Luttrell Of Arran Part 23

"I'm quite willing; nay, more, I'll leave the entire matter in your hands. You shall decide on the amount--yes, I insist upon it--and shall make all the other arrangements. I don't think there will be much more to detain us here, for I am not so eager about this property as I was some weeks ago."

"Have you been over it?"

"Yes, and am delighted with its picturesque beauty. It is infinitely finer than I expected, and if I believed they'd let me live there for a few weeks every year, I would even build a house and furnish it."

"And who doubts it?"

"I do; and so would you, M'Kinlay, if you talked the matter over, as I did with a committee of the whole House. We discussed the thing very coolly and impartially; we entered upon the question of landlordism in all its bearings, what it contained of good, and where it degenerated into evil; and although they failed to convince me that capital, skill, and intelligence, backed by an honest desire to do good, were only unwarrantable interferences with people who wanted none of them, they a.s.suredly made me believe that the pleasure of possession would be dear at the price of being shot at, and that the great probability of being thrown over a precipice rather detracted from one's enjoyment of wild scenery."

"The fellows who talk like this are not the stuff murderers are made of, Sir Gervais. They like to frighten away purchasers, just as people get up ghost stories to deter persons from taking a house. If you like the property----"

"I repeat, I am charmed with it."

"In that case, don't lose it. Ireland cannot remain for ever out of the law. One day or other she must come into civilisation, and these acres, that are bought for less money than so much land in South Africa or New Zealand, will be as profitable as an estate in the West Riding."

Vyner smiled and shook his head. "Have you not been hearing this story for more than a century back?"

"Let us hear it for a century still, and the investment will pay cent.

per cent. But come, I will tell you of a plan to test this problem fairly. Make the estate the fortune you intend for this young girl, with a power of redemption on your part by payment of a certain sum--let us say half as much more as you are now to pay for it. By the time that she will have grown up to womanhood you will have had the opportunity of deciding whether you desire to become an Irish proprietor or not. At all events, she will have either a good round sum in hand, or an estate which certainly will be no perilous heritage to her, though it might be a dangerous possession to you. This, I think, meets every difficulty."

"Grenfell would tell us that instead of overcoming one obstacle it raises two," said Vyner, laughing.

"But why consult him on the matter?"

"Because I shall want him. I should like to make him a trustee; he's a hard-headed man of the world, and well adapted for the office."

"And whom will you name for the other? Has the girl any relative or connexion of a cla.s.s sufficiently elevated for the duty?"

"I suspect not; they are all peasants, and of the very poorest kind.

I doubt greatly if there be one amongst the number who could read and write. Stay!" cried he, suddenly. "An idea just occurs to me, and if the notion be at all practicable, it solves every difficulty at once. This child's aunt, a peasant like the others, was married to a gentleman, an old friend and college companion of my own. Unfortunate in many ways, and, of course, lost to the world of society by this unequal match, he retired to a lonely island on the coast, where he has lived for some years in a condition and with habits scarcely above the half-savage creatures about him. He was and is still a man of considerable ability, although soured and disgusted with a world wherein he met nothing but failure. I met him last week by mere accident, having landed on the lonely rock he inhabits. I will not say he was at all pleased with the recognition, but, in short, we renewed acquaintance, and parted a little more like friends than we met. If he could be induced to accept this trust, it would accomplish all that I wish."

"Has his wife any influence over him?"

"She is dead. She died a few days since."

"Does he care for and interest himself about those who belonged to her?"

"I have no means of knowing; but I suspect not."

"Then probably it would be better that you made this proposition to him without any intimation that you knew of the relationship between him and this girl; asking him to a.s.sist you in carrying out a whim--a mere caprice?"

"I have been thinking over that. I believe you are right. He might not feel indisposed to serve these people, though he might shrink from declaring them his near connexions. At the same time, I feel he may refuse us on other grounds. He rejects whatever in the remotest way would lead him back into the world he has quitted. His is a pa.s.sive sort of misanthropy,--I believe, the least curable kind."

"It would be a pity not to secure him; he is the very man, with his local knowledge and thorough acquaintance with the people, to give your experiment the fairest chance of success."

"Well, here goes for the attempt. Let us first have our dinner, M'Kinlay, and then I'll write your credentials. You shall go over to Arran, and use your best powers of persuasion. I'll tell you by-and-by all that you ought to know beforehand of your adversary, for adversary you'll find him, whatever subject you broach; but I shall call it a great victory if you succeed."

"Where is Arran?" asked the lawyer, in some trepidation, for he only half liked his mission.

"Here it is," said Vyner, spreading a map over the table, and pointing to some three or four insignificant dots off the coast of Donegal. "It is the most northern of these--that one."

"And how is it to be come at?"

"We must learn all that from the people of the inn here. A fishing lugger, I take it----"

"I declare, frankly, I have no fancy for the expedition; nor is there, indeed, any reason for it. A letter will be amply sufficient to explain your object."

"Yes, but not to urge and persuade him--not to meet the doubts and the difficulties he will suggest--not to rea.s.sure him about this, and convince him about that. He's a clever fellow, M'Kinlay, and one who will require to examine every phase of a subject before he'll accept it."

"Good Heavens! what a place to go to," cried the other, as his eyes were still intently bent upon the little spots on the map.

"The place is most interesting; some remarkable scenery, and a very curious ruin of an ancient Abbey."

"Not in my way--not at all in my way, Sir Gervais. I'd rather see a snug chop-house than the purest specimen of pointed Gothic."

"Well, it will be an event in your life, at any rate--an incident to recal (sp) hereafter; and more than all, it will be a service to myself personally, which I shall not easily forget."

"If you make a point of it, I'll certainly go. I have told you that the adventurous spirit is not my strongest characteristic. Out-of-the-way places or buildings, or out-of-the-way people, have no interest far me.

They are like a language I don't know; they may be eloquent and charming to others, to me they make no appeal; but I'll go, as you wish it, and I'll do my best."

"And you'll succeed, too, I know it. Luttrell and you will understand each other at once. He'll be pleased with your purpose-like, straightforward manner, while he'd reject flatly any attempt to influence or cajole him. He'll possibly oppose his habitual indolence and his life of isolation to all plans for exertion or activity, but you'll satisfy him that we have no intention to burden him unnecessarily, and that, in all likelihood he'll not be called upon for more than a single act of an executive nature."

"What are these luggers like? Are they considered safe?"

"The best sea-boats in the world."

"And the sailors?"

"None better in the kingdom. In fact, on a coast like this----"

Be stopped suddenly, just remembering in time, that by any picturesque description of an iron-bound sh.o.r.e or an Atlantic swell, he might effectually deter M'Kinky from all thought of the expedition. "Say nothing of what we've been talking over, at dinner," said he; "and I rejoice to say, here comes the waiter to announce it."

M'Kinlay sighed; he could have eaten with a capital appet.i.te half an hour ago. It was all gone now. He'd have liked a stiff gla.s.s of brandy-and-Seltzer-water, nothing more.

CHAPTER XVI. THE OLD LEAVES

The little intercourse which Luttrell maintained with the world was with his agent, a gentleman who had long acted in that capacity for his family when such an office was profitable, and when portentous tin boxes on office shelves, with the name of Hamilton Lnttrell on them, told of t.i.tle-deeds and estates.

To this gentleman Luttrell had applied to a.s.sist him to sell a quant.i.ty of antiquarian objects, the collecting of which had been the pursuit of many a solitary day, and in cataloguing which he had pa.s.sed many a long night. At first, this taste had been adopted as a pastime--a something to impart an interest to a dreary and purposeless life; but when three deficient harvests had so far lessened his income that he was driven to obtain a small loan to live, he resolved to sell his collection, and applied to his agent to aid him, making one only condition--that the bargain should not be effected in Ireland, where his name was still well known, but with some English dealer, who might never have heard of the Luttrells.

Though the carefully-drawn catalogue which Luttrell forwarded comprised a variety of rare and curious objects all bearing upon and ill.u.s.trating ancient Irish, history, they were, with a very few exceptions, of little intrinsic value. There were weapons of stone, spear-heads and javelin-points, ma.s.sive clubs embossed with sharpened pebbles, bronze ornaments and clasps, strangely-shapen casques and shields, and swords of forma that bespoke an antiquity long antecedent to the Roman wars, with amulets of amber and silver. Some rings and a sword-hilt alone were gold; this latter carved with marvellous beauty of design and great artistic excellence.

At last, after many months of utter silence on the matter, he received the following letter:

"Kildare-street, Dublin.