THE LAST OF AUGUSTUS SCARBOROUGH.
When old Mr. Scarborough was dead, and had been for a while buried,
Augustus made his application in form to Messrs. Grey & Barry. He made
it through his own attorney, and had now received Mr. Barry's answer
through the same attorney. The nature of the application had been in
this wise: that Mr. Augustus Scarborough had been put in to the position
of the eldest son; that he did not himself in the least doubt that such
was his true position; that close inquiry had been made at the time, and
that the lawyers, including Mr. Grey and Mr. Barry had assented to the
statements as then made by old Mr. Scarborough; that he himself had then
gone to work to pay his brother's debts, for the honor of the family,
and had paid them partly out of his own immediate pocket, and partly out
of the estate, which was the same as his own property; that during his
brother's "abeyance" he had assisted in his maintenance, and, on his
brother's return, had taken him to his own home; that then his father
had died, and that this incredible new story had been told. Mr. Augustus
Scarborough was in no way desirous of animadverting on his father's
memory, but was forced to repeat his belief that he was his father's
eldest son, and was, in fact, at that moment the legitimate owner of
Tretton, in accordance with the existing contract. He did not wish to
dispute his father's will, though his father's mental and bodily
condition at the time of the making of the will might, perhaps, enable
him to do so with success. The will might be allowed to pass valid, but
the rights of primogeniture must be held sacred.
Nevertheless, having his mother's memory in great honor, he felt himself
ill inclined to drag the family history before the public. For his
mother's sake he was open to a compromise. He would advise that the
whole property,--that which would pass under the entail, and that which
was intended to be left by will,--should be valued, and that the total
should then be divided between them. If his brother chose to take the
family mansion, it should be so. Augustus Scarborough had no desire to
set himself over his brother. But if this offer were not accepted, he
must at once go to law, and prove that their Nice marriage had been, in
fact, the one marriage by which his father and mother had been joined
together. There was another proviso added to this offer: as the
valuation and division of the property must take time, an income at the
rate of two hundred pounds a month should be allowed to Augustus till
such time as it should be completed. Such was the offer which Augustus
had authorized his attorney to make.
There was some delay in getting Mountjoy to consent to a reply. Before
the offer had reached Mr. Barry he was already at Monte Carlo, with that
ready money his father had left behind him. At every venture that he
made,--at least at every loss which he incurred,--he told himself that it
was altogether the doings of Florence Mountjoy. But he returned to
England, and consented to a reply. He was the eldest son, and meant to
support that position, both on his mother's behalf and on his own. As to
his father's will, made in his favor, he felt sure that his brother
would not have the hardihood to dispute it. A man's bodily sufferings
were no impediment to his making a will; of mental incapacity he had
never heard his father accused till the accusation had now been made by
his own son. He was, however, well aware that it would not be preferred.
As to what his brother had done for himself, it was hardly worth his
while to answer such an allegation. His memory carried him but little
farther back than the day on which his brother turned him out of his
rooms.
There were, however, many reasons,--and this was put in at the suggestion
of Mr. Barry,--why he would not wish that his brother should be left
penniless. If his brother would be willing to withdraw altogether from
any lawsuit, and would lend his co-operation to a speedy arrangement of
the family matters, a thousand a year,--or twenty-five thousand
pounds,--should be made over to him as a younger brother's portion. To
this offer it would be necessary that a speedy reply should be given,
and, under such circumstances, no temporary income need be supplied.
It was early in June when Augustus was sitting in his luxurious lodgings
in Victoria Street, contemplating this reply. His own lawyer had advised
him to accept the offer, but he had declared to himself a dozen times
since his father's death that, in this matter of the property, he would
"either make a spoon or spoil a horn." And the lawyer was no friend of
his own,--was not a man who knew nothing of the facts of the case beyond
what were told him, and nothing of the working of his client's mind.
Augustus had looked to him only for the law in the matter, and the
lawyer had declared the law to be against his client. "All that your
father said about the Nice marriage will go for nothing. It will be
shown that he had an object."
"But there certainly was such a marriage."
"No doubt there was some ceremony--performed with an object. A second
marriage cannot invalidate the first, though it may itself be altogether
invalidated. The Rummelsburg marriage is, and will be, an established
fact, and of the Rummelsburg marriage your brother was no doubt the
issue. Accept the offer of an income. Of course we can come to terms as
to the amount; and from your brother's character it is probable enough
that he may increase it." Such had been his lawyer's advice, and
Augustus was sitting there in his lodging thinking of it.
He was not a happy man as he sat there. In the first place he owed
a little money, and the debt had come upon him chiefly from his lavish
expenditure in maintaining Mountjoy and Mountjoy's servant upon their
travels. At that time he had thought that by lavish expenditure he might
make Tretton certainly his own. He had not known his brother's
character, and had thought that by such means he could keep him down,
with his head well under water. His brother might drink,--take to
drinking regularly at Monte Carlo or some other place,--and might so die.
Or he would surely gamble himself into farther and utter ruin. At any
rate he would be well out of the way, and Augustus in his pride had been
glad to feel that he had his brother well under his thumb. Then the debt
had been paid with the object of saving the estate from litigation on
the part of the creditors. That had been his one great mistake. And he
had not known his father, or his father's guile, or his father's
strength. Why had not his father died at once?--as all the world had
assured him would be the case. Looking back he could remember that the
idea of paying the creditors had at first come from his father, simply
as a vague idea! Oh, what a crafty rascal his father had been! And then
he had allowed himself, in his pride, to insult his father, and had
spoken of his father's coming death as a thing that was desirable! From
that moment his father had plotted his ruin. He could see it all now.
He was still minded to make the spoon; but he found that he should spoil
the horn. Had there been any one to assist him he would still have
persevered. He thought that he could have persevered with a lawyer who
would really have taken up his case with interest. If Mountjoy could be
made to drink--so as to die! He was still next in the entail; and he was
his brother's heir should his brother die without a will. But so he
would be if he took the twenty-five thousand pounds. But to accept so
poor a modicum would go frightfully against the grain with him. He
seemed to think that by taking the allowance he would bring back his
brother to all the long-lived decencies of life. He would have to
surrender altogether that feeling of conscious superiority which had
been so much to him. "D----n the fellow!" he exclaimed to himself. "I
should not wonder if he were in that fellow's pay." The first "fellow"
here was the lawyer, and the second was his brother.
When he had sat there alone for half an hour he could not make up his
mind. When all his debts were paid he would not have much above
twenty-five thousand pounds. His father had absolutely extracted five
thousand pounds from him toward paying his brother's debts! The money
had been wanted immediately. Together with the sum coming from the new
purchasers, father and son must each subscribe five thousand pounds to
pay those Jews. So it had been represented to him, and he had borrowed
the money to carry out his object. Had ever any one been so swindled, so
cruelly treated! This might probably be explained, and the five thousand
pounds might be added to the twenty-five thousand pounds. But the
explanation would be necessary, and all his pride would rebel against
it. On that night when by chance he had come across his brother,
bleeding and still half drunk, as he was about to enter his lodging, how
completely under his thumb he had been! And now he was offering him of
his bounty this wretched pittance! Then with half-muttered curses he
execrated the names of his father, his brother, of Grey, and of Barry,
and of his own lawyer.
At that moment the door was opened and his bosom friend, Septimus Jones,
entered the room. At any rate this friend was the nearest he had to his
bosom. He was a man without friends in the true sense. There was no one
who knew the innermost wishes of his heart, the secret desires of his
soul. There are thus so many who can divulge to none those secret
wishes! And how can such a one have a friend who can advise him as to
what he shall do? Scarcely can the honest man have such a friend,
because it is so difficult for him to find a man who will believe in
him. Augustus had no desire for such a friend, but he did desire some
one who would do his bidding as though he were such a friend. He wanted
a friend who would listen to his words, and act as though they were the
truth. Mr. Septimus Jones was the man he had chosen, but he did not in
the least believe in Mr. Septimus Jones himself. "What does that man
say?" asked Septimus Jones. The man was the lawyer of whom Augustus was
now thinking, at this very moment, all manner of evil.
"D----n him!" said Augustus.
"With all my heart. But what does he say? As you are to pay him for what
he says, it is worth while listening to it."
There was a tone in the voice of Septimus Jones which declared at once
some diminution of his usual respect. So it sounded, at least, to
Augustus. He was no longer the assured heir of Tretton, and in this way
he was to be told of the failure of his golden hopes. It would be odd,
he thought, if he could not still hold his dominion over Septimus Jones.
"I am not at all sure that I shall listen to him or to you either."
"As for that, you can do as you like."
"Of course I can do as I like." Then he remembered that he must still
use the man as a messenger, if in no other capacity. "Of course he wants
to compromise it. A lawyer always proposes a compromise. He cannot be
beat that way, and it is safe for him."
"You had agreed to that."
"But what are the terms to be?--that is the question. I made my
offer:--half and half. Nothing fairer can be imagined,--unless, indeed, I
choose to stand out for the whole property."
"But what does your brother say?"
He could not use his friend even as a messenger without telling him
something of the truth. "When I think of it, of this injustice, I can
hardly hold myself. He proposes to give me twenty-five thousand pounds."
"Twenty-five thousand pounds!--for everything?"
"Everything; yes. What the devil do you suppose I mean? Now just listen
to me." Then he told his tale as he thought that it ought to be told. He
recapitulated all the money he had spent on his brother's behalf, and
all that he chose to say that he had spent. He painted in glowing colors
the position in which he would have been put by the Nice marriage. He
was both angry and pathetic about the creditors. And he tore his hair
almost with vexation at the treatment to which he was subjected.
"I think I'd take the twenty-five thousand pounds," said Jones.
"Never! I'd rather starve first!"
"That's about what you'll have to do if all that you tell me is true."
There was again that tone of disappearing subjection. "I'll be shot if I
wouldn't take the money." Then there was a pause. "Couldn't you do that
and go to law with him afterward? That was what your father would have
done." Yes; but Augustus had to acknowledge that he was not as clever as
his father.
At last he gave Jones a commission. Jones was to see his brother and to
explain to him that, before any question could be raised as to the
amount to be paid under the compromise, a sum of ten thousand pounds
must be handed to Augustus to reimburse him for money out of pocket.
Then Jones was to say, as out of his own head, that he thought that
Augustus might probably accept fifty thousand pounds in lieu of
twenty-five thousand pounds. That would still leave the bulk of the
property to Mountjoy, although Mountjoy must be aware of the great
difficulties which would be thrown in his way by his father's conduct.
But Jones had to come back the next day with an intimation that Mountjoy
had again gone abroad, leaving full authority with Mr. Barry.
Jones was sent to Mr. Barry, but without effect. Mr. Barry would discuss
the matter with the lawyer, or, if Augustus was so pleased, with
himself; but he was sure that no good would be done by any conversation
with Mr. Jones. A month went on--two months went by--and nothing came of
it. "It is no use your coming here, Mr. Scarborough," at last Mr. Barry
said to him with but scant courtesy. "We are perfectly sure of our
ground. There is not a penny due you;--not a penny. If you will sign
certain documents, which I would advise you to do in the presence of
your own lawyer, there will be twenty-five thousand pounds for you. You
must excuse me if I say that I cannot see you again on the
subject,--unless you accept your brother's liberality."
At this time, Augustus was very short of money and, as is always the
case, those to whom he owed aught became pressing as his readiness to
pay them gradually receded. But to be so spoken to by a lawyer,--he,
Scarborough of Tretton, as he had all but been,--to be so addressed by a
man whom he had regarded as old Grey's clerk, was bitter indeed. He had
been so exalted by that Nice marriage, had been so lifted high in the
world, that he was now absolutely prostrate. He quarrelled with his
lawyer, and he quarrelled also with Septimus Jones. There was no one
with whom he could discuss the matter, or rather no one who would
discuss it with him on his terms. So at last he accepted the money, and
went daily into the City in order that he might turn it into more. What
became of him in the City it is hardly the province of this chronicle to
tell.