Tony Butler Part 28

"I cannot be so ungrateful, sir. It is but fair and just that Tony should hear of your generous plan. Mr. Maitland thought he 'd just take you abroad--to travel with him--to go about and see the world. He 'd call you his secretary."

"His what!" exclaimed Tony, with a burst of laughter. "His what, mother?"

"Let _me_ try and explain away, if I can, the presumption of such a project. Not now, however," said Maitland, look-ing at his watch, "for I have already overstayed my time; and I have an appointment for this evening,--without you will kindly give me your company for half a mile up the road, and we can talk the matter over together."

Tony looked hesitatingly for a moment at bis mother; but she said, "To be sure, Tony. I 'll give Mr. Maitland a loan of you for half an hour.

Go with him, by all means."

With all that courtesy of which he was a master, Maitland thanked her for the sacrifice she was making, and took his leave.

"You have no objection to walk fast, I hope," said Maitland; "for I find I am a little behind my time."

Tony a.s.sented with a nod, and they stepped out briskly; the device of the speed being merely a.s.sumed to give Maitland an opportunity of seeing a little more of his companion before entering upon any serious converse. Tony, however, was as impenetrable in his simplicity as some others are in their depth; and after two or three attempts to draw him on to talk of commonplaces, Maitland said abruptly: "You must have thought it a great impertinence on my part to make such a proposal to your mother as she has just told you of; but the fact was, I had no other way of approaching a very difficult subject, and opening a question which to her, certainly, I could not explain myself fully upon.

I heard a good deal about you up at the Abbey, and all that I heard confirmed me in the notion that you were just the man for an enterprise in which I am myself deeply interested. However, as I well knew, even if I succeeded in inducing you to become my comrade, it would be necessary to have a sort of narrative which would conceal the project from your mother, it occurred to me to get up this silly idea of a secretarys.h.i.+p, which I own freely may have offended you."

"Not offended; it only amused me," said Tony, good-humoredly. "I can't imagine a man less fitted for such an office than myself."

"I 'm not so sure of that," said Maitland, "though I'm quite certain it would be a very unprofitable use to make of you. You are, like myself, a man of action; one to execute and do, and not merely to note and record.

The fellows who write history very seldom make it,--isn't that true?"

"I don't know. I can only say I don't think I 'm very likely to do one or the other."

"We shall see that I don't concur in the opinion, but we shall see.

It would be rather a tedious process to explain myself fully as to my project, but I 'll give you two or three little volumes."

"No, no; don't give me anything to read; if you want me to understand you, tell it out plainly, whatever it is."

"Here goes, then, and it is not my fault if you don't fully comprehend me; but mind, what I am about to reveal to you is strictly on honor, and never to be divulged to any one. I have your word for this?" They pressed hands, and he continued: "There is a government on the Continent so undermined by secret treachery that it can no longer rely upon its own arms for defence, but is driven to enlist in its cause the brave and adventurous spirits of other countries,--men who, averse to ign.o.ble callings or monotonous labor, would rather risk life than reduce it to the mere condition of daily drudgery. To this government, which in principle has all my sympathies, I have devoted all that I have of fortune, hope, or personal energy. I have, in a word, thrown my whole future into its cause. I have its confidence in return; and I am enabled not only to offer a high career and a n.o.ble sphere of action, but all that the world calls great rewards, to those whom I may select to join me in its defence."

"Is it France?" asked Tony; and Maitland had to bite his lip to repress a smile at such a question.

"No, it is not France," said he, calmly; "for France, under any rule, I 'd not shed one drop of my blood."

"Nor I, neither!" cried Tony. "I hate Frenchmen; my father hated them, and taught me to do the same."

"So far from enlisting you to serve France, it is more than probable that in the cause I speak of you 'll find yourself arrayed against Frenchmen."

"All right; I 'd do that with a heart and a half; but what is the State?

Is it Austria?--is it Russia?"

"Neither. If you only give me to believe that you listen favorably to my plan, you shall hear everything; and I 'll tell you, besides, what I shall offer to you, personally,--the command of a company in an Irish regiment, with the certainty of rapid advancement, and ample means to supply yourself with all that your position requires. Is that sufficient?"

"Quite so, if I like the cause I 'm to fight for."

"I 'll engage to satisfy you on that head. You need but read the names of those of our own countrymen who adopt it, to be convinced that it is a high and a holy cause. I don't suppose you have studied very deeply that great issue which our century is about to try,--the cause of order _versus_ anarchy,--the right to rule of the good, the virtuous, and the enlightened, against the tyranny of the unlettered, the degraded, and the base."

"I know nothing about it."

"Well, I 'll tax your patience some day to listen to it all from me; for the present what say you to my plan?"

"I rather like it. If it had only come last week, I don't think I could have refused it."

"And why last week?"

"Because I have got a promise of an appointment since that"

"Of what nature,--a commission in the army?"

"No," said he, shaking his head.

"They 're not going to make a clerk of a fellow like you, I trust?"

"They 'd be sorely disappointed if they did."

"Well, what _are_ they going to do with you?"

"Oh, it's nothing very high and mighty. I am to be what they call a Queen's Messenger."

"Under the Foreign Office?"

"Yes."

"Not bad things these appointments,--that is to say, gentlemen hold them, and contrive to live on them. How they do so it's not very easy to say; but the fact is there, and not to be questioned."

This speech, a random shot as it was, hit the mark; and Maitland saw that Tony winced under it, and he went on.

"The worst is, however, that these things lead to nothing. If a man takes to the law, he dreams of the Great Seal, or, at least, of the bench. If he be a soldier, he is sure to scribble his name with 'lieutenant-general' before it. One always has an eye to the upper branches, whatever be the tree; but this messenger affair is a mere bush, which does not admit of climbing. Last of all, it would never do for you."

"And why not do for me?" asked Tony, half fiercely.

"Simply because you could not reduce yourself to the mere level of a piece of mechanism,--a thing wound up at Downing Street, to go 'down'

as it reached Vienna. To you life should present, with its changes of fortune, its variety, its adventures, and its rewards. Men like you confront dangers, but are always conquered by mere drudgery. Am I right?"

"Perhaps there is something in that."

"Don't fancy that I am talking at hazard; I have myself felt the very thing I am telling you of; and I could no more have begun life as a Cabinet postboy, than I could have taken to stone-breaking."

"You seem to forget that there is a cla.s.s of people in this world whom a wise proverb declares are not to be choosers."

"There never was a sillier adage. It a.s.sumes that because a man is poor he must remain poor. It presumes to affirm that no one can alter his condition. And who are the successful in life? The men who have energy to will it,--the fellows who choose their place, and insist upon taking it. Let me a.s.sure you, Butler, you are one of these, if you could only throw off your humility and believe it. Only resolve to join us, and I 'll give you any odds you like that I am a true prophet; at all events, turn it over in your mind; give it a fair consideration,--of course, I mean your own consideration, for it is one of those things a man cannot consult his mother upon; and when we meet again, which will not be for a few days, as I leave for a short absence to-morrow, you 'll give me your answer."

"What day do you expect to be back here?"

"I hope, by Sat.u.r.day; indeed, I can safely say by Sat.u.r.day."

"By that time I shall have made up my mind. Goodbye."

"The mind is made up already," mattered Maitland, as he moved away,--"I have him."