Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles Part 42

"Oh, Henry, Henry! Do not be so impatient."

Mrs. Ashley shut the door again; and Henry continued to worry himself, making no progress, except in fretfulness. At length William approached him. "Will you let me help you?"

Surprise brought Henry's grumbling to a standstill. "You!" he exclaimed.

"Do you know anything of Latin?"

"I am very much farther in it than what you are doing. My brother Gar is as far as that. Shall I help you? You have put that wrong; it ought to be in the accusative."

"Well, if you can help me, you may, for I want to get it over," said Henry, with a doubting stress upon the "can." "You can sit down, if you wish to," he patronizingly added.

"Thank you, I don't care about sitting down," replied William, beginning at once upon his task.

The two boys were soon deep in the exercise, William not doing it, but rendering it easy to Henry; in the same manner that Mr. Halliburton, when he was at that stage, used to make it clear to him.

"I say," cried Henry, "who taught you?"

"Papa. He gave a great deal of time to me, and that got me on. I can see a wrong word there," added William, casting his eyes to the top of the page. "It ought to be in the vocative, and you have put it in the dative."

"You are mistaken, then. Papa told me that: and he is not likely to be wrong. Papa is one of the best cla.s.sical scholars of the day--although he is a manufacturer," added Henry, who, through his relatives, the Dares, had been infected with a contempt for business.

"It should be in the vocative," repeated William.

"I shan't alter it. The idea of your finding fault with Mr. Ashley's Latin! Let us get on. What case is this?"

The last word of the exercise was being written, when Mr. Ashley opened the door and called to William. He gave him a note for Mr. Lynn, and William departed. Mr. Ashley returned to complete the interrupted exercise.

"I say, papa, that fellow knows Latin," began Henry.

"What fellow?" returned Mr. Ashley.

"Why, that chap of yours who has been here. He has helped me through my exercise. Not doing it for me: you need not be afraid; but explaining to me how to do it. He made it easier to me than you do, papa."

Mr. Ashley took the book in his hand, and saw that it was correct. He knew Henry could not, or would not, have made it so himself. Henry continued:

"He said his papa used to explain it to him. Fancy one of your manufactory errand-boys saying 'papa.'"

"You must not cla.s.s him with the ordinary errand-boys, Henry. The boy has been as well brought up as you have."

"I thought so; for he has impudence about him," was Master Henry's retort.

"Was he impudent to you?"

"To me? Oh no. He is as civil a fellow as ever I spoke to. Indeed, but for remembering who he was, I should call him a gentlemanly fellow.

Whilst he was telling me, I forgot who he was, and talked to him as an equal, and _he_ talked to me as one. I call him impudent, because he found fault with your Latin."

"Indeed!" returned Mr. Ashley, an amused smile parting his lips.

"He says this word's wrong. That it ought to be in the vocative case."

"So it ought to be," a.s.sented Mr. Ashley, casting his eyes on the word to which Henry pointed.

"You told me the dative, papa."

"That I certainly did not, Henry. The mistake must have been your own."

"He persisted that it was wrong, although I told him it was your Latin.

Papa, it is the same boy who had the row yesterday with Cyril Dare. What a pity it is, though, that a fellow so well up in his Latin should be shut up in a manufactory!"

"The only 'pity' is, that he is in it too early," was the response of Mr. Ashley. "His Latin would not be any detriment to his being in a manufactory, or the manufactory to his Latin. I am a manufacturer myself, Henry. You appear to ignore that sometimes."

"The Dares go on so. They din it into my ears that a manufacturer cannot be a gentleman."

"I shall cause you to drop the acquaintance of the Dares, if you allow yourself to listen to all the false and foolish notions they may give utterance to. Cyril Dare will probably go into a manufactory himself."

Henry looked up curiously. "I don't think so, papa."

"I do," returned Mr. Ashley, in a significant tone. Henry was surprised at the news. He knew his father never advanced a decided opinion unless he had good grounds for it. He burst into a laugh. The notion of Cyril Dare's going into a manufactory tickled his fancy amazingly.

PART THE SECOND.

CHAPTER I.

A SUGGESTED FEAR.

One morning, towards the middle of April, Mrs. Halliburton went up to Mr. Ashley's. She had brought him the quarter's rent.

"Will you allow me to pay it to yourself, sir--now, and in future?" she asked. "I feel an unconquerable aversion to having further dealings with Mr. Dare."

"I can understand that you should have," said Mr. Ashley. "Yes, you can pay it to me, Mrs. Halliburton. Always remembering you know, that I am in no hurry for it," he added with a smile.

"Thank you. You are very kind. But I must pay as I go on."

He wrote the receipt, and handed it to her. "I hope you are satisfied with William?" she said, as she folded it up.

"Quite so. I believe he gives satisfaction to Mr. Lynn. I have little to do with him myself. Mr. Lynn tells me that he finds him a remarkably truthful, open-natured boy."

"You will always find him that," said Jane. "He is getting more reconciled to the manufactory than he was at first."

"Did he not like it at first?"

"No, he did not. He was disappointed altogether. He had hoped to find some employment more suited to the way in which he had been brought up.

He cannot divest himself of the idea that he is looked upon as on a level with the poor errand-boys of your establishment, and therefore has lost caste. He had wished also to be in some office--a lawyer's, for instance--where the hours for leaving are early, so that he might have had the evening for his studies. But he is growing more reconciled to the inevitable."