Barrington Volume Ii Part 15

"Oh! I a.s.sure you any step I take shall be done in the interests of science solely; not but that I have a small debt to acquit towards the gallant Major."

"You have! What can it possibly be?"

"Well, it was this wise," said she, with a half-sigh. "We met at a country-house here, and he paid me certain attentions, made me compliments on my riding, which I knew to be good, and my singing, which was just tolerable; said the usual things which mean nothing, and a few of those more serious ones which are supposed to be more significant; and then he asked my father's leave to come and visit him, and actually fixed a day and an hour. And we, poor people, all delighted with the flattery of such high notice, and thinking of the effect upon our neighbors so splendid a visitor would produce, made the most magnificent preparations to receive him,--papa in a black satin waistcoat, mamma in her lilac ribbons. I myself,--having put the roof on a pigeon-pie, and given the last finis.h.i.+ng touch to a paG.o.da of ruby jelly,--I, in a charming figured muslin and a blush rose in my hair, awaited the hour of attack! And, after all, he never came. No, Fifine, never came! He forgot us, or he changed his mind, or something else turned up that he liked better; or--which is just as likely as any of the three--he thought it would be a charming piece of impertinence to pa.s.s off on such small folk, who presumed to fancy themselves company for him. At all events, Fifine, we saw him no more. He went his way somewhere, and we were left lamenting."

"And you really liked him, Polly?"

"No, of the two, I disliked him; but I wished very much that he might like _me!_ I saw him very overbearing and very insolent to those who were certainly his equals, a.s.suming a most offensive superiority everywhere and to any one, and I thought what an awful humiliation it would be if so great a personage were to be snubbed by the doctor's daughter. I wanted to give a lesson which could only be severe if it came from one humble as myself; but he defeated me, Fifine, and I am still his debtor! If I did not like him before, you may believe that I hate him now; and I came off here this morning, in hot haste, for no other purpose than to set you against him, and induce you to regard him as I do."

"There was little need," said Fifine, calmly; "but here comes my aunt back again. Make your submission quickly, Polly, or it will be too late to expect mercy."

"I 'll do better," said Polly, rising. "I 'll let my trial go on in my absence;" and with this she stepped out of the window as Miss Barrington entered by the door.

CHAPTER XI. STAPYLTON'S VISIT AT "THE HOME"

So secretly had Barrington managed, that he negotiated the loan of five hundred pounds on a mortgage of the cottage without ever letting his sister hear of it; and when she heard on a particular day that her brother expected Mr. Kinshela, the attorney, from Kilkenny, on business, she made the occasion the pretext of a visit to Dr. Dill, taking Josephine with her, to pa.s.s the day there.

Barrington was therefore free to receive his lawyer at his ease, and confer with him alone. Not that he cared much for his company; he felt towards the attorney pretty much as an ardent soldier feels to a non-combatant, the commissary, or the paymaster. Had he been a barrister, indeed, old Peter would have welcomed him with the zest of true companions.h.i.+p; he would have ransacked his memory for anecdotes, and prepared for the meeting as for an encounter of sharp wits. Now it is no part of my task to present Mr. Kinshela more than pa.s.singly to my reader, and I will merely say that he was a shrewd, commonplace man, whose practice rarely introduced him to the higher cla.s.ses of his county, and who recognized Barrington, even in his decline, as a person of some consideration.

They had dined well, and sat over their wine in the little dining-room over the river, a favorite spot of Barrington's when he wished to be confidential, for it was apart from the rest of the cottage, and removed from all intrusion.

"So, you won't tell me, Kinshela, who lent us this money?" said the old man, as he pa.s.sed the decanter across the table.

"It is not that I won't, sir, but I can't. It was in answer to an advertis.e.m.e.nt I inserted in the 'Times,' that I got an application from Granger and Wood to supply particulars; and I must say there was no unnecessary security on their part. It was as speedily settled a transaction as I ever conducted, and I believe in my heart we might have had a thousand pounds on it just as easily as five hundred."

"As well as it is, Kinshela. When the day of repayment comes round, I'll perhaps find it heavy enough;" and he sighed deeply as he spoke.

"Who knows, sir? There never was a time that capital expended on land was more remunerative than the present."

Now, Mr. Kinshela well knew that the destination of the money they spoke of was not in this direction, and that it had as little to say to subsoil drainage or top dressing as to the conversion of the heathen; but he was angling for a confidence, and he did not see how to attain it.

Barrington smiled before he answered,--one of those sad, melancholy smiles which reveal a sorrow a man is not able to suppress,--and then he said, "I 'm afraid, Kinshela, I 'll not test the problem this time."

"It will be better employed, perhaps, sir. You mean, probably, to take your granddaughter up to the drawing-room at the Castle?"

"I never so much as thought of it, Joe Kinshela; the fact is, that money is going where I have sent many a hundred before it,--in law! I have had a long, wearisome, costly suit, that has well-nigh beggared me; and of that sum you raised for me I don't expect to have a s.h.i.+lling by this day week."

"I heard something about that, sir," said the other, cautiously.

"And what was it you heard?"

"Nothing, of course, worth repeating; nothing from any one that knew the matter himself; just the gossip that goes about, and no more."

"Well, let us hear the gossip that goes about, and I'll promise to tell you if it's true."

"Well, indeed," said Kinshela, drawing a long breath, "they say that your claim is against the India Board."

Barring ton nodded.

"And that it is a matter little short of a million is in dispute."

He nodded again twice.

"And they say, too,--of course, on very insufficient knowledge,--that if you would have abated your demands once on a time, you might readily have got a hundred thousand pounds, or even more."

"That's not impossible," muttered Barrington.

"But that, now--" he stammered for an instant, and then stopped.

"But now? Go on."

"Sure, sir, they can know nothing about it; it's just idle talk, and no more."

"Go on, and tell me what they say _now_," said Barrington, with a strong force on the last word.

"They say you 'll be beaten, sir," said he, with an effort.

"And do they say why, Kinshela?"

"Yes, sir; they say you won't take advice; and no matter what Mr.

Withering counsels, or is settled in consultation, you go your own way and won't mind them; and that you have been heard to declare you 'll have all, or nothing."

"They give me more credit than I deserve, Kinshela. It is, perhaps, what I ought to have said, for I have often _thought it_. But in return for all the kind interest my neighbors take about me, let them know that matters look better for us than they once did. Perhaps," added he, with a laugh,--"perhaps I have overcome my obstinacy, or perhaps my opponents have yielded to it. At all events, Joe, I believe I see land at last, and it was a long 'lookout' and many a fog-bank I mistook for it."

"And what makes you think now you'll win?" said the other, growing bolder by the confidence reposed in him.

Barrington half started at the presumption of the question; but he suddenly remembered how it was he himself who had invited the discussion, so he said calmly,--

"My hope is not without a foundation. I expect by the mail to-night a friend who may be able to tell me that I have won, or as good as won."

Kinshela was dying to ask who the friend was, but even his curiosity had its prudential limits; so he merely took out his watch, and, looking at it, remarked that the mail would pa.s.s in about twenty minutes or so.

"By the way, I must n't forget to send a servant to wait on the roadside;" and he rang the bell and said, "Let Darby go up to the road and take Major Stapylton's luggage when he arrives."

"Is that the Major Stapylton is going to be broke for the doings at Manchester, sir?" asked Kinshela.

"He is the same Major Stapylton that a rascally press is now libelling and calumniating," said Barrington, hotly. "As to being broke, I don't believe that we have come yet to that pa.s.s in England that the discipline of our army is administered by every scribbler in a newspaper."

"I humbly crave your pardon, sir, if I have said the slightest thing to offend; but I only meant to ask, was he the officer they were making such a fuss about?" "He is an officer of the highest distinction, and a wellborn gentleman to boot,--two admirable reasons for the a.s.saults of a contemptible party. Look you, Kinshela; you and I are neither of us very young or inexperienced men, but I would ask you, have we learned any wiser lesson from our intercourse with life than to withhold our judgment on the case of one who rejects the sentence of a mob, and appeals to the verdict of his equals?"

"But if he cut the people down in cold blood,--if it be true that he laid open that poor black fellow's cheek from the temple to the chin--"

"If he did no such thing," broke in Barrington; "that is to say, if there is no evidence whatever that he did so, what will your legal mind say then, Joe Kinshela?"

"Just this, sir. I'd say--what all the newspapers are saying--that he got the man out of the way,--bribed and sent him off."

"Why not hint that he murdered him, and buried him within the precincts of the jail? I declare I wonder at your moderation."