Tales and Novels Volume VI Part 37

This speech Lord Colambre and the count tacitly agreed to consider as another _apart_, which they were not to hear, or seem to hear. The count began again on the business of their visit, as he saw that Lord Colambre was boiling with impatience, and feared that he should _boil over_, and spoil all. The count commenced with, "Mr. Reynolds, your name sounds to me like the name of a friend; for I had once a friend of that name: I once had the pleasure (and a very great pleasure it was to me) to be intimately acquainted abroad, on the continent, with a very amiable and gallant youth--your son!"

"Take care, sir," said the old man, starting up from his chair, and instantly sinking down again, "take care! Don't mention him to me--unless you would strike me dead on the spot!"

The convulsed motions of his fingers and face worked for some moments; whilst the count and Lord Colambre, much shocked and alarmed, stood in silence.

The convulsed motions ceased; and the old man unb.u.t.toned his waistcoat, as if to relieve some sense of oppression; uncovered his gray hairs; and, after leaning back to rest himself, with his eyes fixed, and in reverie for a few moments, he sat upright again in his chair, and exclaimed, as he looked round, "Son!--Did not somebody say that word? Who is so cruel to say that word before me? n.o.body has ever spoken of him to me--but once, since his death! Do you know, sir,"

said he, fixing his eyes on Count O'Halloran, and laying his cold hand on him, "do you know where he was buried, I ask you, sir? do you remember how he died?"

"Too well! too well!" cried the count, so much affected as to be scarcely able to p.r.o.nounce the words; "he died in my arms: I buried him myself!"

"Impossible!" cried Mr. Reynolds. "Why do you say so, sir?" said he, studying the count's face with a sort of bewildered earnestness.

"Impossible! His body was sent over to me in a lead coffin; and I saw it--and I was asked--and I answered, 'In the family vault.' But the shock is over," said he: "and, gentlemen, if the business of your visit relates to that subject, I trust I am now sufficiently composed to attend to you. Indeed, I ought to be prepared; for I had reason, for years, to expect the stroke; and yet, when it came, it seemed sudden!--it stunned me--put an end to all my worldly prospects--left me childless, without a single descendant, or relation near enough to be dear to me! I am an insulated being!"

"No, sir, you are not an insulated being," said Lord Colambre: "You have a near relation, who will, who must, be dear to you; who will make you amends for all you have lost, all you have suffered--who will bring peace and joy to your heart: you have a grand-daughter."

"No, sir; I have no grand-daughter," said old Reynolds, his face and whole form becoming rigid with the expression of obstinacy. "Rather have no descendant than be forced to acknowledge an illegitimate child."

"My lord, I entreat as a friend--I command you to be patient," said the count, who saw Lord Colambre's indignation suddenly rise.

"So, then, this is the purpose of your visit," continued old Reynolds: "and you come from my enemies, from the St. Omars, and you are in a league with them," continued old Reynolds: "and all this time it is of my eldest son you have been talking."

"Yes, sir," replied the count; "of Captain Reynolds, who fell in battle, in the Austrian service, about nineteen years ago--a more gallant and amiable youth never lived."

Pleasure revived through the dull look of obstinacy in the father's eyes.

"He was, as you say, sir, a gallant, an amiable youth, once--and he was my pride, and I loved him, too, once--but did not you know I had another?"

"No, sir, we did not--we are, you may perceive, totally ignorant of your family and of your affairs--we have no connexion whatever or knowledge of any of the St. Omars."

"I detest the sound of the name," cried Lord Colambre.

"Oh, good! good!--Well! well! I beg your pardon, gentlemen, a thousand times--I am a hasty, very hasty old man; but I have been hara.s.sed, persecuted, hunted by wretches, who got a scent of my gold; often in my rage I longed to throw my treasure-bags to my pursuers, and bid them leave me to die in peace. You have feelings, I see, both of you, gentlemen; excuse, and bear with my temper."

"Bear with you! Much enforced, the best tempers will emit a hasty spark," said the count, looking at Lord Colambre, who was now cool again; and who, with a countenance full of compa.s.sion, sat with his eyes fixed upon the poor--no, not the poor, but the unhappy old man.

"Yes, I had another son," continued Mr. Reynolds, "and on him all my affections concentrated when I lost my eldest, and for him I desired to preserve the estate which his mother brought into the family. Since you know nothing of my affairs, let me explain to you: that estate was so settled, that it would have gone to the child, even the daughter of my eldest son, if there had been a legitimate child. But I knew there was no marriage, and I held out firm to my opinion. 'If there was a marriage,' said I, 'show me the marriage certificate, and I will acknowledge the marriage, and acknowledge the child:' but they could not, and I knew they could not; and I kept the estate for my darling boy," cried the old gentleman, with the exultation of successful positiveness again appearing strong in his physiognomy: but, suddenly changing and relaxing, his countenance fell, and he added, "but now I have no darling boy. What use all!--all must go to the heir at law, or I must will it to a stranger--a lady of quality, who has just found out she is my relation--G.o.d knows how! I'm no genealogist--and sends me Irish cheese, and Iceland moss, for my breakfast, and her waiting gentlewoman to namby-pamby me. Oh, I'm sick of it all--see through it--wish I was blind--wish I had a hiding-place, where flatterers could not find me--pursued, chased--must change my lodgings again to-morrow--will, will--I beg your pardon, gentlemen, again: you were going to tell me, sir, something more of my eldest son; and how I was led away from the subject, I don't know; but I meant only to have a.s.sured you that his memory was dear to me, till I was so tormented about that unfortunate affair of his pretended marriage, that at length I hated to hear him named; but the heir at law, at last, will triumph over me."

"No, my good sir, not if you triumph over yourself, and do justice,"

cried Lord Colambre; "if you listen to the truth, which my friend will tell you, and if you will read and believe the confirmation of it, under your son's own hand, in this packet."

"His own hand indeed! His seal--unbroken. But how--when--where--why was it kept so long, and how came it into your hands?"

Count O'Halloran told Mr. Reynolds that the packet had been given to him by Captain Reynolds on his death-bed; related the dying acknowledgment which Captain Reynolds had made of his marriage; and gave an account of the delivery of the packet to the amba.s.sador, who had promised to transmit it faithfully. Lord Colambre told the manner in which it had been mislaid, and at last recovered from among the deceased amba.s.sador's papers. The father still gazed at the direction, and re-examined the seals.

"My son's hand-writing--my son's seals! But where is the certificate of the marriage?" repeated he; "if it is withinside of this packet, I have done great _in_--but I am convinced it never was a marriage. Yet I wish now it could be proved--only, in that case, I have for years done great--"

"Won't you open the packet, sir?" said Lord Colambre.

Mr. Reynolds looked up at him with a look that said, "I don't clearly know what interest you have in all this." But, unable to speak, and his hands trembling so that he could scarcely break the seals, he tore off the cover, laid the papers before him, sat down, and took breath.

Lord Colambre, however impatient, had now too much humanity to hurry the old gentleman: he only ran for the spectacles, which he espied on the chimney-piece, rubbed them bright, and held them ready. Mr.

Reynolds stretched his hand out for them, put them on, and the first paper he opened was the certificate of the marriage: he read it aloud, and, putting it down, said, "Now I acknowledge the marriage. I always said, if there is a marriage there must be a certificate. And you see now there is a certificate--I acknowledge the marriage."

"And now," cried Lord Colambre, "I am happy, positively happy.

Acknowledge your grand-daughter, sir--acknowledge Miss Nugent."

"Acknowledge whom, sir?"

"Acknowledge Miss Reynolds--your grand-daughter; I ask no more--do what you will with your fortune."

"Oh, now I understand--I begin to understand, this young gentleman is in love--but where is my grand-daughter? how shall I know she is my grand-daughter? I have not heard of her since she was an infant--I forgot her existence--I have done her great injustice."

"She knows nothing of it, sir," said Lord Colambre, who now entered into a full explanation of Miss Nugent's history, and of her connexion with his family, and of his own attachment to her; concluding the whole by a.s.suring Mr. Reynolds that his grand-daughter had every virtue under heaven. "And as to your fortune, sir, I know that she will, as I do, say--"

"No matter what she will say," interrupted old Reynolds; "where is she? When I see her, I shall hear what she says. Tell me where she is--let me see her. I long to see whether there is any likeness to her poor father. Where is she? Let me see her immediately."

"She is one hundred and sixty miles off, sir, at Buxton."

"Well, my lord, and what is a hundred and sixty miles? I suppose you think I can't stir from my chair, but you are mistaken. I think nothing of a journey of a hundred and sixty miles--I am ready to set off to-morrow--this instant."

Lord Colambre said, that he was sure Miss Reynolds would obey her grandfather's slightest summons, as it was her duty to do, and would be with him as soon as possible, if this would be more agreeable to him. "I will write to her instantly," said his lords.h.i.+p, "if you will commission me."

"No, my lord, I do not commission--I will go--I think nothing, I say, of a journey of a hundred and sixty miles--I'll go--and set out to-morrow morning."

Lord Colambre and the count, perfectly satisfied with the result of their visit, now thought it best to leave old Reynolds at liberty to rest himself, after so many strong and varied feelings. They paid their parting compliments, settled the time for the next day's journey, and were just going to quit the room, when Lord Colambre heard in the pa.s.sage a well-known voice--the voice of Mrs. Pet.i.to.

"Oh, no, my Lady Dashfort's best compliments, and I will call again."

"No, no," cried old Reynolds, pulling his bell; "I'll have no calling again--I'll be hanged if I do! Let her in now, and I'll see her--Jack!

let in that woman now or never."

"The lady's gone, sir, out of the street door."

"After her, then--now or never, tell her."

"Sir, she was in a hackney coach."

Old Reynolds jumped up, and went to the window himself, and, seeing the hackney coachman just turning, beckoned at the window, and Mrs.

Pet.i.to was set down again, and ushered in by Jack, who announced her as, "the lady, sir." The only lady he had seen in that house.

"My dear Mr. Reynolds, I'm so obliged to you for letting me in," cried Mrs. Pet.i.to, adjusting her shawl in the pa.s.sage, and speaking in a voice and manner well mimicked after her betters. "You are so very good and kind, and I am so much obliged to you."

"You are not obliged to me, and I am neither good nor kind," said old Reynolds.

"You strange man," said Mrs. Pet.i.to, advancing graceful in shawl drapery; but she stopped short. "My Lord Colambre and Count O'Halloran, as I hope to be saved!"

"I did not know Mrs. Pet.i.to was an acquaintance of yours, gentlemen,"

said Mr. Reynolds, smiling shrewdly.

Count O'Halloran was too polite to deny his acquaintance with a lady who challenged it by thus naming him; but he had not the slightest recollection of her, though it seems he had met her on the stairs when he visited Lady Dashfort at Killpatricks-town. Lord Colambre was "indeed _undeniably an old acquaintance_:" and as soon as she had recovered from her first natural start and vulgar exclamation, she with very easy familiarity hoped "my Lady Clonbrony, and my Lord, and Miss Nugent, and all her friends in the family, were well;" and said, "she did not know whether she was to congratulate his lords.h.i.+p or not upon Miss Broadhurst, my Lady Berryl's marriage, but she should soon have to hope for his lords.h.i.+p's congratulations for another marriage in _her_ present family--Lady Isabel to Colonel Heathc.o.c.k, who was come in for a large _portion_, and they are buying the wedding clothes--sights of clothes--and the di'monds, this day; and Lady Dashfort and my Lady Isabel sent me especially, sir, to you, Mr.