Jack Hinton Part 16

'"Nothing which should cause your present uneasiness," replied I, in a tone and a look he could not mistake.

'"Eh--aw! don't take you exactly; anything gone wrong?"

'"You 've a capital memory, my lord, when it suits you; pray call it to your aid for a few moments, and it will save us both a deal of trouble.

My business with you is on the part of Mr. Hinton, and I have to request you will, at once, refer me to a friend."

'"Eh! you want to fight? Is that it? I say, Watson, they want to make a quarrel out of that foolish affair I told you of."

'"Is Major Watson your friend on this occasion, my lord?"

'"No; oh no; that is, I didn't say---- I told Watson how they walked into me for three hundred at Rooney's. Must confess I deserved it richly for dining among such a set of fellows; and, as I have paid the money and cut the whole concern, I don't see what more's expected of me."

'"We have very little expectation, my lord, but a slight hope, that you'll not disgrace the cloth you wear and the profession you follow."

'"I say, Watson, do you think I ought to take notice of these words?"

'"Would your lords.h.i.+p like them stronger?"

'"One moment, if you please, Captain O'Grady," said Major Watson, as, opening the door of the chaise, he sprang out. "Lord Dudley de Vere has detailed to me, and of course correctly, the whole of his last night's proceedings. He has expressed himself as ready and anxious to apologise to your friend for any offence he may have given him--in fact, that their families are in some way connected, and any falling out would be a very unhappy thing between them; and, last of all, Lord Dudley has resigned his appointment as aide-de-camp, and resolved on leaving Ireland; in two hours more he will sail from this. So I trust, that under every circ.u.mstance, you will see the propriety of not pressing the affair any further."

'"With the apology----"

'"That of course," said Watson.

'"I say," cried Herbert, "we shall be late at the Pigeon-house; it's half-past seven."

'Watson whispered a few words into his ear; he was silent for a second, and a slight crimson flush settled on his cheek.

"'It won't do for me if they talk of this afterwards; but tell him--I mean Hinton--that I am sorry; that is, I wish him to forgive----"

'"There, there," said I impatiently, "drive on! that is quite enough!"

'The next moment the chaise was out of sight, and I leaned against the bal.u.s.trade of the bridge, with a sick feeling at my heart I never felt before. Vaughan came by at the moment with his tandem, so I made him turn about and set me down; and here I am, my boy, now that my qualmishness has pa.s.sed off, ready to eat you out of house and home, if the means would only present themselves.'

Here ended O'Gradys narrative, and as breakfast very shortly after made its appearance, our conversation dropped into broken, disjointed sentences; the burden of which, on his part, was that, although no man would deserve more grat.i.tude from the household and the garrison generally than myself for being the means of exporting Lord De Vere, yet that under every view of the case all effort should be made to prevent publicity, and stop the current of scandal such an event was calculated to give rise to in the city.

'No fear of that, I hope,' said I.

'Every fear, my dear boy. We live in a village here: every man hears his friend's watch tick, and every lady knows what her neighbour paid for her paste diamonds. However, be comforted! your reputation will scarcely stretch across the Channel; and one's notoriety must have strong claims before it pa.s.s the custom-house at Liverpool.'

'Well, that is something; but hang it, O'Grady, I wish I had had a shot at him.'

'Of course you do: nothing more natural, and at the same time, if you care for the lady, nothing more _mal a propos_. Do what you will, her name will be mixed up in the matter; but had it gone further she must have been deeply compromised between you. You are too young, Jack, to understand much of this; but take my word for it--fight about your sister, your aunt, your maternal grandmother, if you like, but never for the girl you are about to marry. It involves a false position to both her and yourself. And now that I am giving advice, just give me another cutlet. I say, Corny, any hot potatoes?'

'Thim was hot awhile ago,' said Corny, without taking his hands from his pockets.

'Well, it is pleasant to know even that. Put that pistol-case back again. Ah! there goes Vaughan; I want a word with him.'

So saying, he sprang up, and hastened downstairs.

'What did he say I was to do with the pistols?' said Corny, as he polished the case with the ample cuff of his coat.

'You are to put them by: we shan't want them this morning.'

'And there is to be no devil after all,' said he with a most fiendish grin. 'Ugh, ugh! didn't I know it? Ye's come from the wrong side of the water for that. It's little powder ye blaze, for all your talking.'

Taking out one of the pistols as he spoke, he examined the lock for a few minutes patiently, and then muttered to himself: 'Wasn't I right to put in the ould flints? The devil a more ye 'd he doing I guessed nor making a flash in the pan!'

It was rather difficult, even with every allowance for Mr. Delany's temper, to submit to his insolence patiently. After all, there was nothing better to be done; for Corny was even greater in reply than attack, and any rejoinder on my part would unquestionably have made me fare the worse. Endeavouring, therefore, to hum a tune, I strolled to the window and looked out; while the imperturbable Corny, opening the opposite sash, squibbed off both pistols previous to replacing them in the box.

I cannot say what it was in the gesture and the action of this little fiend; but somehow the air of absurdity thus thrown over our quarrel by this ludicrous termination hurt me deeply; and Corny's face as he snapped the trigger was a direct insult. All my self-respect, all my self-approval gave way in a moment, and I could think of nothing but cross Corny's commentary on my courage.

'Yes,' said I, half aloud, 'it is a confounded country! If for nothing else, that every cla.s.s and condition of man thinks himself capable to p.r.o.nounce upon his neighbour. Hard drink and duelling are the national penates; and Heaven help him who does not adopt the religion of the land! My English servant would as soon have thought of criticising a chorus of Euripides as my conduct; and yet this little wretch not only does so, but does it to my face, superadding a sneer upon my country!'

This, like many other of my early reflections on Ireland, had its grain of truth and its bushel of fallacy; and before I quitted the land I learned to make the distinction.

CHAPTER XIV. THE PARTING

From motives of delicacy towards Miss Bellew I did not call that day at the Rooneys. For many months such an omission on my part had never occurred. Accordingly, when O'Grady returned at night to the Castle, he laughingly told me that the house was in half-mourning. Paul sat moodily over his wine, scarce lifting his head, and looking what he himself called nonsuited. Mrs. Paul, whose grief was always in the active mood, sobbed, hiccupped, gulped, and waved her arms as if she had lost a near relative. Miss Bellew did not appear at all, and Phil discovered that she had written home that morning, requesting her father to send for her without loss of time.

'The affair, as you see,' continued O'Grady, 'has turned out ill for all parties. Dudley has lost his post, you your mistress, and I my money--a pretty good ill.u.s.tration how much mischief a mere fool can at any moment make in society.'

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when I mounted my horse to ride over to Stephen's Green. As I pa.s.sed slowly along Dame Street my attention was called to a large placard, which, in front of a house opposite the lower Castle gate, had attracted a considerable crowd around it. I was spared the necessity of stopping to read by the hoa.r.s.e shout of a ragged ruffian who elbowed his way through the mob, carrying on one arm a ma.s.s of printed handbills; the other hand he held beside his mouth to aid the energy of his declamation. 'Here's the full and true account,' cried he, 'of the b.l.o.o.d.y and me-lan-chc-ly duel that tuk place yesterday morning in the Phaynix Park, between Lord Dudley de Vere and Mr. Hinton, two edge-du-congs to his Grace the Lord Liftinint, wid all the particulars, for one ha'penny.'

'Here's the whole correspondence between the Castle bucks,' shouted a rival publisher--the Colburn to this Bentley--'wid a beautiful new song to an old tune--

"Bang it up, bang it up, to the lady in the Green."'

'Give me one, if you please,' said a motherly-looking woman, in a grey cloak.

'No, ma'am, a penny,' responded the vendor. 'The b.l.o.o.d.y fight for a halfpenny! What!' said he; 'would you have an Irish melody and the picture of an illigint female for a copper?'

'Sing us the song, Peter,' called out another.

'This is too bad!' said I pa.s.sionately, as, driving the spurs into my horse, I dashed through the ragged mob, upsetting and overturning all before me. Not, however, before I was recognised; and, as I cantered down the street, a shout of derision, and a hailstorm of offensive epithets followed me.

It was, I confess, some time before I recovered my equanimity enough to think of my visit. For myself, individually, I cared little or nothing; but who could tell in what form these things might reach my friends in England?--how garbled! how exaggerated! how totally perverted! And then, too, Miss Bellew! It was evident that she was alluded to. I trembled to think that her name, polluted by the lips of such wretches as these, should be cried through the dark alleys and purlieus of the capital; a scoff and a mockery among the very outcasts of vice.

As I turned the corner of Grafton Street a showy carriage with four grey horses pa.s.sed me by. I knew it was the Rooney equipage, and although for a moment I was chagrined that the object of my visit was defeated, on second thoughts I satisfied myself that, perhaps, it was quite as well; so I rode on to leave my card. On reaching the door, from which already some visitors were turning away, I discovered that I had forgotten my ticket-case; so I dismounted to write my name in the visiting-book; for this observance among great people Mrs. Rooney had borrowed, to the manifest horror and dismay of many respectable citizens.

'A note for you, sir,' said the butler, in his most silvery accent, as he placed a small sealed billet in my hand.

I opened it hastily. It contained but two lines:

'Miss Bellew requests Mr. Hinton will kindly favour her with a few moments' conversation at an early opportunity.'