Barrington Volume Ii Part 9

"I have done so till I was wearied. Like a true lawyer, he insists upon proving each step as he goes, and will not condescend to a hypothetical conclusion, though I have told him over and over again we want a settlement, not a victory. Good-bye, good-bye! If I once launch out into the cause, I cannot tear myself away again."

"Has your guest gone, Peter?" said Miss Dinah, as her brother re-entered the drawing-room.

"Yes; it was a hurried departure, and he had no great heart for it, either. By the way, Withering, while it is fresh in my head, let me tell you the message he has sent you."

"Was there none for _me_, Peter?" said she, scofflngly.

"Ay, but there was, Dinah! He left with me I know not how many polite and charming things to say for him."

"And am I alone forgotten in this wide dispensation of favors?" asked Josephine, smiling.

"Of course not, dear," chimed in Miss Dinah. "Your grandpapa has been charged with them all. You could not expect a gentleman so naturally timid and bashful as our late guest to utter them by his own lips."

"I see," said Withering, laughing, "that you have not forgiven the haughty aristocrat for his insolent estimate of the people!"

"He an aristocrat! Such bitter words as his never fell from any man who had a grandfather!"

"Wrong for once, Dinah," broke in Barrington. "I can answer for it that you are unjust to him."

"We shall see," said she. "Come, Josephine, I have a whole morning's work before me in the flower-garden, and I want your help. Don't forget, Peter, that Major M'Cormick's butler, or boatman, or bailiff, whichever he be, has been up here with a present of seakale this morning. Give him something as you pa.s.s the kitchen; and you, Mr. Withering, whose trade it is to read and unravel mysteries, explain if you can the meaning of this unwonted generosity."

"I suppose we can all guess it," said he, laughing. "It's a custom that begins in the East and goes round the whole world till it reaches the vast prairie in the Far West."

"And what can that custom be, Aunt Dinah?" asked Josephine, innocently.

"It's an ancient rite Mr. Withering speaks, of, child, pertaining to the days when men offered sacrifices. Come along; I 'm going!"

CHAPTER VII. CROSS-EXAMININGS.

While Barrington and his lawyer sat in conclave over the details of the great suit, Stapylton hurried along his road with all the speed he could summon. The way, which for some miles led along the river-side, brought into view M'Cormick's cottage, and the Major himself, as he stood listlessly at his door.'

Halting his carriage for a moment, Stapylton jumped out and drew nigh the little quickset hedge which flanked the road.

"What can I do for you in the neighborhood of Manchester, Major? We are just ordered off there to ride down the Radicals."

"I wish it was nearer home you were going to do it," said he, crankily.

"Look here,"--and he pointed to some fresh-turned earth,--"they were stealing my turnips last night."

"It would appear that these fellows in the North are growing dangerous,"

said Stapylton.

"'T is little matter to us," said M'Cormick, sulkily. "I'd care more about a blight in the potatoes than for all the politics in Europe."

"A genuine philosopher! How snug you are here, to be sure! A man in a pleasant nook like this can well afford to smile at the busy ambitions of the outer world. I take it you are about the very happiest fellow I know?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," said he, peevishly.

"This spot only wants what I hinted to you t'other evening, to be perfection."

"Ay!" said the other, dryly.

"And you agree with me heartily, if you had the candor to say it. Come, out with it, man, at once. I saw your gardener this morning with a great basketful of greenery, and a large bouquet on the top of it,--are not these significant signs of a projected campaign? You are wrong, Major, upon my life you are wrong, not to be frank with me. I could, by a strange hazard, as the newspapers say, 'tell you something to your advantage.'"

"About what?"

"About the very matter you were thinking of as I drove up. Come, I will be more generous than you deserve." And, laying his arm on M'Cormick's shoulder, he halt whispered in his ear; "It is a good thing,--a deuced good thing! and I promise you, if I were a marrying man, you 'd have a compet.i.tor. I won't say she 'll have one of the great fortunes people rave about, but it will be considerable,--very considerable."

"How do you know, or what do you know?"

"I 'll tell you in three words. How I know is, because I have been the channel for certain inquiries they made in India. What I know is, the Directors are sick of the case, they are sorely ashamed of it, and not a little uneasy lest it should come before the public, perhaps before the Parliament. Old Barrington has made all negotiation difficult by the extravagant pretensions he puts forward about his son's honor, and so forth. If, however, the girl were married, her husband would be the person to treat with, and I am a.s.sured with him they would deal handsomely, even generously."

"And why would n't all this make a marrying man of you, though you were n't before?"

"There's a slight canonical objection, if you must know," said Stapylton, with a smile.

"Oh, I perceive,--a wife already! In India, perhaps?"

"I have no time just now for a long story, M'Cormick," said he, familiarly, "nor am I quite certain I 'd tell it if I had. However, you know enough for all practical purposes, and I repeat to you this is a stake I can't enter for,--you understand me?"

"There's another thing, now," said M'Cormick; "and as we are talking so freely together, there's no harm in mentioning it. It 's only the other day, as I may call it, that we met for the first time?"

"Very true: when I was down here at Cobham."

"And never heard of each other before?"

"Not to my knowledge, certainly."

"That being the case, I 'm curious to hear how you took this wonderful interest in me. It wasn't anything in my appearance, I 'm sure, nor my manner; and as to what you 'd hear about me among those blackguards down here, there's nothing too bad to say of me."

"I'll be as frank as yourself," said Stapylton, boldly; "you ask for candor, and you shall have it. I had n't talked ten minutes with you till I saw that you were a thorough man of the world; the true old soldier, who had seen enough of life to know that whatever one gets for nothing in this world is just worth nothing, and so I said to myself, 'If it ever occurs to me to chance upon a good opportunity of which I cannot from circ.u.mstances avail myself, there's my man. I'll go to him and say, "M'Cormick, that's open to you, there's a safe thing!" And when in return he 'd say, "Stapylton, what can I do for you?" my answer would be, "Wait till you are satisfied that I have done you a good turn; be perfectly a.s.sured that I have really served you." And then, if I wanted a loan of a thousand or fifteen hundred to lodge for the Lieutenant-Colonelcy, I 'd not be ashamed to say, "M'Cormick, let me have so much."'"

"That's _it_, is it?" said M'Cormick, with a leer of intense cunning.

"Not a bad bargain for _you_, anyhow. It is not every day that a man can sell what is n't his own."

"I might say, it's not every day that a man regards a possible loan as a gift, but I 'm quite ready to rea.s.sure all your fears on that score; I'll even pledge myself never to borrow a shilling from you."

"Oh, I don't mean that; you took me up so quick," said the old fellow, reddening with a sense of shame he had not felt for many a year. "I may be as stingy as they call me, but for all that I 'd stand to a man who stands to _me_."

"Between gentlemen and men of the world these things are better left to a sense of an honorable understanding than made matters of compact.

There is no need of another word on the matter. I shall be curious, however, to know how your project speeds. Write to me,--you have plenty of time,--and write often. I 'm not unlikely to learn something about the Indian claim, and if I do, you shall hear of it."

"I'm not over good at pen and ink work; indeed, I haven't much practice, but I'll do my best."

"Do, by all means. Tell me how you get on with Aunt Dinah, who, I suspect, has no strong affection for either of us. Don't be precipitate; hazard nothing by a rash step; secure your way by intimacy, mere intimacy: avoid particular attentions strictly; be always there, and on some pretext or other--But why do I say all this to an old soldier, who has made such sieges scores of times?"

"Well, I think I see my way clear enough," said the old fellow, with a grin. "I wish I was as sure I knew why you take such an interest in me."