Luttrell Of Arran Part 57

"The Attorney-General, with due submission, Sir, never saw the original doc.u.ment; he saw the draft, which was subsequently cancelled, and if there be any point upon which I will waive nothing--positively nothing--it is this."

"When a man insists so positively on his right to make a settlement, it is no unfair presumption to infer that he means to marry."

"The supposition might certainly be entertained," said the old envoy, bowing with the courtesy he would have observed in a ministerial conference.

"For _that_"--and the banker laid a most marked and peculiar emphasis on the word--"for that, most a.s.suredly, I was not prepared."

"Nor can I say," continued the other, "that I deemed it any part of my duty to submit such a possibility to your consideration."

"Perhaps not, Sir Within; there was no absolute reason why you should.

You are, of course, the only judge of what concerns your own interests, or--or----"

"Or happiness?"

"I didn't say happiness, simply because I thought it was the very consideration that you were about to omit."

Sir Within smiled very blandly; he arranged the frill of his s.h.i.+rt--he wore a frilled s.h.i.+rt--and, taking forth a splendidly jewelled box, he offered a pinch to his companion. It was the diplomatic mode of saying that a conference was closed; but Mr. Ladarelle did not understand this nicety.

"After all, Sir Within, neither you nor I are men who can affect to defy the world. What the world thinks and says of us, we cannot undervalue."

"The world, at _my_ age, is the six, perhaps eight, people I could get to dine with me."

"No, no, Sir, don't say that--you can't say that. The world is to you, as to all men who have taken a large part in public affairs, the wide circle of those who bring to their judgment on their fellow-men a vast acquaintance with motives, and interests, and reasons; and, besides all these, with conventionalities and decorums. They form the jury who decide on, not alone the good morals of their contemporaries, but on their good taste."

"Perhaps it might be my fortune to offer them a most undeniable proof of mine," said the old man, intentionally mistaking what the other had said.

"Take care, Sir Within! Take care. You might be like that case at Guildford t'other day, where the judge said, 'There is nothing so serious in the indictment against you as your own defence.'"

"I believe you said you never took snuff," said the envoy, tapping the gorgeous box he still held in his fingers. "That clump of oaks you see yonder," continued he, pointing with his finger, "shuts out one of the most beautiful bits of landscape I ever saw, and I have only waited for your presence here, to decide on cutting them down."

"I will not consent to fell timber, Sir, for the sake of landscape. I am certain Adolphus would agree with me."

They now walked on, side by side, in silence. How beautiful that wood alley was! How calmly sweet the leafy shade, how deliciously the blackbird carolled from its depths, and how soft the smooth turf beneath their feet, and yet how little they heeded or cared for it all! The banker spoke first: "If you had been prepared to propose terms on which it was possible to treat, Sir Within, my son, I know--as for myself, the plan has no attractions for me--but my son, I know, would have felt disposed to meet you; but when you start on the basis that an interval of five years, or something akin to it, makes no inroad whatever on a man's life, and then, possibly aided by that theory, hint at the likelihood of having to charge the estate with settlement----"

"My dear Mr. Ladarelle, forgive my interrupting you. All this is very painful, and, what is worse, unprofitable. I remember a remark of the charming old Duke of Anhalt to his neighbouring sovereign, the Prince of Hohen Alttingen: 'My dear Prince,' said he, 'whatever our ministers can and ought to discuss together, will always prove a most unseemly topic for us;' so be a.s.sured, Sir, that what our lawyers can wrangle over, we will do much better if we leave to them."

"You know best, I am certain, Sir. I feel it is your province to understand these cases; but I own it would never have occurred to me to take a stupid old German potentate as an authority on a matter of business. May I ask what is that edifice yonder, like a piece of confectionary?"

"It is my aviary, which I shall be proud to-show you." "Excuse me, I know nothing about birds."

"I shall not insist, for it is the season when they lose their plumage."

"By Jove! Sir, if this system of expense be carried on, I suspect that some of ourselves will be just as devoid of feathers. That gimcrack cost, I should say, seven or eight hundred pounds?"

"You have guessed too low! It will, when finished--for the frescos are not completed--amount to very close on two thousand."

"For linnets and piping bullfinches!"

"Pardon me, Sir; for nothing of the kind. For the blue sparrows of Java, for the crimson owl of Ceylon, for the azure-winged mocking-bird, and the scarlet bustard."

"Let us see what the Master will say to this fine catalogue, when it is presented to him as part of works of permanent value--that's the phrase, Sir, permanent and substantial improvements--which scarcely contemplated c.o.c.katoos and canaries. And what do I see yonder? Is that the Lord Mayor's state barge, that you have bought in at second hand?"

"That is a little gondola--a caprice of my ward's, Sir, and not to be questioned in any way."

It was the first time since they met that any allusion to Kate had been dropped between them, and already the old envoy's voice showed by its vibration that the theme was one not to be lightly adverted to.

"The young lady's tastes, it would seem, incline to splendour, but possibly her fortune warrants it."

"I am certain that her tastes befit her condition," said the other, with a tone of open defiance.

"I have no doubt of it, not the least doubt of it; I would only observe, that a person so very attractive----"

"Well, Sir, go on; finish what you were about to say."

"Certainly not, Sir Within, when the expression with which you hear me declares that I am taking too great a liberty."

"It is too late for apology, Sir. You have already transgressed."

"I never intended an apology, Sir Within, for I took care not to incur what might require one. When I saw, or fancied I saw, that my remarks, well meant as they were, might not be as acceptable as I desired, I forbore from completing them; that is all."

"And you did well, Sir!" said the other, haughtily, while, with a proud wave of his hand, he seemed to say the subject must be dropped.

"I mean to return to town to-morrow," said Mr. Ladarelle, after a pause; "but my son, with your kind permission, will be a burden on your hospitality for a few days longer."

"I am proud to have his company," said the old minister, with a courteous bow; but the other, not noticing it, went on: "He wants to see that mill. h.o.a.re says, that without some arrangement about the supply of water, he must insist upon an abatement; that your Neptunes, and Dryads, and river-G.o.ds, consume far more than goes over his wheel; and though, perhaps, it is a little premature on our part to enter upon this matter, yet, as the man has a lease renewable at his pleasure----"

"With your gracious leave, it is on a question of wine, and not of water, I will ask your opinion. I have got some very old Steinberger, which I purpose to have your judgment on, and as I hear the first bell ringing, probably we have not much time to lose. This is the shortest way back to the house."

The banker made no reply; he plodded on moodily towards the Castle, and mounted the stairs to his dressing-room, neither pleased with his host nor himself, nor, indeed, with the rest of the world.

It is very probable that Sir Within retired to dress for dinner far more deeply wounded and far more irritated by this interview than his guest.

With persons as plain spoken as Mr. Ladarelle, Sir Within had held very little intercourse in life. He had always played the game with those of the most refined and the most susceptible politeness. Men who would no more have committed a rudeness than a murder, and it was no mean trial of his nerves to be told, not merely that he was old, but that he was of that age in which life was something more than precarious. The ex-envoy felt, in fact, as he might have felt had some one ordered his carriage before the time he himself had told his coachman to come; thus intimating, it is possible, from reasons not entered upon or discussed, that he might think proper to leave earlier than he had contemplated. He changed colour so often, that he had to supply a little extra rouge to his cheek; and his nerves were so shaken, that he could not descend to the drawing-room without a little dram of Maraschino and ether.

He found Kate alone in the drawing-room as he entered. She was most becomingly dressed, and wore a sprig of lily of the valley in her hair, which became her vastly.

"How well you look, Ma Mie," said he, as he surveyed her through his gla.s.s; "and how glad I should be if our guests were more deserving of us both. _You_, however, cannot help being beautiful."

"And you _will_ be witty, whether you like it or not, my dear guardian,"

said she, with a bewitching smile.

"C'est plus fort que moi! Kate. The old Duc de Nevers said to me, when I was a very young man, 'Mon cher Wardle, always talk your very best, no matter what the theme, or with whom. Never give yourself the indolent habit of careless expression. There is no such thing in conversation as dishabille.'"

"Indeed, Sir!"

"Yes, ma chere; to be epigrammatic, your faculties must be always in exercise. To let off those brilliant fireworks which astonish the world as wit, the match must be kept ever a-light, the hand ready."

"Mr. George Grenfell!" said the servant, throwing wide the door, and, after about two seconds' interval, that former acquaintance of our reader entered the room, and was met by Sir Within with a blended polish and cordiality.

"This is a kindness, Mr. Grenfell, that promises well for our future neighbourhood. I am most grateful to you for accepting my short-time invitation. My ward, Mademoiselle O'Hara."