Eli's Children Part 8

"Oh, hang engagements!" cried the young man, impatiently. "You have plenty of money, father, both in your own right and mamma's. Why should I be constantly driven from home to some menial work?"

"Because it is time that your spoiled life of indulgence should cease.

There is nothing degrading in work; it is idleness that degrades."

"Oh, yes; you've lectured me enough about that," said the young man, rudely.

"And you may take it for granted that as soon as an opening can be made for you--"

"Opening wanted for a pushing young man," cried Cyril, mockingly.

"I shall ask you to leave home and try to do your duty in this busy world."

"Thanks, father," said the young man, roughly. "What am I to be?"

"Three years ago I felt that I was doing wrong in keeping you in idleness at home."

"Idle? Why, I was always busy, father."

"Yes--hunting, shooting, fishing, and the like; but you did not stop there."

"Oh, nonsense?"

"To-day I feel certain that I should be doing a great injustice to the parish--to your mother--to your sisters--"

"Any one else?" said the young man, mockingly.

"To you," replied his father, sternly.

"Any one else?"

"And to Miss Portlock and Luke Ross by allowing you to stay here."

They had reached the rectory, and the Rev Eli Mallow, who had paused with one hand upon the oaken bar to finish his sentence, now pushed open the quaintly-made gate, held it for a moment as if for his son to follow; but as he did not, the Rector allowed it to close, and, placing his hands behind him, walked slowly up the well-kept gravel walk, too intent upon his thoughts to give heed to his favourite flowers, or to enter the conservatory, according to his custom, on his way to his own snug room, whose walls were well stored with works on botany and his favourite pursuit, gardening.

Cyril Mallow gave his long moustache a tug as he watched his father's bent back till it disappeared amongst the choice shrubs and evergreens; then, taking out his cigar-case, he selected one from its contents, bit off the end viciously, and there was the petulance of a spoiled child in his action as he struck one of the old-fashioned flat fusees upon the rough oaken gate-post till he had torn the match to rags without obtaining a light, another and another following before he could ignite his cigar.

"Confound the place!" he exclaimed. "It's as dull as ditch water.

Pretty state of affairs, indeed! One can't look at a soul without being jerked up short. Luke Ross, eh? I'd like to--"

He did not say what, but he gave his teeth a grind, and, thrusting his hands deep down into his pockets, he walked on towards the fields beyond the little town.

"I declare everybody's hard on me," he said aloud. "Just because I'm a bit unlucky and want change. Here's the governor rolling in riches, and might make me a handsome allowance, and yet I'm always to be driven out into the world. Hanged if it isn't too bad."

He leaped over a stile and strolled a little way on across a field, beyond which was a patch of woodland, all aglow with the rich tints of autumn, but Cyril Mallow saw them not, his thoughts being elsewhere.

"I won't stand it," he cried suddenly, as he stopped short. "A man can't always be in leading-strings, and I'm old enough now, surely, to strike for my liberty, and--"

His hand went involuntarily to his vest pocket, from which he drew a delicately-made lady's gold watch, whose presence was accounted for by the fact that Cyril's own stout gold watch had pa.s.sed into the hands of a station shepherd out at a place called Bidgeewoomba, in Queensland, and Cyril's indulgent mother had insisted upon his using hers until it was replaced.

"Beastly dull place!" he muttered, gazing at the watch. "It's of no use to go across to the ford; 'our master' will be coming in to dinner.

Little fool! why did she go and marry that great oaf?"

He turned the watch over and over, laughing unpleasantly.

"Pretty Polly!" he said out aloud, but ended by opening and snapping to the back of the watch.

"Five minutes to twelve," he exclaimed, involuntarily. "The children will be coming out of school directly."

He made a sharp movement in the direction of the town--stopped short-- went on again--stopped to think of the words he had had with his father, and then, with an impatient "pish!" thrust his hands into his pockets, and walked quickly in the direction that he knew Sage Portlock would take on leaving the school, bent on the mission of causing misery and dissension between two young people just making their first start in life, and sowing the seed of certain weeds that would spring up to the overtopping of much goodly grain.

He paused again, hesitating as he neared the rectory gates, and for a moment he seemed as if he would enter.

But just then the church clock struck twelve, and the deep-toned bell, as it slowly gave forth, one by one, the tale of strokes announcing that the day had climbed to its greatest height, seemed to bring before Cyril Mallow the scene of the schoolgirls racing out, panting and eager, while Sage Portlock was putting on that natty little hat and long silk scarf she wore when going to and fro.

"Oh, what nonsense!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Cyril. "What harm? Perhaps I shan't see her after all."

He strode off hastily back towards the town, for it was now five minutes past twelve, and just at this time Sage was locking the school door, and enjoying the fresh air, as she thought of Luke Ross with a pleasant little smile upon her lip, and a ruddy tint on the cheek; while just a hundred and twenty miles away Luke Ross had shouldered a spade on his way to the great garden for the hour's manual labour prescribed by the rules of the training school; and, oddly enough, he was not thinking of the piece of earth he was about, in company with many more, to dig, but of Sage Portlock, and the pleasant days when he should be down in the country once again.

PART ONE, CHAPTER SIX.

MAGISTERIAL FUNCTIONS.

People had always said that the Rev Eli Mallow was a most fortunate man, but somehow fate gave him his share of reverses. He had been born with the customary number of bones in his vertebra, wonderfully joined together after Dame Nature's regular custom and good style of workmanship, with suitable muscle and nerve to give proper pliability.

The nurse who used to wash and wipe and then powder his delicate young skin considered that he was a beautiful baby, and certainly he had grown up into a very handsome man, an ornament, with his portly form and grey head, to the county bench, to his seat on which he was warmly welcomed back by his neighbours, for however unpopular he might be in the dissent-loving town of Lawford, the Rev Eli Mallow was a favourite in his part of the county.

The late Lord Artingale had always been one of the loudest in his praise.

"He is a man of breed, sir," his lordship would say. "There's blood and bone in the man. I wish we had more clergymen of his kind. There'd be less poaching in the country, I can tell you, and fewer empty bags."

For the Rev Eli Mallow worked by rule, that is to say, by law.

Secular and ecclesiastical law were to be obeyed to the letter, and he was most exacting in carrying out what he considered to be his mission, with the result that, however well he stood in favour with his friends, his popularity did not increase.

He was not a bad man, for he was strictly moral and self-denying, fairly charitable, had prayers morning and evening, always walked to church on Sundays, kept a good table, and was proud of having the best horses in the neighbourhood. He did his duty according to his light, but that light was rather a small one, and it illumined a very narrow part of the great book of life. There were certain things which he considered duties, and his stern obedience to cut-and-dried law, rule, and regulation made him seem harsher than he really was.

During his absence from Lawford something approaching to economy had been practised, and his wife's and his own property had been nursed; but now the family had returned there was no sign of saving, for, in addition to being a clergyman, the Rector devoted himself largely to the carrying out of what he called his _role_ as a country gentleman, and at whatever cost to his pocket and general strain upon the property, this he did well as a rule. Now, for reasons of his own relating to his two daughters, he was launching out to an extent that made a second visit to the Continent a very probable matter before many years were past.

Breakfast was over at the rectory. There had been words between master and Mr Cyril, the butler said, and master had been very angry, but, as was usually the case, Mr Cyril had come off victorious; and now, as it was market-day at Lawford, the bays were at the door, champing their bits, the butler and footman were in the hall waiting, and punctual to the moment the young ladies came hurrying down the oak staircase just as the Rev Eli received his gloves from the butler and put them on, the domestic waiting to hand him his hat. This was carefully placed upon his head, and then there was a little ceremony gone through of putting on the glossy black overcoat, as if it were some sacred garment.

The Rev Eli did justice to his clothes, looking a thoroughly n.o.ble specimen of his cla.s.s, and once ready he unbent a little and smiled at his pretty, ladylike daughters, whom he followed down to the handsome barouche, which it had always been a custom to have out on bench days, the appearance of the stylish turn-out lending no little _eclat_ to the magisterial proceedings.

It was certainly not a mile and a half to the market-place, but though that distance might be traversed again and again upon ordinary days, this was out of the question when the magistrates were about to sit.

So the steps were rattled down, the young ladies handed in, Cyril Mallow, with a cigar in his mouth, watching the proceedings from his bedroom window. The Rev Eli followed and took his seat with dignity; the steps were closed, the door shut, the footman mounted to the box beside the coachman, both stretched their legs out rigidly, and set their backs as straight as their master's, and away the carriage spun, through the avenue, and out at the lodge gates, where the gardener's wife was ready to drop a curtsey and close them afterwards, and then away through the lanes by the longest way round, so as to pa.s.s Portlock's farm and enter Lawford by the London road.

Market-day was a busy day at Lawford, and the ostler at the King's Head had his hands full attending to the gigs of the farmers and the carts of the clergy and gentry round.