he was now to be
mulcted of those loose belongings which gave its charm to Tretton!
Because Augustus had paid Mountjoy's debts Mountjoy was to be enabled to
rob Augustus! There was a wickedness in this redolent of the old squire.
But it was a wickedness in arranging which Mr. Grey hesitated to
participate. As he thought of it, however, he could not but feel what a
very clever man he had for a client.
"It will all go to the gambling-table, of course," he said that night to
Dolly.
"It is no affair of ours."
"No; but when a lawyer is consulted he has to think of the prudent or
imprudent disposition of property."
"Mr. Scarborough hasn't consulted you, papa."
"I must look at it as though he had. He tells me what he intends to do,
and I am bound to give him my advice. I cannot advise him to bestow all
these things on Augustus, whom I regard as a long way the worst of the
family."
"You need not care about that."
"And here, again," continued Mr. Grey, "comes up the question,--what is
it that duty demands? Augustus is the eldest son, and is entitled to
what the law allots him; but Mountjoy was brought up as the eldest son,
and is certainly entitled to what provision the father can make him."
"You cannot provide for such a gambler."
"I don't know that that comes within my duty. It is not my fault that
Mountjoy is a gambler, any more than that it is my fault that Augustus
is a beast. Gambler and beast, there they are. And, moreover, nothing
will turn the squire from his purpose. I am only a tool in his hands,--a
trowel for the laying of his mortar and bricks. Of course I must draw
his will, and shall do it with some pleasure, because it will dispossess
Augustus."
Then Mr. Grey went to bed, as did also Dolly; but she was not at all
surprised at being summoned to his couch after she had been an hour in
her own bed.
"I think I shall go down to Tretton," said Mr. Grey.
"You declared that you would never go there again."
"So I did; but I did not know then how much I might come to hate
Augustus Scarborough."
"Would you go to Tretton merely to injure him?" said his daughter.
"I have been thinking about that," said Mr. Grey. "I don't know that I
would go simply to do him an injury; but I think that I would go to see
that justice is properly done."
"That can be arranged without your going to Tretton."
"By putting our heads together I think we can contrive that the deed
shall be more effectually performed. What we must attempt to do is to
save this property from going to the gambling-table. There is only one
way that occurs to me."
"What is that?"
"It must be left to his wife."
"He hasn't a wife."
"It must be left to some woman whom he will consent to marry. There are
three objects:--to keep it from Augustus; to give the enjoyment of it to
Mountjoy; and to prevent Mountjoy from gambling with it. The only thing
I can see is a wife."
"There is a girl he wants to marry," said Dolly.
"But she doesn't want to marry him, and I doubt whether he can be got to
marry any one else. There is still a peck of difficulties."
"Oh, papa, I wish you would wash your hands of the Scarboroughs."
"I must go to Tretton first," said he. "And now, my dear, you are doing
no good by sitting up here and talking to me." Then, with a smile, Dolly
took herself off to her own chamber.
Mountjoy, when he got his letter, was sitting over a late breakfast in
Victoria Street. It was near twelve o'clock, and he was enjoying the
delicious luxury of having his breakfast to eat, with a cigar after it,
and nothing else that he need do. But the fruition of all these comforts
was somewhat marred by the knowledge that he had no such dinner to
expect. He must go out and look for a dinner among the eating-houses.
The next morning would bring him no breakfast, and if he were to remain
longer in Victoria Street he must do so in direct opposition to the
owner of the establishment. He had that morning received notice to quit,
and had been told that the following breakfast would be the last meal
served to him. "Let it be good of its kind," Mountjoy had said.
"I believe you care for nothing but eating and drinking."
"There's little else that you can do for me." And so they had parted.
Mountjoy had taken the precaution of having his letters addressed to the
house of the friendly bootmaker; and now, as he was slowly pouring out
his first cup of coffee, and thinking how nearly it must be his last,
his father's letter was brought to him. The letter had been delayed one
day, as he himself had omitted to call for it. It was necessarily a sad
time for him. He was a man who fought hard against melancholy, taking it
as a primary rule of life that, for such a one as he had become, the
pleasures of the immediate moment should suffice. If one day, or better
still, one night of excitement was in store for him, the next day should
be regarded as the unlimited future, for which no man can be
responsible. But such philosophy will too frequently be insufficient for
the stoutest hearts. Mountjoy's heart would occasionally almost give
way, and then his thoughts would be dreary enough. Hunger, absolute
hunger, without the assured expectation of food, had never yet come upon
him; but in order to put a stop to its cravings, if he should find it
troublesome to bear, he had already provided himself with pistol and
bullets.
And now, with his cup of coffee before him, aromatic, creamy, and hot,
with a filleted sole rolled up before him on a little dish, three or
four plover's eggs, on which to finish, lying by, and, on the distance
of the table, a chasse of brandy, of which he already well knew the
virtues, he got his father's letter. He did not at first open it,
disliking all thoughts as to his father. Then gradually he tore the
envelope, and was slow in understanding the full meaning of the last
lines. He did not at once perceive the irony of "his brother's kindly
interference," and of the "generosity" which had enabled him, Mountjoy,
to be a recipient of property. But his father purposed to do something
for his benefit. Gradually it dawned upon him that his father could only
do that something effectually because of his brother's dealings with the
creditors.
Then the chairs and the tables, and the gem or two, and the odd
volumes, one by one, made themselves intelligible. That a father should
write so to one son, and should so write of another, was marvellous. But
then his father was a marvellous man, whose character he was only
beginning to understand. His father, he told himself, had, fortunately,
taken it into his head to hate Augustus, and intended, in consequence,
to strip Tretton and the property generally of all their outside
personal belongings.
Yes; he thought that, with such an object before him, he would certainly
go and see Mr. Grey. And if Mr. Grey should so advise him he would go
down to Tretton. On such business as this he would consent to see his
father. He did not think that just at present he need have recourse to
his pistol for his devices. He could not on the very day go to Tretton,
as it would be necessary that he should write to his father first. His
brother would probably extend his hospitality for a couple of days when
he should hear of the proposed journey, and, if not, would lend him
money for his present purposes, or under existing circumstances he might
probably be able to borrow it from Mr. Grey. With a heart elevated to
almost absolute bliss he ate his breakfast, and drank his chasse, and
smoked his cigar, and then rose slowly, that he might proceed to Mr.
Grey's chambers. But at this moment Augustus came in. He had only
breakfasted at his own club, much less comfortably than he would have
done at home, in order that he might not sit at table with his brother.
He had now returned so that he might see to Mountjoy's departure. "After
all, Augustus, I am going down to Tretton," said the elder brother as he
folded up his father's letter.
"What argument has the old man used now?" Mountjoy did not think it well
to tell his brother the exact nature of the arguments used, and
therefore put the letter into his pocket.
"He wishes to say something to me about property," said Mountjoy.
Then some idea of the old squire's scheme fell with a crushing weight of
anticipated sorrow on Augustus. In a moment it all occurred to him what
his father might do, what injuries he might inflict; and,--saddest of all
feelings,--there came the immediate reflection that it had all been
rendered possible by his own doings. With the conviction that so much
might be left away from him, there came also a farther feeling that,
after all, there was a chance that his father had invented the story of
his brother's illegitimacy, that Mountjoy was now free from debt, and
that Tretton, with all its belongings, might now go back to him. That
his father would do it if it were possible he did not doubt. From week
to week he had waited impatiently for his father's demise, and had
expected little or none of that mental activity which his father had
exercised. "What a fool he had been," he said to himself, sitting
opposite to Mountjoy, who in the vacancy of the moment had lighted
another cigar; "what an ass!" Had he played his cards better, had he
comforted and flattered and cosseted the old man, Mountjoy might have
gone his own way to the dogs. Now, at the best, Tretton would come to
him stripped of everything; and,--at the worst,--no Tretton would come to
him at all. "Well, what are you going to do?" he said, roughly.
"I think I shall, probably, go down and just see the governor."
"All your feelings about your mother, then, are blown to the winds?"
"My feelings about your mother are not blown to the winds at all; but to
speak of her to you would be wasting breath."
"I hadn't the pleasure of knowing her," said Augustus. "And I am not
aware that she did me any great kindness in bringing me into the world.
Do you go to Tretton this afternoon?"
"Probably not."
"Or to-morrow?"
"Possibly to-morrow," said Mountjoy.
"Because I shall find it convenient to have your room."
"To-day, of course, I cannot stir. To-morrow morning I should, at any
rate, like to have my breakfast." Here he paused for a reply, but none
came from his brother. "I must have some money to go down to Tretton
with; I suppose you can lend it me just for the present?"
"Not a shilling," said Augustus, in thorough ill-humor.
"I shall be able to pay you very shortly."
"Not a shilling. The return I have had from you for all that I have done
is not of a nature to make me do more."
"If I had ever thought that you had expended a sovereign except for the
object of furthering some plot of your own, I should have been grateful.
As it is I do not know that we owe very much to each other." Then he
left the room, and, getting into a cab, went away to Lincoln's Inn.
Harry Annesley received Mr. Scarborough's letter down at Buston, and was
much surprised by it. He had not spent the winter hitherto very
pleasantly. His uncle he had never seen, though he had heard from day
to day sundry stories of his wooing. He had soon given up his hunting,
feeling himself ashamed, in his present nameless position, to ride
Joshua Thoroughbung's horses. He had taken to hard reading, but the hard
reading had failed, and he had been given up to the miseries of his
position. The hard reading had been continued for a fortnight or three
weeks, during which he had, at any rate, respected himself, but in an
evil hour he had allowed it to escape from him, and now was again
miserable. Then the invitation from Tretton had been received. "I have
got a letter; 'tis from Mr. Scarborough of Tretton."
"What does Mr. Scarborough say?"
"He wants me to go down there."
"Do you know Mr. Scarborough? I believe you have altogether quarrelled
with his son?"
"Oh yes; I have quarrelled with Augustus, and have had an encounter with
Mountjoy not on the most friendly terms. But the father and Mountjoy
seem to be reconciled. You can see his letter. I, at any rate, shall go
there." To this Mr. Annesley senior had no objection to make.