With the true genius of a political castle-builder, Mr. Falconer began
to add story after story to the edifice, of which he had thus promptly
and successfully laid the foundation. Having by a lucky hit provided for
one of his sons, that is to say, put him in a fair way of being provided
for, the industrious father began to form plans for the advancement of
his two other sons, Buckhurst and John: Buckhurst was destined by
his father for the church; John for the army. The commissioner,
notwithstanding he had been closeted for some hours with Lord
Oldborough, and notwithstanding his son Cunningham was to be one of his
lordship’s secretaries, was well aware that little or no progress had
been made in Lord Oldborough’s real favour or confidence. Mr. Falconer
knew that he had been literally _paid by the job_, that he was
considered and treated accordingly; yet, upon the whole, he was well
pleased that it should be so, for he foresaw the possibility of his
doing for his lordship many more jobs, public and private. He lost no
time in preparing for the continuity of his secret services, and in
creating a political necessity for his being employed in future, in a
manner that might ensure the advancement of the rest of his family.
In the first place, he knew that Lord Oldborough was desirous, for
the enlargement of the grounds at Clermont-park, to purchase certain
adjoining lands, which, from some ancient pique, the owner was unwilling
to sell. The proprietor was a tenant of Mr. Falconer’s: he undertook to
negotiate the business, and to use his influence to bring his tenant
to reason. This offer, made through Cunningham, was accepted by Lord
Oldborough, and the negotiation led to fresh communications.--There was
soon to be a county meeting, and an address was to be procured in
favour of certain measures of government, which it was expected would be
violently opposed. In the commissioner’s letters to his son, the private
secretary, he could say and suggest whatever he pleased; he pointed out
the gentlemen of the county who ought to be conciliated, and he offered
his services to represent things properly to some with whom he was
intimate. The sheriff and the under-sheriff also should know, without
being informed directly from ministry, what course in conducting the
meeting would be agreeable in a certain quarter--who so proper to say
and do all that might be expedient as Mr. Falconer, who was on the spot,
and well acquainted with the county?--The commissioner was informed
by the private secretary, that his services would be acceptable. There
happened also, at this time, to be some disputes and grievances in that
part of the country about tax-gatherers. Mr. Falconer hinted, that he
could soften and accommodate matters, if he were empowered to do so--and
he was so empowered. Besides all this, there was a borough in that
county, in which the interest of government had been declining; attempts
were made to _open the borough_--Mr. Falconer could be of use in
_keeping it close_--and he was commissioned to do every thing in his
power in the business. In a short time Mr. Falconer was acting on all
these points as an agent and partizan of Lord Oldborough’s. But there
was one thing which made him uneasy; he was acting here, as in many
former instances, merely upon vague hopes of future reward.
Whilst his mind was full of these thoughts, a new prospect of advantage
opened to him in another direction. Colonel Hauton, Lord Oldborough’s
nephew, stayed, during his uncle’s absence, at Clermont-park, to be
in readiness for the races, which, this year, were expected to be
uncommonly fine. Buckhurst Falconer had been at school and at the
university with the colonel, and had frequently helped him in his Latin
exercises. The colonel having been always deficient in scholarship, he
had early contracted an aversion to literature, which at last amounted
to an antipathy even to the very sight of books, in consequence,
perhaps, of his uncle’s ardent and precipitate desire to make him apply
to them whilst his head was full of tops and balls, kites and ponies.
Be this as it may, Commissioner Falconer thought his son Buckhurst might
benefit by his school friendship, and might now renew and improve
the connexion. Accordingly, Buckhurst waited upon the colonel,--was
immediately recognized, and received with promising demonstrations of
joy.
It would be difficult, indeed impossible, to describe Colonel Hauton, so
as to distinguish him from a thousand other young men of the same class,
except, perhaps, that he might be characterized by having more exclusive
and inveterate selfishness. Yet this was so far from appearing or being
suspected on a first acquaintance, that he was generally thought a
sociable, good-natured fellow. It was his absolute dependence upon
others for daily amusement and ideas, or, rather, for knowing what to do
with himself, that gave him this semblance of being sociable; the total
want of proper pride and dignity in his whole deportment, a certain
_slang_ and familiarity of tone, gave superficial observers the notion
that he was good-natured. It was Colonel Hauton’s great ambition to
look like his own coachman; he succeeded only so far as to look like his
groom: but though he kept company with jockeys and coachmen, grooms and
stable-boys, yet not the stiffest, haughtiest, flat-backed Don of Spain,
in Spain’s proudest days, could be more completely aristocratic in his
principles, or more despotic in his habits. This could not break out to
his equals, and his equals cared little how he treated his inferiors.
His present pleasure, or rather his present business, for no man
made more a business of pleasure than Colonel Hauton, was _the turf_.
Buckhurst Falconer could not here assist him as much as in making Latin
verses--but he could admire and sympathize; and the colonel, proud of
being now the superior, proud of his _knowing style_ and his _capital_
stud, enjoyed Buckhurst’s company particularly, pressed him to stay
at Clermont-park, and to accompany him to the races. There was to be a
_famous_ match between Colonel Hauton’s High-Blood and Squire Burton’s
Wildfire; and the preparations of the horses and of their riders
occupied the intervening days. With all imaginable care, anxiety, and
solemnity, these important preparations were conducted. At stated hours,
Colonel Hauton, and with him Buckhurst, went to see High-Blood rubbed
down, and fed, and watered, and exercised, and minuted, and rubbed
down, and littered. Next to the horse, the rider, Jack Giles, was to
be attended to with the greatest solicitude; he was to be weighed--and
starved--and watched--and drammed--and _sweated_--and weighed again--and
so on in daily succession; and harder still, through this whole course
he was to be kept in humour: “None that ever sarved man or beast,” as
the stable-boy declared, “ever worked harder for their bread than his
master and master’s companion did this week for their pleasure.” At last
the great, the important day arrived, and Jack Giles was weighed for
the last time in public, and so was Tom Hand, Squire Burton’s rider--and
High-Blood and Wildfire were brought out; and the spectators assembled
in the stand, and about the scales, were all impatience, especially
those who had betted on either of the horses. And, Now, Hauton!--Now,
Burton!--Now, High-Blood!--Now, Wildfire!--Now, Jack Giles!--and Now,
Tom Hand! resounded on all sides. The gentlemen on the race-ground were
all on tiptoe in their stirrups. The ladies in the stand stretched their
necks of snow, and nobody looked at them.--Two men were run over, and
nobody took them up.--Two ladies fainted, and two gentlemen betted
across them. This was no time for nice observances--Jack Giles’s spirit
began to flag--and Tom Hand’s judgment _to tell_--High-Blood, on the
full stretch, was within view of the winning-post, when Wildfire, quite
in wind, was put to his speed by the judicious Tom Hand--he sprang
forward, came up with High-Blood--passed him--Jack Giles strove in vain
to regain his ground--High-Blood was blown, beyond the power of whip or
spur--Wildfire reached the post, and Squire Burton won the match hollow.
His friends congratulated him and themselves loudly, and extolled Tom
Hand and Wildfire to the skies. In the moment of disappointment, Colonel
Hauton, out of humour, said something that implied a suspicion of
unfairness on the part of Burton or Tom Hand, which the honest squire
could not brook either for self or rider. He swore that his Tom Hand was
as honest a fellow as any in England, and he would back him for such.
The colonel, depending on his own and his uncle’s importance, on
his party and his flatterers, treated the squire with some of the
haughtiness of rank, which the squire retorted with some rustic English
humour. The colonel, who had not wit at will to put down his antagonist,
became still more provoked to see that such a low-born fellow as the
squire should and could laugh and make others laugh. For the lack of wit
the colonel had recourse to insolence, and went on from one impertinence
to another, till the squire, enraged, declared that he would not be
browbeat by any lord’s nephew or jackanapes colonel that ever wore a
head; and as he spoke, tremendous in his ire, Squire Burton brandished
high the British horsewhip. At this critical moment, as it has been
asserted by some of the bystanders, the colonel _quailed_ and backed a
few paces; but others pretend that Buckhurst Falconer pushed before him.
It is certain that Buckhurst stopped the blow--wrested the horsewhip
from the squire--was challenged by him on the spot--accepted the
challenge--fought the squire--_winged_ him--appeared on the race ground
afterwards, and was admired by the ladies in public, and by his father
in private, who looked upon the duel and horsewhipping, from which he
thus saved his patron’s nephew, as the most fortunate circumstance that
could have happened to his son upon his entrance into life.
“Such an advantage as this gives us such a claim upon the colonel--and,
indeed, upon the whole family. Lord Oldborough, having no children of
his own, looks to the nephew as his heir; and though he may be vexed now
and then by the colonel’s extravagance, and angry that he could not give
this nephew more of a political turn, yet such as he is, depend upon it
he can do what he pleases with Lord Oldborough. Whoever has the nephew’s
ear, has the uncle’s heart; or I should say, whoever has the nephew’s
heart, has the uncle’s ear.”
“Mayn’t we as well put hearts out of the question on all sides, sir?”
said Buckhurst.
“With all my heart,” said his father, laughing, “provided we don’t put a
good living out of the question on our side.”
Buckhurst looked averse, and said he did not know there was any such
thing in question.
“No!” said his father: “was it then from the pure and abstract love
of being horsewhipped, or shot at, that you took this quarrel off his
hands?”
“Faith! I did it from spirit, pure spirit,” said Buckhurst: “I could not
stand by, and see one who had been my schoolfellow horsewhipped--if he
did not stand by himself, _yet_ I could not but stand by _him_, for
you know I was there as one of his party--and as I backed his bets on
High-Blood, I could do no less than back his cause altogether.--Oh! I
could not stand by and see _a chum_ of my own horsewhipped.”
“Well, that was all very spirited and generous; but now, as you are
something too old for mere schoolboy notions,” said the commissioner,
“let us look a little farther, and see what we can make of it. It’s only
a silly boyish thing as you consider it; but I hope we can turn it to
good account.”
“I never thought of turning it to account, sir.”
“Think of it now,” said the father, a little provoked by the careless
disinterestedness of the son. “In plain English, here is a colonel in
his majesty’s service saved from a horsewhipping--a whole noble family
saved from disgrace: these are things not to be forgotten; that is, not
to be forgotten, if you force people to remember them: otherwise--my
word for it--I know the great--the whole would be forgotten in a week.
Therefore, leave me to follow the thing up properly with the uncle,
and do you never let it sleep with the nephew: sometimes a bold stroke,
sometimes a delicate touch, just as the occasion serves, or as may suit
the company present--all that I trust to your own address and judgment.”
“Trust nothing, sir, to my address or judgment; for in these things
I have neither. I always act just from impulse and feeling, right
or wrong--I have no talents for _finesse_--leave them all to
Cunningham--that’s his trade, and he likes it, luckily: and you should
be content with having one such genius in your family--no family could
bear two.”
“Come, come, pray be serious, Buckhurst. If you have not or will not use
any common sense and address to advance yourself, leave that to me. You
see how I have pushed up Cunningham already, and all I ask of you is to
be quiet, and let me push you up.”
“Oh! dear sir, I am very much obliged to you: if that is all, I will be
quite quiet--so that I am not to do any thing shabby or dirty for it.
I should be vastly glad to get a good place, and be provided for
handsomely.”
“No doubt; and let me tell you that many I could name have, with
inferior claims, and without any natural connexion or relationship, from
the mere favour of proper friends, obtained church benefices of much
greater value than the living we have in our eye: you know--”
“I do not know, indeed,” said Buckhurst; “I protest I have no living in
my eye.”
“What! not know that the living of Chipping-Friars is in the gift of
Colonel Hauton--and the present incumbent has had one paralytic stroke
already. There’s a prospect for you, Buckhurst!”
“To be frank with you, sir, I have no taste for the church.”
“No taste for nine hundred a year, Buckhurst? No desire for fortune, Mr.
Philosopher?”
“Pardon me, a very strong taste for that, sir--not a bit of a
philosopher--as much in love with fortune as any man, young or old: is
there no way to fortune but through the church?”
“None for you so sure and so easy, all circumstances considered,” said
his father. “I have planned and settled it, and you have nothing to do
but to get yourself ordained as soon as possible. I shall write to my
friend the bishop for that purpose this very night.”
“Let me beg; father, that you will not be so precipitate. Upon my word,
sir, I cannot go into orders. I am not--in short, I am not fit for the
church.”
The father stared with an expression between anger and astonishment.
“Have not you gone through the university?”
“Yes, sir:--but--but I am scarcely sober, and _staid_, and moral enough
for the church. Such a wild fellow as I am, I really could not in
conscience--I would not upon any account, for any living upon earth, or
any emolument, go into the church, unless I thought I should do credit
to it.”
“And why should not you do credit to the church? I don’t see that you
are wilder than your neighbours, and need not be more scrupulous. There
is G----, who at your age was wild enough, but he took up in time,
and is now a plump dean. Then there is the bishop that is just made:
I remember him such a youth as you are. Come, come, these are idle
scruples. Let me hear no more, my dear Buckhurst, of your conscience.”
“Dear sir, I never pleaded my conscience on any occasion before--you
know that I am no puritan--but really on this point I have some
conscience, and I beg you not to press me farther. You have other sons;
and if you cannot spare Cunningham, that treasure of diplomacy!--there’s
John; surely you might contrive to spare him for the church.”
“Spare him I would, and welcome. But you know I could never get John
into orders.”
“Why not, sir? John, I’ll swear, would have no objection to the church,
provided you could get him a good fat living.”
“But I am not talking of _his_ objections. To be sure he would make no
objection to a good fat living, nor would any body in his senses, except
yourself. But I ask you how I could possibly get your brother John into
the church? John’s a dunce,--and you know it.”
“Nobody better, sir: but are there no dunces in the church?--And as
you are so good as to think that I’m no wilder than my neighbours, you
surely will not say that my brother is more a dunce than his neighbours.
Put him into the hands of a clever grinder or crammer, and they would
soon cram the necessary portion of Latin and Greek into him, and they
would get him through the university for us readily enough; and a degree
once obtained, he might snap his fingers at Latin and Greek all the rest
of his life. Once in orders, and he might sit down upon his fat living,
or lie down content, all his days, only taking care to have some poor
devil of a curate up and about, doing duty for him.”
“So I find you have no great scruples for your brother, whatever you may
have for yourself?”
“Sir, I am not the keeper of my brother’s conscience--Indeed, if I were,
you might congratulate me in the words of Sir B. R. upon the possession
of a sinecure place.”
“It is a pity, Buckhurst, that you cannot use your wit for yourself as
well as for other people. Ah! Buckhurst! Buckhurst! you will, I fear,
do worse in the world than any of your brothers; for wits are always
_unlucky_: sharp-sighted enough to every thing else, but blind, stone
blind to their own interest. Wit is folly, when one is talking of
serious business.”
“Well, my dear father, be _agreeable_, and I will not be witty.--In
fact, in downright earnest, the sum total of the business is, that I
have a great desire to go into the army, and I entreat you to procure me
a commission.”
“Then the sum total of the business is, that I will not; for I cannot
afford to purchase you a commission, and to maintain you in the army--”
“But by using interest, perhaps, sir,” said Buckhurst.
“My interest must be all for your brother John; for I tell you I can do
nothing else for him but put him into the army.--He’s a dunce.--I must
get him a commission, and then I have done with him.”
“I wish I were a dunce,” said Buckhurst, sighing; “for then I might go
into the army--instead of being forced into the church.”
“There’s no force upon your inclinations, Buckhurst,” said his father
in a soft tone; “I only show you that it is impossible I should maintain
you in the army, and, therefore, beg you to put the army out of
your head. And I don’t well see what else you could do. You have
not application enough for the bar, nor have I any friends among the
attorneys except Sharpe, who, between you and me, might take your
dinners, and leave you without a brief afterwards. You have talents, I
grant,” continued the commissioner, “and if you had but application, and
if your uncle the judge had not died last year--”
“Oh, sir, he is dead, and we can’t help it,” interrupted Buckhurst. “And
as for me, I never had, and never shall have, any application: so pray
put the bar out of your mind.”
“Very cavalier, indeed!--but I will make you serious at once, Buckhurst.
You have nothing to expect from my death--I have not a farthing to leave
you--my place, you know, is only for life--your mother’s fortune is all
in annuity, and two girls to be provided for--and to live as we must
live--up to and beyond my income--shall have nothing to leave. Though
you are my eldest son, you see it is in vain to look to my death--so
into the church you must go, or be a beggar--and get a living or starve.
Now I have done,” concluded the commissioner, quitting his son; “and I
leave you to think of what has been said.”
Buckhurst thought and thought; but still his interest and his conscience
were at variance, and he could not bring himself either to be virtuous
or vicious enough to comply with his father’s wishes. He could not
decide to go into the church merely from interested motives--from that
his conscience revolted; he could not determine to make himself fit to
do credit to the sacred profession--against this his habits and his love
of pleasure revolted. He went to his brother John, to try what could be
done with him. Latin and Greek were insuperable objections with John;
besides, though he had a dull imagination in general, John’s fancy
had been smitten with one bright idea of an epaulette, from which
no considerations, fraternal, political, moral, or religious, could
distract his attention.--His genius, he said, was for the army, and
into the army he would go.--So to his genius, Buckhurst, in despair, was
obliged to leave him.--The commissioner neglected not to push the claim
which he had on Colonel Hauton, and he chose his time so well, when
proper people were by, and when the colonel did not wish to have the
squire, and the horse-whip, and the duel, brought before the public,
that he obtained, if not a full acknowledgment of obligation, a
promise of doing any thing and every thing in his power for his friend
Buckhurst. Any thing and every thing were indefinite, unsatisfactory
terms; and the commissioner, bold in dealing with the timid temper of
the colonel, though he had been cautious with the determined
character of the uncle, pressed his point--named the living of
Chipping-Friars--showed how well he would be satisfied, and how well he
could represent matters, if the promise were given; and at the same time
made it understood how loudly he could complain, and how disgraceful his
complaints might prove to the Oldborough family, if his son were treated
with ingratitude. The colonel particularly dreaded that he should
be suspected of want of spirit, and that his uncle should have the
transaction laid before him in this improper point of view. He pondered
for a few moments, and the promise for the living of Chipping-Friars was
given. The commissioner, secure of this, next returned to the point with
his son, and absolutely insisted upon his--going into orders. Buckhurst,
who had tried wit and raillery in vain, now tried persuasion and earnest
entreaties; but these were equally fruitless: his father, though an
easy, good-natured man, except where his favourite plans were crossed,
was peremptory, and, without using harsh words, he employed the harshest
measures to force his son’s compliance. Buckhurst had contracted some
debts at the university, none of any great consequence, but such as
he could not pay immediately.--The bets he had laid and lost upon
High-Blood were also to be provided for; debts of honour claimed
precedency, and must be directly discharged. His father positively
refused to assist him, except upon condition of his compliance with his
wishes; and so far from affording him any means of settling with his
creditors, it has been proved, from the commissioner’s _private_
answers to some of their applications, that he not only refused to pay
a farthing for his son, but encouraged the creditors to threaten him in
the strongest manner with the terrors of law and arrest. Thus pressed
and embarrassed, this young man, who had many honourable and religious
sentiments and genuine feelings, but no power of adhering to principle
or reason, was miserable beyond expression one hour--and the next he
became totally forgetful that there was any thing to be thought of
but the amusement of the moment. Incapable of coming to any serious
decision, he walked up and down his room talking, partly to himself, and
partly, for want of a better companion, to his brother John.
“So I must pay Wallis to-morrow, or he’ll arrest me; and I must give my
father an answer about the church to-night--for he writes to the bishop,
and will wait no longer. Oh! hang it.’ hang it, John! what the devil
shall I do? My father won’t pay a farthing for me, unless I go into the
church!”
“Well, then, why can’t you go into the church!” said John: “since you
are through the university, the worst is over.”
“But I think it so wrong, so base--for money--for emolument! I cannot
do it. I am not fit for the church--I know I shall disgrace it,” said
Buckhurst, striking his forehead: “I cannot do it--I can not--it is
against my conscience.”
John stopped, as he was filling his shooting-pouch, and looked at
Buckhurst (his mouth half open) with an expression of surprise at these
demonstrations of sensibility. He had some sympathy for the external
symptoms of pain which he saw in his brother, but no clear conception of
the internal cause.
“Why, Buckhurst,” said he, “if you cannot do it, you can’t, you know,
Buckhurst: but I don’t see why you should be a disgrace to the church
more than another, as my father says. If I were but through the
university, I had as lieve go into the church as not--that’s all I can
say. And if my genius were not for the military line, there’s nothing I
should relish better than the living of Chipping-Friars, I’m sure. The
only thing that I see against it is, that that paralytic incumbent may
live many a year: but, then, you get your debts paid now by only going
into orders, and that’s a great point. But if it goes against your
conscience--you know best--if you can’t, you can’t.”
“After all, I can’t go to jail--I can’t let myself be arrested--I can’t
starve--I can’t be a beggar,” said Buckhurst; “and, as you say, I should
be so easy if these cursed debts were paid--and if I got this living of
nine hundred a year, how comfortable I should be! Then I could marry, by
Jove! and I’d propose directly for Caroline Percy, for I’m confoundedly
in love with her--such a sweet tempered, good creature!--not a girl so
much admired! Colonel Hauton, and G----, and P----, and D----, asked me,
‘Who is that pretty girl?’--She certainly is a very pretty girl.”
“She certainly is,” repeated John. “This devil of a fellow never cleans
my gun.”
“Not regularly handsome, neither,” pursued Buckhurst; “but, as Hauton
says, fascinating and new; and a new face in public is a great matter.
Such a fashionable-looking figure, too--though she has not _come out_
yet; dances charmingly--would dance divinely, if she would let herself
out; and she sings and plays like an angel, fifty times better than our
two precious sisters, who have been _at it_ from their cradles, with all
the Signor _Squalicis_ at their elbows. Caroline Percy never exhibits in
public: the mother does not like it, I suppose.”
“So I suppose,” said John. “Curse this flint!--flints are growing worse
and worse every day--I wonder what in the world are become of all the
good flints there used to be!”
“Very unlike our mother, I am sure,” continued Buckhurst. “There are
Georgiana and Bell at all the parties and concerts as regularly as
any of the professors, standing up in the midst of the singing men and
women, favouring the public in as fine a bravura style, and making as
ugly faces as the best of them. Do you remember the Italian’s compliment
to Miss * * * * *?--I vish, miss, I had your _assurance_.’”
“Very good, ha!--very fair, faith!” said John. “Do you know what I’ve
done with my powder horn?”
“Not I--put it in the oven, may be, to dry,” said Buckhurst. “But as I
was saying of my dear Caroline--_My_ Caroline! she is not mine yet.”
“Very true,” said John.
“Very true! Why, John, you are enough to provoke a saint!”
“I was agreeing with you, I thought,” said John.
“But nothing is so provoking as always agreeing with one--and I can tell
you, Mr. Verytrue, that though Caroline Percy is not mine yet, I have
nevertheless a little suspicion, that, such even as I am, she might
readily be brought to love, honour, and obey me.”
“I don’t doubt it, for I never yet knew a woman that was not ready
enough to be married,” quoth John. “But this is not the right ramrod,
after all.”
“There you are wrong, John, on the other side,” said Buckhurst; “for I
can assure you, Miss Caroline Percy is not one of your young ladies who
would marry any body. And even though she might like me, I am not at all
sure that she would marry me--for obedience to the best of fathers might
interfere.”
“There’s the point,” said John; “for thereby hangs the fortune; and it
would be a _deuced_ thing to have the girl without the fortune.”
“Not so _deuced_ a thing to me as you think,” said Buckhurst, laughing;
“for, poor as I am, I can assure you the fortune is not my object--I am
not a mercenary dog.”
“By-the-bye,” cried John, “now you talk of dogs, I wish to Heaven above,
you had not given away that fine puppy of mine to that foolish old man,
who never was out a shooting in his days--the dog’s just as much thrown
away as if you had drowned him. Now, do you know, if I had had _the
making_ of that puppy--”
“Puppy!” exclaimed Buckhurst: “is it possible you can be thinking of
a puppy, John, when I am talking to you of what is of so much
consequence?--when the whole happiness of my life is at stake?”
“Stake!--Well, but what can I do more!” said John: “have not I been
standing here this half hour with my gun in my hand this fine day,
listening to you prosing about I don’t know what?”
“That’s the very thing I complain of--that you do not know what: a
pretty brother!” said Buckhurst.
John made no further reply, but left the room sullenly, whistling as he
went.
Left to his own cogitations, Buckhurst fell into a reverie upon the
charms of Caroline Percy, and upon the probable pleasure of dancing
with her at the race-ball; after this, he recurred to the bitter
recollection, that he must decide about his debts, and the church.
A bright idea came into his mind, that he might have recourse to Mr.
Percy, and, perhaps, prevail upon him to persuade his father not
to force him to a step which he could not reconcile either to his
conscience or his inclination.--No sooner thought than done.--He called
for his horse and rode as hard as he could to Percy-hall.--When a boy
he had been intimate in the Percy family; but he had been long absent
at school and at the university; they had seen him only during the
vacations, and since his late return to the country. Though Mr. Percy
could not entirely approve of his character, yet he thought there were
many good points about Buckhurst; the frankness and candour with
which he now laid his whole mind and all his affairs open to
him--debts--love--fears--hopes--follies--faults--without reserve or
extenuation, interested Mr. Percy in his favour.--Pitying his distress,
and admiring the motives from which he acted, Mr. Percy said, that
though he had no right to interfere in Mr. Falconer’s family affairs,
yet that he could, and would, so far assist Buckhurst, as to lend him
the money for which he was immediately pressed, that he might not
be driven by necessity to go into that profession, which ought to be
embraced only from the highest and purest motives. Buckhurst thanked him
with transports of gratitude for this generous kindness, which was far
beyond his expectations, and which, indeed, had never entered into his
hopes. Mr. Percy seized the moment when the young man’s mind was warmed
with good feelings, to endeavour to bring him to serious thoughts and
rational determinations about his future life. He represented, that it
was unreasonable to expect that his father should let him go into
the army, when he had received an education to prepare himself for a
profession, in which his literary talents might be of advantage both to
himself and his family; that Mr. Falconer was not rich enough to forward
two of his sons in the army; that if Buckhurst, from conscientious
motives, declined the provision which his father had in view for him
in the church, he was bound to exert himself to obtain an independent
maintenance in another line of life; that he had talents which would
succeed at the bar, if he had application and perseverance sufficient
to go through the necessary drudgery at the commencement of the study of
the law.
Here Buckhurst groaned.--But Mr. Percy observed that there was no other
way of proving that he acted from conscientious motives respecting the
church; for otherwise it would appear that he preferred the army
only because he fancied it would afford a life of idleness and
pleasure.--That this would also be his only chance of winning the
approbation of the object of his affections, and of placing himself in a
situation in which he could marry.--Buckhurst, who was capable of being
strongly influenced by good motives, especially from one who had obliged
him, instantly, and in the most handsome manner, acknowledged the truth
and justice of Mr. Percy’s arguments, and declared that he was ready to
begin the study of the law directly, if his father would consent to it;
and that he would submit to any drudgery rather than do what he felt
to be base and wrong. Mr. Percy, at his earnest request, applied to Mr.
Falconer, and with all the delicacy that was becoming, claimed the right
of relationship to speak of Mr. Falconer’s family affairs, and told him
what he had ventured to do about Buckhurst’s debts; and what the young
man now wished for himself.--The commissioner looked much disappointed
and vexed.
“The bar!” cried he: “Mr. Percy, you don’t know him as well as I do. I
will answer for it, he will never go through with it--and then he is to
change his profession again!--and all the expense and all the trouble
is to fall on me!--and I am to provide for him at last!--In all
probability, by the time Buckhurst knows his own mind, the paralytic
incumbent will be dead, and the living of Chipping-Friars given
away.--And where am I to find nine hundred a year, I pray you, at a
minute’s notice, for this conscientious youth, who, by that time, will
tell me his scruples were all nonsense, and that I should have known
better than to listen to them? Nine hundred a year does not come in a
man’s way at every turn of his life; and if he gives it up now, it is
not my fault--let him look to it.”
Mr. Percy replied, “that Buckhurst had declared himself ready to abide
by the consequences, and that he promised he would never complain of
the lot he had chosen for himself, much less reproach his father for his
compliance, and that he was resolute to maintain himself at the bar.”
“Yes: very fine.--And how long will it be before he makes nine hundred a
year at the bar?”
Mr. Percy, who knew that none but worldly considerations made any
impression upon this father, suggested that he would have to maintain
his son during the life of the paralytic incumbent, and the expense of
Buckhurst’s being at the bar would not probably be greater; and though
it might be several years before he could make nine hundred, or,
perhaps, one hundred a year at the bar, yet that if he succeeded, which,
with Buckhurst’s talents, nothing but the want of perseverance could
prevent, he might make nine thousand a year by the profession of the
law--more than in the scope of human probability, and with all the
patronage his father’s address could procure, he could hope to obtain in
the church.
“Well, let him try--let him try,” repeated the commissioner, who, vexed
as he was, did not choose to run the risk of disobliging Mr. Percy,
losing a good match for him, or undergoing the scandal of its being
known that he forced his son into the church.
For obtaining this consent, however reluctantly granted by the
commissioner, Buckhurst warmly thanked Mr. Percy, who made one condition
with him, that he would go up to town immediately to commence his
studies.
This Buckhurst faithfully promised to do, and only implored permission
to declare his attachment to Caroline.--Caroline was at this time not
quite eighteen, too young, her father said, to think of forming any
serious engagement, even were it with a person suited to her in fortune
and in every other respect.
Buckhurst declared that he had no idea of endeavouring even to obtain
from Miss Caroline Percy any promise or engagement.--He had been
treated, he said, too generously by her father, to attempt to take any
step without his entire approbation.
He knew he was not, and could not for many years, be in circumstances
that would enable him to support a daughter of Mr. Percy’s in the
station to which she was, by her birth and fortune, entitled.--All he
asked, he repeated, was to be permitted to declare to her his passion.
Mr. Percy thought it was more prudent to let it be declared openly than
to have it secretly suspected; therefore he consented to this request,
trusting much to Buckhurst’s honour and to Caroline’s prudence.
To this first declaration of love Caroline listened with a degree of
composure which astonished and mortified her lover. He had flattered
himself that, at least, her vanity or pride would have been apparently
gratified by her conquest.--But there was none of the flutter of vanity
in her manner, nor any of the repressed satisfaction of pride. There
were in her looks and words only simplicity and dignity.--She said that
she was at present occupied happily in various ways, endeavouring to
improve herself, and that she should be sorry to have her mind turned
from these pursuits; she desired to secure time to compare and judge of
her own tastes, and of the characters of others, before she should make
any engagement, or form an attachment on which the happiness of her life
must depend. She said she was equally desirous to keep herself free, and
to avoid injuring the happiness of the man who had honoured her by his
preference; therefore she requested he would discontinue a
pursuit, which she could not encourage him to hope would ever be
successful.--Long before the time when she should think it prudent to
marry, even if she were to meet with a character perfectly suited to
hers, she hoped that her cousin Buckhurst would be united to some woman
who would be able to return his affection.
The manner in which all this was said convinced Buckhurst that she spoke
the plain and exact truth. From the ease and frankness with which she
had hitherto conversed with him, he had flattered himself that it would
not be difficult to prepossess her heart in his favour; but now, when
he saw the same ease and simplicity unchanged in her manner, he was
convinced that he had been mistaken. He had still hopes that in time
he might make an impression upon her, and he urged that she was not yet
sufficiently acquainted with his character to be able to judge whether
or not it would suit hers. She frankly told him all she thought of him,
and in doing so impressed him with the conviction that she had both
discerned the merits and discovered the defects of his character: she
gave him back a representation of himself, which he felt to be exactly
just, and yet which struck him with all the force of novelty.
“It is myself,” he exclaimed: “but I never knew myself till now.”
He had such pleasure in hearing Caroline speak of him, that he wished
even to hear her speak of his faults--of these he would, however,
have been better pleased, if she had spoken with less calmness and
indulgence.
“She is a great way from love as yet,” thought Buckhurst. “It is
astonishing, that with powers and knowledge on all other subjects so far
above her age, she should know so little even of the common language of
sentiment; very extraordinary, that with so much kindness, and such an
amiable disposition, she should have so little sensibility.”
The novelty of this insensibility, and of this perfect simplicity,
so unlike all he had observed in the manners and minds of other young
ladies to whom he had been accustomed, had, however, a great effect
upon her lover. The openness and unaffected serenity of Caroline’s
countenance at this moment appeared to him more charming than any other
thing he had ever beheld in the most finished coquette, or the most
fashionable beauty.
What a divine creature she will be a few years hence! thought he. The
time will come, when Love may waken this Psyche!--And what glory it
would be to me to produce to the world such perfection!
With these mixed ideas of love and glory, Buckhurst took leave of
Caroline; still he retained hope in spite of her calm and decided
refusal. He knew the power of constant attention, and the display of
ardent passion, to win the female heart. He trusted also in no slight
degree to the reputation he had already acquired of being a favourite
with the fair sex.