Magnum Bonum; Or, Mother Carey's Brood Part 87

"Doesn't Armine come?"

"Not he!" said Bobus. "Says he doesn't want to acquire the taste, and he would knock up with half a day."

"But you'll all come and bring us luncheon?" entreated Jock. "You will, mother! Now, won't you? We'll eat it on a bank like old times when we lived at the Folly, and all were jolly. I beg your pardon, Bob; I didn't mean to turn into another poetical brother on your hands, but enthusiasm was too strong for me! Come, Mother Carey, _do_!"

"Where is it to be?" she asked, smiling.

"Out by the Long Hanger would be a good place," said Bobus, "where we found the Epipactis grandiflora."

"Or the heathery knoll where poor little mother got into a sc.r.a.pe for singing profane songs by moonlight," laughed Jock.

"Ah! that was when hearts were light," she said; "but at any rate we'll make a holiday of it, for Jock's sake."

"Ha! what do I see?" exclaimed Jock, who was opposite the open window.

"Is that Armine, or a Jack-in-the-Green?"

"Oh!" half sighed Barbara. "It's that harvest decoration!" And Armine, casting down armfuls of great ferns, and beautiful trailing plants, made his entrance through the open window, exchanging greetings, and making a semi-apology for his late appearance as he said--

"Mother, please desire Macrae to cut me the great white orchids. He won't do it unless you tell him, and I promised them for the Altar vases."

"You know, Armie, he said cutting them would be the ruin of the plant, and I don't feel justified in destroying it."

"Macrae's fancy," muttered Armine. "It is only that he hates the whole thing."

"Unhappy Macrae! I go and condole with him sometimes," said Bobus. "I don't know which are most outraged--his Freekirk or his horticultural feelings!"

"Babie," ordered Armine, who was devouring his breakfast at double speed, "if you'll put on your things, I've the garden donkey-cart ready to take down the flowers. You won't expect us to luncheon, mother?"

Barbara, though obedient, looked blank, and her mother said--

"My dear, if I went down and helped at the Church till half past twelve, could not we all be set free? Your brothers want us to bring their luncheon to them at the Hanger."

"That's right, mother," cried Jock; "I've half a mind to come and expedite matters."

"No, no, Skipjack!" cried Bobus; "I had that twenty stone of solid flesh whom I see walking up to the house to myself all yesterday, and I can't stand another day of it unmitigated!"

Entered the tall heavy figure of Rob. He reported his father as much the same and not yet up, delivered a note to his aunt, and made no objection to devouring several slices of tongue and a cup of cocoa to recruit nature after his walk; while Bobus reclaimed the reluctant Armine from cutting scarlet geraniums in the ribbon beds to show him the scene in the Greek play which he was to prepare, and Babie tried to store up all the directions, perceiving from the pupil's roving eye that she should have to be his memory.

Jock saw that the note had brought an additional line of care to his mother's brow, and therefore still more gaily and eagerly adjured her not to fail in the Long Hanger, and as the shooting party started, he turned back to wave his cap, and shout, "Sharp two!"

Two o'clock found three hungry youths and numerous dead birds on the pleasant thymy bank beneath the edge of the beach wood, but gaze as they might through the clear September air, neither mother, brother, nor sister was visible. Presently, however, the pony-carriage appeared, and in it a hamper, but driven only by the stable-boy. He said a gentleman was at the house, and Mrs. Brownlow was very sorry that she could not come, but had sent him with the luncheon.

"I shall go and see after her," said Jock; and in spite of all remonstrance, and a.s.surance that it was only a form of Parsonic tyranny, he took a draught of ale and a handful of sandwiches, sprang into the carriage, and drove off, hardly knowing why, but with a yearning towards his mother, and a sense that all that was unexpected boded evil. Leaving the pony at the stables, and walking up to the house, he heard sounds that caused him to look in at the open library window.

On one side of the table stood his mother, on the other Dr. Demetrius Hermann, with insinuating face, but arm upraised as if in threatening.

"Scoundrel!" burst forth Jock. Both turned, and his mother's look of relief and joy met him as he sprang to her side, exclaiming, "What does this mean? How dare you?"

"No, no!" she cried breathlessly, clinging to his arm. "He did not mean--it was only a gesture!"

"I'll have no such gestures to my mother."

"Sir, the honoured lady only does me justice. I meant nothing violent.

Zat is for you English military, whose veapon is zie horsewhip."

"As you will soon feel," said Jock, "if you attempt to bully my mother.

What does it mean, mother dear?"

"He made a mistake," she said, in a quick, tremulous tone, showing how much she was shaken. "He thinks me a quack doctor's widow, whose secret is matter of bargain and sale."

"Madame! I offered most honourable terms."

"Terms, indeed! I told you the affair is no empirical secret to be bought."

"Yet madame knows that I am in possession of a portion of zie discovery, and that it is in my power to pursue it further, though, for family considerations, I offer her to take me into confidence, so that all may profit in unison," said the Greek, in his blandest manner.

"The very word profit shows your utter want of appreciation," said Mrs.

Brownlow, with dignity. "Such discoveries are the property of the entire faculty, to be used for the general benefit, not for private selfish profit. I do not know how much information may have been obtained, but if any attempt be made to use it in the charlatan fashion you propose, I shall at once expose the whole transaction, and send my husband's papers to the Lancet."

Hermann shrugged his shoulders and looked at Lucas, as if considering whether more or less reason could be expected from a soldier than from a woman. It was to him that he spoke.

"Madame cannot see zie matter in zie light of business. I have offered freely to share all that I shall gain, if I may only obtain the data needful to perfect zie discovery of zie learned and venerated father. I am met wit anger I cannot comprehend."

"Nor ever will," said Caroline.

"And," pursued Dr. Hermann, "when, on zie oder hand, I explain that my wife has imparted to me sufficient to enable me to perfectionate the discovery, and if the reserve be continued, it is just to demand compensation, I am met with indignation even greater. I appeal to zie captain. Is this treatment such as my proposals merit?"

"Not quite," said Jock. "That is to be kicked out of the house, as you shortly will be, if you do not take yourself off."

"Sir, your amiable affection for madame leads you to forget, as she does, zie claim of your sister."

"No one has any claim on my mother," said Jock.

"Zie moral claim--zie claim of affection," began the Greek; but Caroline interrupted him--

"Dr. Hermann is not the person fitly to remind me of these. They have not been much thought of in Janet's case. I mean to act as justly as I can by my daughter, but I have absolutely nothing to give her at present. Till I know what my own means may prove to be I can do nothing."

"But madame holds out zie hope of some endowment. I shall be in a condition to be independent of it, but it would be sweet to my wife as a token of pardon. I could bear away a promise."

"I promise nothing," was the reply. "If I have anything to give--even then, all would depend on your conduct and the line you may take. And above all, remember, it is in my power to frustrate and expose any attempt to misuse any hints that may have been stolen from my husband's memoranda. In my power, and my duty."

"Madame might have spared me this," sighed the Athenian. "My poor Janette! She will not believe how her husband has been received."

He was gone. Caroline dropped into a chair, but the next moment she almost screamed--

"Oh, we must not let him go thus! He may revenge it on her! Go after him, get his address, tell him she shall have her share if he will behave well to her."

Jock fulfilled his mission according to his own judgment, and as he returned his mother started up.