Ten Thousand a-Year Volume Ii Part 29

"What! do _you_ turn against me too?" inquired Kate, laughing very good-humoredly.

"I wonder what her stately Ladys.h.i.+p's feelings were," said Aubrey, after a pause, "the first time that her elegant and accomplished lover _saluted_ her!!"

"Eugh!" exclaimed both Kate and Mrs. Aubrey, in a breath, and with a simultaneous shudder of disgust.

"I dare say poor old Lord Dreddlington's notion is, that this will be a fine opportunity for bringing about his favorite scheme of _reuniting the families_--Heaven save the mark!" said Mr. Aubrey, just as the twopenny postman's knock at the door was heard; and within a few moments' time the servant brought up-stairs a letter addressed to Mr.

Aubrey. The very first glance at its contents expelled the smile from his countenance, and the color from his cheek: he turned, in fact, so pale, that Mrs. Aubrey and Kate also changed color--and came and stood with beating hearts, and suddenly suspended breath, one on each side of him, looking over the letter while he was reading it. As I intend presently to lay a copy of it before the reader, I shall first state a few circ.u.mstances, which will make it appear that this same letter may be compared to a sh.e.l.l thrown into a peaceful little citadel, by a skilful, though distant and unseen engineer--in short, I mean Mr.

Gammon.

CHAPTER XII.

The astute and determined person mentioned at the close of our last chapter, had long been bent upon securing one object--namely, access to Mr. Aubrey's family circle, for reasons which have been already communicated to the reader. That Mr. Aubrey was, at all events, by no means _anxious_ for such a favor, had been long before abundantly manifest to Gammon, and yet not in a way to give him any legitimate, or excusable, grounds of offence. The Aubreys had, he acknowledged, and especially in their present circ.u.mstances, an unquestionable right to receive or reject, as they thought fit, any overtures to acquaintance.

Nothing, he felt, could be more unexceptionably courteous than Mr.

Aubrey's demeanor; yet had it been such as to satisfy him, that unless he resorted to some means of unusual efficacy, he never could get upon visiting terms with the Aubreys. The impression which Miss Aubrey had originally produced in his mind, remained as distinct and vivid as ever.

Her beauty, her grace, her elevated character, (of which he had heard much on all hands,) her accomplishments, her high birth--all were exquisitely appreciated by him, and conspired to const.i.tute a prize, for the gaining of which he deemed no exertion too great, no sacrifice too serious, no enterprise too hazardous. He had, moreover, other most important objects in view, to which a union with Miss Aubrey was in fact essential. She was, again, the only person, the sight of whom had in any measure given vitality to his marble heart, exciting totally new thoughts and desires, such as stimulated him to a fierce and inflexible determination to succeed in his purposes. He was, in short, prepared to make almost any sacrifice, to wait any length of time, to do or suffer anything that man could do or suffer, whether derogatory to his personal honor or not--in order either to secure the affections of Miss Aubrey, or, at all events, her consent to a union with him. Having early discovered the spot where Mr. Aubrey had fixed his residence, Mr. Gammon had made a point of lying in wait on a Sunday morning, for the purpose of ascertaining the church to which they went; and having succeeded, he became a constant, an impa.s.sioned, though an unseen observer of Miss Aubrey, from whom he seldom removed his eyes during the service. But this was to him a highly unsatisfactory state of things: he seemed, in fact, not to have made, nor to be likely to make, the least progress towards the accomplishment of his wishes, though much time had already pa.s.sed away. He was so deeply engrossed with the affairs of t.i.tmouse--which required his presence very frequently at Yatton, and a great deal of his attention in town--as to prevent his taking any decisive steps for some time in the matter nearest his heart. At length, not having seen or heard anything of Mr. Aubrey for some weeks, during which he--Gammon--had been in town, he resolved on a new stroke of policy.

"Mr. Quirk," said he one day to his excellent senior partner, "I fancy you will say that I am come to flatter you; but, Heaven knows!--if there _is_ a man on the earth with whom I lay aside disguise, that man is my friend Mr. Quirk. Really, it does seem, and mortifying enough it is to own it, as if events invariably showed that you are right--that I am wrong"--(Here Mr. Quirk's appearance might have suggested the idea of a great old tom-cat who is rubbed down the right way of the fur, and does everything he can to testify the delight it gives him, by pressing against the person who affords him such gratification,)--"especially in financial matters"----

"Ah, Gammon, Gammon! you're really past finding out!--Sometimes, now, I declare I fancy you the very keenest dog going in such matters, and at other times, eh?--not _particularly_ brilliant. When you've seen as much of this world's villany, Gammon, as I have, you'll find it as necessary as I have found it, to lay aside one's--one's--I say--to lay aside all scrup----that is--I mean--one's _fine feelings_, and so forth; you understand, Gammon?"

"Perfectly, Mr. Quirk"----

"Well--and may I ask, Gammon, what is the particular occasion of that screwed-up forehead of yours? Something in the wind?"

"Only this, Mr. Quirk--I begin to suspect that I did very wrong in recommending you to give an indefinite time to that Mr. Aubrey for payment of the heavy balance he owes us--by Heavens!--see how coolly he treats us!"

"Indeed, Gammon, I think so!--Besides--_'tis_ an uncommon heavy balance to owe so long, eh?--Fifteen hundred pounds, or thereabouts?--Gad, it's _that_, at least!"--Gammon shrugged his shoulders and bowed, as if resigned to any step which Mr. Quirk might think proper to take.

"He's a villanous proud fellow, that Aubrey, eh?--Your tip-top debtors generally _are_, though--when they've got a bit of a hards.h.i.+p to harp upon"----

"Certainly we ought, when we had him in our power"----

"Ah!--D'ye recollect, Gammon? the _thumbscrew_? eh? whose fault was it that it wasn't put on? eh? Tell me that, friend Gammon! Are you coming round to old Caleb Quirk's matter-of-fact way of doing business? Depend on't, the old boy has got a trick or two left in him yet, gray as his hair's grown."

"I bow, my dear sir--I own myself worsted--and all through that absurd weakness I have, which some choose to call"----

"Oh Lord, Gammon! Bubble, bubble and botheration--ah, ha!--Come, there's n.o.body here but you and me--and eh? _old Bogy_ perhaps--so, why that little bit of blarney?"

"Oh! my dear Mr. Quirk, spare me that cutting irony of yours. Surely when I have made the sincere and humiliating submission to which you have been listening--but, to return to business. I a.s.sure you that I think we ought to lose not a moment in getting in our balance, or at least coming to some satisfactory and definite arrangement concerning it. Only pinch him, and he'll bleed freely, depend on it."

"Ah, ha! Pinch him, and he'll bleed! That's _my_ thunder, Gammon, ah, ha, ha!--By Jove! that's it to a T!--I always thought the fellow had blood enough in him if we only squeezed him a little. So let Snap be off and have a writ out against Master Aubrey."

"Forgive me, my dear Mr. Quirk," interrupted Gammon, blandly--"we must go very cautiously to work, or we shall only injure ourselves, and prejudice our most important--and _permanent_ interests. We must take care not to drive him desperate, poor devil, or he may take the benefit of the act, and"----

"What a cursed scamp he would be to"----

"Certainly; but _we_ should suffer more than he"----

"Surely, Gammon, they'd _remand_ him! Eighteen months at the very least."

"Not an hour--not a minute, Mr. Quirk," said Gammon, very earnestly.

"The deuce they wouldn't? Well, Law's come to a pretty point! And so lenient as we've been!"

"What occurs to _me_ as the best method of procedure," said Gammon, after musing for a moment--"is, for you to write a letter to him immediately--civil but peremptory--just one of those letters of yours, my dear sir, in which no living man can excel you--_suaviter in modo, fort.i.ter in re_, Mr. Quirk."

"Gammon, you're a gentleman, every inch of you--you are, upon my soul!

If there _is_ one thing in which I----but _you're_ a hand at a letter of that sort, too! And _you_ have managed these people hitherto; why not go on to the end of the chapter?"

"Mr. Quirk, I look upon this letter as rather an important one--it ought to come from the head of the firm, and to be decisively and skilfully expressed, so as at once to----eh? but you know exactly what ought to be done."

"Well--leave it to me,--leave it to me, Gammon: I think I _do_ know how to draw up a teaser--egad! You can just cast your eye over it as soon as"----

"If I return in time from Clerkenwell, I will, Mr. Quirk," replied Gammon, who had, however, determined not to disable himself from saying with literal truth that he had not seen one line of the letter which might be sent! and, moreover, resolving to make his appearance at Mr.

Aubrey's almost immediately after he should, in the course of the post, have received Mr. Quirk's communication:--with every appearance and _expression_ of distress, agitation, and even disgust; indignantly a.s.suring Mr. Aubrey that the letter had been sent without Mr. Gammon's knowledge--against his will--and was entirely repudiated by him; and that he would take care, at all hazards to himself, to frustrate any designs on the part of his coa.r.s.e and hard-hearted senior partner to hara.s.s or oppress Mr. Aubrey. With this explanation of precedent circ.u.mstances, I proceed to lay before the reader an exact copy of the elegant letter of that old cat's-paw, Mr. Quirk, to Mr. Aubrey, the arrival of which had produced the sensation to which I have already alluded.

"_Saffron Hill, 30th September 18--._

"SIR,--We trust you will excuse our reminding you of the very large balance (1,446, 14s. 6d.) still remaining due upon our account--and which we understood, at the time when the very favorable arrangement to you, with respect to Mr. t.i.tmouse, was made, was to have been long before this liquidated. Whatever allowances we might have felt disposed, on account of your peculiar situation, to have made, (and which we _have_ made,) we cannot but feel a little surprised at your having allowed several months to elapse without making any allusion thereto. We are satisfied, however, that you require only to be reminded thereof, to have your immediate attention directed thereto, and to act in that way that will conduce to liquidate our very heavy balance against you. We are sorry to have to press you; but being much pressed ourselves with serious outlays, we are obliged to throw ourselves (however reluctantly) upon our resources; and it gives us pleasure to antic.i.p.ate, that you must by this time have made those arrangements that will admit of your immediate attention to our over-due account, and that will render unnecessary our resorting to hostile and compulsory proceedings of that extremely painful description that we have always felt extremely reluctant to, particularly with those gentlemen that would feel it very disagreeable. We trust that in a week's time we shall hear from you to that effect, that will render unnecessary our proceeding to extremities against you, which would be extremely painful to us.--We remain, sir, yours, most obediently,

"QUIRK, GAMMON, & SNAP.

"CHARLES AUBREY, ESQ.

"P. S.--We should have no objection, if it would materially relieve you, to take your note of hand for the aforesaid balance (1,446, 14s. 6d.) at two months, with interest, and good security. Or say, 800 down in two months, and a _warrant of attorney_ for the remainder, at two months more."

As soon as they had finished reading the above letter, in the way I have described, Mrs. Aubrey threw her arms round her silent and oppressed husband's neck, and Kate, her bosom heaving with agitation, returned to her seat without uttering a word.

"My own poor Charles!" faltered Mrs. Aubrey, and wept.

"Never mind, Charles--let us hope that we shall get through even _this_," commenced Kate; when her emotion prevented her proceeding. Mr.

Aubrey appeared to cast his eye again, but mechanically only, over the dry, civil, heart-breaking letter.

"Don't distress yourself, my Agnes," said he, tenderly, placing her beside him, with his arm round her--"it is only reasonable that these people should ask for what is their own; and if their manner is a little coa.r.s.e"----

"Oh, I've no patience, Charles!--it's the letter of a vulgar, hard-hearted fellow," sobbed Mrs. Aubrey.

"Yes--they are wretches!--cruel harpies!" quoth Kate, pa.s.sionately--"they know that you have almost beggared yourself to pay off by far the greater part of their abominable bill; and that you are slaving day and night to enable you to"----here her agitation was so excessive as to prevent her uttering another word.

"I must write and tell them," said Aubrey, calmly but with a countenance laden with gloom--"it is all I can do--that if they will _have patience with me, I will pay them all_."

"Oh, they'll put you in prison, Charles, directly"--said Kate, almost frantically; and rising, she threw herself into his arms, and kissed him with a sort of frenzied energy. "We're _very_ miserable, Charles--are we not? It's hard to bear indeed," she continued, gazing with agonizing intensity on his troubled features. Mrs. Aubrey wept in silence.

"Are you giving way, my brave Kate, beneath this sudden and momentary gust on the midnight sea of our trouble?" inquired her brother, proudly but kindly gazing at her, and with his hand gently pus.h.i.+ng from her pale cheeks her disordered hair.