Deerbrook Part 54

"With the greatest pleasure, my dear brother. Mr Walcot, my brother, Mr Enderby. Brother, my friend, Mr Walcot."

Mr Walcot blushed with delight, looked as if he longed to shake hands if he dared, and said something of his joy at becoming acquainted with the brother of so kind a friend as Mrs Rowland.

"There is not much to be apprehended here," thought Mr Enderby. "How perfectly unlike what I had fancied! This dragon, which was to devour the Hopes, seems a pretty harmless creature. Why he looks a mere boy, and with hair so light, one can't see it without spectacles. What will he do with himself in my mother's good house? f.a.n.n.y Grey's bird-cage would suit him better;--and then he might hang in Rowland's hall, and be always ready for use when the children are ill. I must have out what I mean to say to him, however; and, from his looks, I should fancy I may do what I please with him. He will go away before dinner, if I ask him, I have little doubt. I wonder that, while she was about it, Priscilla did not find out somebody who had the outside of a professional man at least. This youth looks as if he would not draw one's tooth for the world, because it would hurt one so! How he admires the rooks and the green gra.s.s on the graves, because the children do!--Sister," he continued aloud, "I am sorry to deprive you of your companion; but it is absolutely necessary that Mr Walcot and I should have some conversation together immediately. The children will go home with you; and we will follow presently."

Mrs Rowland looked thunder and lightning at her brother; but Mr Walcot appeared so highly pleased, that she considered it safest to acquiesce in the present arrangement, trusting to undo Philip's work in the course of the afternoon. So she sailed away with the children.

"This is no time for ceremony," observed Enderby, as he led the way to the walk under the trees. "I have used none with my sister, as you perceive; and I shall use none with you."

"Thank you, sir. My dear parents have always taught me that there could be no occasion for ceremony where people feel kindly, and mean only what is right. They will be pleased to hear that you do not think ceremony necessary between us."

"The circ.u.mstances are too urgent for it in the present case;--that is what I mean," said Philip. "I am confident, Mr Walcot, from what you say about feeling kindly and meaning rightly, that you cannot be aware what is the real state of affairs in Deerbrook, or you could not have been induced to think of settling here."

"Oh, I a.s.sure you, sir, you are mistaken. Mrs Rowland herself was the person who told me all about it; and I repeated all she said to my parents. They strongly advised my coming; and I am sure they would never recommend me to do anything that was not right."

"Then, if I tell you what I know to be the true state of the case here, will you represent it fully to your parents, and see what they will say then?"

"Certainly. I can have no objection to that. They will be very sorry, however, if any difficulty should arise. I had a letter from them this very morning, in which they say that they consider me a fortunate youth to have fallen in with such a friend as Mrs Rowland, who promises she will be a mother, or rather, I should say, a sister to me, and to have stepped at once into such practice as Mrs Rowland says I shall certainly have here. They say what is very true, that it is a singular and happy chance to befall a youth who has only just finished his education."

"That is so true, that you ought not to be surprised if it should turn out that there is something wrong at the bottom of the affair. I am going to show you what this wrong is, that you may take warning in time, and not discover, when it is too late, that you have been injuring an honourable man, who has been too hardly treated already."

"I should be sorry to do that: but I cannot think what you can mean."

"I dare say not. Pray have you been told of a Mr Hope who lives here?"

"Oh, yes; we saw the people breaking his windows as we drove past, yesterday evening. He must be a very improper, disagreeable man. And it is very hard upon the ladies and gentlemen here to have no one to attend them but that sort of person."

"That is one account of Mr Hope: now you must hear the other." And Mr Enderby gave a full statement of Hope's character, past services, and present position, in terms which he conceived to be level with the capacity of the young man. He kept his sister out of the story, as far as it was possible, but did not soften the statement of her calumnies, though refraining from exhibiting their origin. "Now," said he, at the end of his story, "have I not shown cause for consideration, as to whether you should settle here or not?"

"For consideration, certainly. But, you see, it is so difficult to know what to think. Here is Mrs Rowland telling me one set of things about Mr Hope, and you tell me something quite different."

"Well, what do you propose to do?"

"I shall consult my parents, of course."

"Had not you better set off by the coach to-morrow morning, and tell your parents all about it before you commit yourself?"

"I do not see how I could do that very well, as I have engaged to go over and see these people in Sir William Hunter's almshouses, that I am to have the charge of. No; I think my best way will be this. I will write fully to my parents first. I will do that this afternoon. Then, considering that I have said I shall stay here, and that the house is going to be got ready for me,--and considering how hard it is upon the ladies and gentlemen here to have n.o.body to attend them but a person they do not like,--and considering, too, that I cannot tell for myself what Mr Hope really is, while people differ so about him, I think I had better wait here (just as I should have done if you had not told me all this) till Mrs Rowland, and you, and Sir William Hunter, and everybody, have settled whether Mr Hope is really a good man or not: and then, you know, I can go away, after all, if I please."

Philip thought that Dr Levitt must have been preaching to his new parishioner to join the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. Mr Walcot himself seemed quietly satisfied with his own decision, for he adhered to it, repeating it in answer to every appeal that Philip could devise.

"I think it right to warn you," said Philip, "that if the prospect of being my mother's medical attendant has been part of your inducement to settle here, you have been misled in relying on it. My mother is much attached to Mr Hope and his family; she prefers him to every other medical attendant; and I shall take care that she has her own way in this particular."

"While I am in Mrs Rowland's house, I shall, of course, attend Mrs Rowland's family," replied Mr Walcot.

"Her children, if she pleases; but not necessarily her mother."

"Yes; her mother too, as I dare say you will see."

"You will allow Mrs Enderby to choose her own medical attendant, I presume?"

"Oh, yes: and I have no doubt she will choose me. Mrs Rowland says so."

"Here comes a gentleman with whom I want to speak," said Philip, seeing Mr Grey approaching from a distance. "He is as warm a friend and admirer of Mr Hope as I am; and--"

"Mr Hope married into his family,--did not he?"

"Yes; but Mr Grey and Mr Hope were friends long before either of them was acquainted with Mrs Hope. The friendship between the gentlemen was more likely to have caused the marriage than the marriage the friendship."

"Ah! that does happen sometimes, I know."

"What I was going to say is this, Mr Walcot, that Mr Hope's friends have determined to see justice done him; and that if, in the prosecution of this design, you should imagine that you are remarkably coolly treated,--by myself, for instance,--you must remember that I fairly warned you from the beginning that I shall give no countenance to any one who comes knowingly to establish himself on the ruins of a traduced man's reputation. You will remember this, Mr Walcot."

"Oh, certainly. I am sure I shall expect nothing from anybody; for n.o.body here knows me. It is only through Mrs Rowland's kindness that I have any prospect here at all."

"I will just give you one more warning, as you seem a very young man.

The Deerbrook people are apt to be extremely angry when they are angry at all. What would you think of it, if they should break your windows, as they broke Mr Hope's last night, when they find that you have been thriving upon his practice, while they were under a mistake concerning him which you were fully informed of?"

"I do not think I should mind it. I might get over it, you know, as Mr Hope would then have done. Or I might go away, after all, if I pleased.

But you want to speak to that gentleman; so I will wish you good morning."

"You will represent to your parents all I have said? Then, pray, do not omit the last,--about what dreadful people the Deerbrook people are when they are angry; and how likely it is that they may be very angry with you some day. I advise you by all means to mention this."

"Yes, certainly; thank you. I shall write this afternoon."

"I wish Mrs Rowland joy of her fledgling," said Enderby, as he joined Mr Grey.

"I was just thinking, as you and he came up, that a few lessons from the drill-sergeant at Blickley would do him no harm. Perhaps, however, your sister will teach him to hold up his head better. I rather think he is a little scared with the rooks, is not he? What in the world is your sister to do with him, now she has got him here?"

"I hope little Anna will lend him her cup and ball on rainy days."

"Do you find him a simpleton?"

"I hardly know. One must see him more than once to be quite sure. But enough of him for the present. I have just come from the corner-house; but I am not going to talk about the Hopes either: and yet I have something out of the common way to say to you, my good friend."

"I am glad you call me by that name," observed Mr Grey, kindly. "I never could see, for the life of me, why men should look askance upon one another, because their relations, (no matter on which side, or perhaps on both), happen to be more or less in the wrong."

"And there are other reasons why you and I should beware of being affected by the faults and weaknesses of our connections, Mr Grey,--and that is what I have now to say. I mean, because we may become connected ourselves. How will you like me for a relation, I wonder."

"It is so, then?"

"It is so: and it is by Margaret's desire that I inform you of it now, before the circ.u.mstance becomes generally known. If you think Mrs Grey will be gratified by early information, I believe I must beg that you will go home and tell her directly. We are as fully aware as you can be, of the absurdity of this way of talking: but circ.u.mstances compel us to--"

"I know, I understand. People here have been persuaded that you were engaged to some other lady; and you will have no help in contradicting this from your own family, who may not like your marrying into our connection so decidedly--as I have heard the ladies say about our friend Hope."

"Just so."

"Well, my opinion is, that it is of little consequence what your friends may say now, when time is so sure to justify your choice. There is no need for me to tell you that you are a happy man, Mr Enderby. There is not a more amiable girl living than that cousin Margaret of mine. I charge you to make her happy, Enderby. I do not mean that I have any doubt of it: but I charge you to make her happy."