The Daltons Volume II Part 42

If not insensible to some of the absurdities of this notable project, Dalton forgot the ridicule in the pleasanter occupation of the bustle, the movement, and the tumult it occasioned. It did his heart good to see the lavish waste and profusion that went forward. The kitchen-table, as it lay spread with fruit, fish, and game, might have made a study for Schneiders; and honest Peter's face glowed with delight as he surveyed a scene so suggestive of convivial thoughts and dissipation.

"No doubt of it, Nelly," said he; "but Mother Ricketts has grand notions! She does the thing like a princess!" The praise was so far well bestowed that there was something royal in dispensing hospitality without regarding the cost; while, at the same time, she never entertained the slightest sentiment of esteem for those in whose favor it was to be exercised. Among the very few things she feared in this world was Haggerstone's "tongue," which she herself averred was best conciliated by giving "occupation to his teeth." The banquet was "got up" with that object, while it also gave a favorable opportunity of a.s.suming that unbounded sway in Dalton's household which should set the question of her supremacy at rest forever.

To this end was poor Martha engaged with puff-paste and jellies and whip-cream, with wreaths of roses and pyramids of fruit, from dawn till dusk. To this end was Purvis nearly driven out of his mind by endeavoring to get off by heart an address in rhyme, the very first line of which almost carried him off in a fit of coughing,--the word "Puffendorf" being found nearly as unmanageable to voice as it was unsuited to verse. While poor Belisarius, stripped of rule and compa.s.s, denied access to water-colors, Indian-ink, or charcoal, spent a most woful day of weary expectancy.

It was, indeed, an awful scene of trouble, fatigue, and exertion on every side, adding one more to those million instances where the preparation for the guest has no possible relation to the degree of esteem he is held in. For so is it in the world: our best receptions are decreed to those we care least for; our "friend" is condemned to the family dinner, while we lavish our fortune on mere acquaintances. In these days the fatted calf would not have been killed to commemorate the return of the prodigal, but have been melted down into mock-turtle, to feast "my Lord" or "Your Grace."

The day wore on, and as the arrangements drew nearer to completion, the anxieties were turned towards the guests themselves, who were to have arrived at five o'clock. It was now six, and yet no sign of their coming! Fully a dozen times had Mrs. Ricketts called Martha from some household cares by the adjuration, "Sister Anne, sister Anne, seest thou n.o.body coming?" Mercury had twice ventured out on the high-road, from which he was driven back by a posse of hooting and laughing children; and Dalton himself paced up and down the terrace in a state of nervous impatience, not a little stimulated by hunger and certain flying visits he paid to the iced punch, to see if it was keeping cool.

There is, a.s.suredly, little mesmeric relation between the expecting host and the lingering guest, or we should not witness all that we do of our friends' unpunctuality in this life. What a want of sympathy between the feverish impatience of the one and the careless dalliance of the other!

Not that we intend this censure to apply to the case before us, for Haggerstone had not the very remotest conception of the honors that awaited him, and jogged along his dusty road with no greater desire to be at the end of the journey than was fairly justifiable in one who travelled with German post-horses and Fogla.s.s for a companion.

Six o'clock came, and, after another hour of fretful anxiety, it struck seven. By this time beef had become carbon, and fowls were like specimens of lava; the fish was reduced to the state of a "puree,"

while everything meant to a.s.sume the flinty resistance of ice was calmly settling down into a fluid existence. Many an architectural device of poor Martha's genius was doomed to the fate of her other "castles," and towers and minarets of skilful shape dropped off one by one, like the hopes of her childhood. All the telegraphic announcements from the kitchen were of disasters, but Mrs. Ricketts received the tidings with a Napoleonic calmness; and it was only when warned by the gathering darkness over Dalton* s brow that she thought it wiser to "give in."

Dalton's ill-humor had, however, a different source from that which she suspected. It proceeded from the quiet but steady importunity with which little Hans paced up and down before the door, now appearing before one window, now before another, totally insensible to the cold discouragement of Dalton's looks, and evidently bent on paying no attention to all the signs and signals intended for his guidance.

"Doesn't he see we've company in the house? Has n't the little creature the sense to know that this is no time to be bothering and teasing about money? Has he no decency? Has he no respect for his superiors?" Such were the deep mutterings with which Dalton tried to "blow off the steam"

of his indignation, while with many a gesture and motion he intimated his anger and impatience. "Faix! he 's like a bailiff out there," cried he at last, as he issued forth to meet him. Whatever might have been the first angry impulses of his heart, his second thoughts were far more gentle and well disposed as he drew near to Hanserl, who stood cap in hand, in an att.i.tude of deep and respectful attention.

"They have accepted the bail, Herr von Dalton, and this bond needs but your signature," said Hans, mildly, as he held forth a paper towards him.

"Who's the bail? Give me the bond," said Dalton, rapidly; and not waiting for the answer to his question, "Where's the name to be, Hanserl?"

"Here, in the s.p.a.ce," said the dwarf, dryly.

"That 's soon done, if there's no more wanting," rejoined Peter, with a laugh. "'T is seldom that writing the same two words cost me so little.

Won't you step in a minute, into the house? I 'd ask you to stop and eat your dinner, but I know you don't like strangers, and we have company to-day. Well, well, no offence; another time, maybe, when we 're alone.

He 's as proud as the devil, that little chap," muttered he, as he turned back within the house; "I never saw one of his kind that was n't 'T is only creatures with humpbacks and bent s.h.i.+ns that never believes they can be wrong in this world; they have a conceit in themselves that's wonderful! Not that there isn't good in him, too; he's a friendly soul as ever I seen! There it is, now. Peter Dalton's hand and deed;"

and he surveyed the superscription with considerable satisfaction.

"There it is, Hans, and much good may it do you!" said he, as he delivered the doc.u.ment with an air of a prince conferring a favor on a subject.

"You will bear in mind that Abel Kraus is a hard creditor!" said Hans, who could not help feeling shocked at the easy indifference Dalton exhibited.

"Well, but haven't we settled with him?" cried Peter, half impatiently.

"So far as surety for his claim goes--"

"Yes, that's what I mean,----he's sure of his money; that's all he wants. I 'd be the well-off man to-day if _I_ was sure of getting back all ever I lent! But n.o.body does, and, what's more, n.o.body expects it."

"This bond expires in twelve days," added Hans, more than commonly anxious to suggest some prudential thoughts.

"Twelve days!" exclaimed Peter, who, instead of feeling alarmed at the shortness of the period, regarded it as so many centuries. "Many's the change one sees in the world in twelve days. Would n't you take something,--a gla.s.s of Marcobrunner, or a little plain Nantz?"

Hans made no reply, for, with bent-down head and hands crossed on his bosom, he was deep in thought.

"I 'm saying, that maybe you'd drink a gla.s.s of wine, Hans?" repeated Dalton; but still no answer came. "What dreamy creatures them Germans are!" muttered Peter.

"And then," exclaimed Hanserl, as if speaking to himself, "it is but beginning life anew. Good-bye--farewell." And so saying, he touched his cap courteously, and moved hastily away, while Dalton continued to look after him with compa.s.sionate sorrow, for one so little capable of directing his path in life. As he re-entered the house, he found Mrs.

Ricketts, abandoning all hopes of her distinguished guests, had just ordered the dinner; and honest Peter consoled himself for their absence by observing that they should be twice as jolly by themselves! Had it depended on himself alone, the sentiment might have had some foundation, for there was something of almost wild gayety in his manner. All the vicissitudes of the morning, the painful alternations of hope and fear,--hope so faint as to be a torture, and fear so dark as to be almost despair,--had worked him up to a state of extreme excitement.

To add to this, he drank deeply, quaffing off whole goblets of wine, and seeming to exult in the mad whirlwind of his own reckless jollity. If the jests he uttered on Scroope's costume, or the other allegorical fancies of Zoe's brain, were not of the most refined taste, they were at least heartily applauded by the indulgent public around his board. Mrs.

Ricketts was in perfect ecstasies at the flashes of his "Irish wit;"

and even Martha, fain to take on credit what was so worthily endorsed, laughed her own meek laugh of approval. As for Purvis, champagne completed what nature had but begun, and he became perfectly unintelligible ere dinner was over.

All this while poor Nelly's sufferings were extreme; she saw the unblus.h.i.+ng, shameless adulation of the parasites, and she saw, too, the more than commonly excited glare in her father's eyes,----the wildness of fever rather than the pa.s.sing excitation of wine. In vain, her imploring, beseeching glances were turned towards him; in vain she sought, by all her little devices, to withdraw him from the scene of riotous debauch, or recall him from the excesses of a revel which was an orgie. In his wild and boastful vein he raved about "home," as he still called it, and of his family possessions,----at times vaunting of his wealth and greatness, and then, as suddenly breaking into mad invectives against the Jews and money-lenders, to whom his necessities had reduced him.

"A good run of luck over there!" cried he, frantically, and pointing to the blaze of lamps which now sparkled through the trees before the Cursaal. "One good night yonder, and Peter Dalton would defy the world.

If you 're a lucky hand, Miss Martha, come over and bet for me. I 'll make the bank jump for it before I go to bed! I know the secret of it now. It's changing from color to color ruins everybody. You must be steady to one,--black or red, whichever it is; stick fast to it. You lose two, three, maybe six or seven times running; never mind, go on still. 'T is the same with play as with women, as the old song says,----

If they're coy, and won't hear when you say you adore, Just squeeze them the tighter and press them the more."

"Isn't that it, Mrs. Ricketts? Ah, baithers.h.i.+n! you never knew that song. Miss Martha's blus.h.i.+ng; and just for that I 'll back 'red' all the evening; and there's the music beginning already. Here's success to us all! and, faix! it's a pleasant way to deserve it."

Nelly drew near him as they were leaving the room, and, pa.s.sing her arm fondly about him, whispered a few words in his ear.

"And why not this evening?" said he, aloud, and in a rude voice. "Is it Friday, that it ought to bring bad luck? Why should n't I go this evening? I can't hear you; speak louder. Ha! ha! ha! Listen to that, Miss Martha. There's the sensible Nelly for you! She says she had a dhrame about me last night."

"No, dearest papa; but that it was like a dream to me. All the narrative seemed so natural,--all the events followed so regularly, and yet I was awake just as I am now."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 294]

"More shame for you, then. We can't help ourselves what nonsense we think in our sleep."

"But you'll not go, dearest papa. You'll indulge me for this once, and I 'll promise never to tease you by such follies again."

"Faix! I'll go, sure enough; and, what's more, I'll win five thousand pounds this night, as sure as my name's Peter. I saw a black cat shaving himself before a new tin saucepan; and if that isn't luck, I'd like to know what is. A black cat won the Curragh Stakes for Tom Molly; and it was an egg saucepan made Dr. Groves gain the twenty thousand pounds in the lottery. And so, now, may I never leave this room if I'd take two thousand pounds down for my chances to-night!"

And in all the force of this confidence in fortune, Dalton sallied forth to the Cursaal. The rooms were more than usually crowded, and it was with difficulty that, with Mrs. Ricketts on one arm and Martha on the other, he could force his way to the tables. Once there, however, a courteous reception awaited him, and the urbane croupier moved his own august chair to make room for the honored guest. Although the company was very numerous, the play was as yet but trifling; a stray gold piece here or there glittered on the board, and in the careless languor of the bankers, and the unexcited looks of the bystanders, might be read the fact that none of the well-known frequenters of the place were betting.

Dalton's appearance immediately created a sensation of curiosity.

Several of those present had witnessed his losses on the preceding night, and were eager to see what course he would now pursue. It was remarked that he was not accompanied, as heretofore, by that formidable money-bag which, with ostentatious noise, he used to fling down on the table before him. Nor did he now produce that worn old leather pocket-book, whose bursting clasp could scarce contain the roll of bank-notes within it. He sat with his hands crossed before him, staring at the table, but to all seeming not noticing the game. At length, suddenly rousing himself, he leant over and said a few words, in a whisper, to the croupier, who, in an equally low tone, communicated with his colleague across the table. A nod and a smile gave the quiet reply; and Dalton, taking a piece of paper, scrawled a few figures on it with a pencil, and with a motion so rapid as to be unseen by many of the bystanders, the banker pushed several "rouleaux" of gold before Dalton, and went on with the game.

Dalton broke one of the envelopes, and as the glittering pieces fell out, he moved his fingers through them, as though their very touch was pleasure. At last, with a kind of nervous impatience, he gathered up a handful, and without counting, threw them on the table.

"How much?" said the croupier.

"The whole of it!" cried Dalton; and scarcely had he spoken, when he won.

A murmur of astonishment ran through the room as he suffered the double stake to remain on the board; which speedily grew into a loader ham of voices, as the banker proceeded to count out the gains of a second victory. Affecting an insight into the game and its chances which he did not possess, Dalton now hesitated and pondered over his bets, increasing his stake at one moment, diminis.h.i.+ng it at another, and a.s.suming all the practised airs of old and tried gamblers. As though in obedience to every caprice, the fortune of the game followed him unerringly. If he lost, it was some mere trifle; when he won, the stake was sure to be a large one. At length even this affected prudence--this mock skill--became too slow for him, and he launched out into all his accustomed recklessness. Not waiting to take in his winnings, he threw fresh handfuls of gold amongst them, till the bank, trembling for its safety, more than once had to reduce the stakes he wished to venture.

"They'd give him five hundred Naps, this moment if he 'd cease to play,"

said some one behind Dalton's chair. "There 's nothing the bank dreads so much as a man with courage to back his luck."

"I 'd wish them a good-night," said another, "if I 'd have made so good a-thing of it as that old fellow; he has won some thousand Napoleons, I 'm certain."

"_He_ knows better than that," said the former. "This is a 'run' with him, and he feels it is. He 'll 'break' them before the night's over."

Dalton heard every word of this colloquy, and drank in the surmise as greedily as did Macbeth the Witches' prophecy.