Roland Cashel Volume I Part 12

"Let him teach you, then!" cried Cashel, as he sprang into the room, wild with delight.

"Oh, Mr. Cashel, what a start you 've given me!" said Olivia Kennyf.e.c.k, as, covered with blushes, and trembling with agitation, she leaned on the back of a chair.

"Oh, pray forgive me," said he, eagerly; "but I was so surprised, so delighted to hear you recalling that little song, I really forgot everything else. Have I startled you, then?"

"Oh, no; it's nothing. I was trying a few chords. I thought I was quite alone."

"But you'll permit me to teach you some of our Mexican songs, won't you?

I should be so charmed to hear them sung as you could sing them."

"It is too kind of you," said she, timidly; "but I am no musician. My sister is a most skilful performer, but I really know nothing; a simple ballad and a canzonette are the extent of my efforts."

"For our prairie songs, it is the feeling supplies all the character.

They are wild, fanciful things, with no higher pretensions than to recall some trait of the land they belong to; and I should be so flattered if you would take an interest in the Far West."

"How you must love it! How you must long to return to it!" said Olivia, raising her long drooping lashes, and letting her eyes rest, with an expression of tender melancholy, on Cashel.

What he might have said there is no guessing,--nay, for his sake, and for hers too, it is better not even to speculate on it; but ere he could reply, another speaker joined in the colloquy, saying,--

"Good morning, Mr. Cashel. Pray don't forget, when the lesson is over, that we are waiting breakfast." So saying, and with a laugh of saucy raillery, Miss Kennyf.e.c.k pa.s.sed down the stairs, not remaining to hear his answer.

"Oh, Mr. Cashel!" exclaimed Olivia, with a tone half reproachful, half shy, "we shall be scolded,--at least, I shall," added she. "It is the unforgivable offence in this house to be late at breakfast."

Cashel would very willingly have risked all the consequences of delay for a few minutes longer of their interview; but already she had tripped on downstairs, and with such speed as to enter the breakfast-parlor a few seconds before him. Roland was welcomed by the family without the slightest shade of dissatisfaction at his late appearance, cordial greetings and friendly inquiries as to how he had rested pouring in on every side.

"What 's to be done with Mr. Cashel to-day? I hope he is not to be teased by business people and red-tapery," said Mrs. Kenny f.e.c.k to her husband.

"I am afraid," said the silky attorney, "I am very much afraid I must trespa.s.s on his kindness to accompany me to the Master's office. There are some little matters which will not wait."

"Oh, they must," said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, peremptorily. "Who is the Master,--Liddard, is n't it? Well, tell him to put it off; Mr. Cashel must really have a little peace and quietness after all his fatigues."

"It will only take an hour, at most, Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k," remonstrated her submissive mate.

"Well, that is nothing," cried Cashel. "I 'm not in the least tired, and the day is long enough for everything."

"Then we have a little affair which we can manage at home here about the mortgages. I told you--"

"I believe you did," replied Cashel, laughing; "but I don't remember a word of it. It's about paying some money, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's the redemption of two very heavy claims," exclaimed Kennyf.e.c.k, perfectly shocked at the indifference displayed by the young man,--"claims for which we are paying five and a half per cent."

"And it would be better to clear them off?" said Cashel, a.s.suming a show of interest in the matter he was far from feeling.

"Of course it would. There is a very large sum lying to your credit at Falkner's, for which you receive only three per cent."

"Don't you perceive how tiresome you are, dear Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k?" said his wife. "Mr. Cashel is bored to death with all this."

"Oh, no! not in the least, madam. It ought to interest me immensely; and so all these things will, I 'm sure. But I was just thinking at what hour that fellow we met on the packet was to show us those horses he spoke of?"

"At four," said Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k, with a half-sigh of resignation; "but you 'll have ample time for that. I shall only ask you to attend at the judge's chambers after our consultation."

"Well, you are really intolerable!" cried his wife. "Why cannot you and Jones, and the rest of you, do all this tiresome nonsense, and leave Mr.

Cashel to us? I want to bring him out to visit two or three people; and the girls have been planning a canter in the park."

"The canter, by all means," said Cashel. "I 'm sure, my dear Mr.

Kennyf.e.c.k, you 'll do everything far better without me. I have no head for anything like business; and so pray, let me accompany the riding-party."

"The attendance at the Master's is peremptory," sighed the attorney,--"there is no deferring that; and as to the mortgages, the funds are falling every hour. I should seriously advise selling out at once."

"Well, sell out, in Heaven's name! Do all and anything you like, and I promise my most unqualified satisfaction at the result."

"There, now," interposed Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, authoritatively, "don't worry any more; you see how tiresome you are!"

And poor Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k seemed to see and feel it too; for he hung his head, and sipped his tea in silence.

"To-day we dine alone, Mr. Cashel," said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k; "but to-morrow I will try to show you some of the Dublin notorieties,--at least, such as are to be had in the season. On Friday we plan a little country party into Wicklow, and have promised to keep Sat.u.r.day free, if the Blackenburgs want us."

"What shall we say, then, about Tubberbeg, Mr. Cashel?" said Kennyf.e.c.k, withdrawing him into a window-recess. "We ought to give the answer at once."

"Faith! I forgot all about it," said Cashel. "Is that the fishery you told me of?"

"Oh, no!" sighed the disconsolate man of law. "It's the farm on the terminable lease, at present held by Hugh Corrigan; he asks for a renewal."

"Well, let him have it," said Cashel, bluntly, while his eyes were turned towards the fire, where the two sisters, with arms entwined, stood in the most graceful of att.i.tudes.

"Yes, but have you considered the matter maturely?" rejoined Kennyf.e.c.k, laying his hand on Cashel's arm. "Have you taken into account that he only pays eight and seven pence per acre,--the Irish acre, too,--and that a considerable part of that land adjoining the Boat Quay is let, as building plots for two and sixpence a foot?"

"A devilish pretty foot it is, too," murmured Cashel, musingly.

"Eh! what?" exclaimed Kennyf.e.c.k, perfectly mystified at this response.

"Oh! I meant that I agreed with you," rejoined the young man, reddening, and endeavoring to appear deeply interested. "I quite coincide with your views, sir."

Kennyf.e.c.k seemed surprised at this, for he had not, to his knowledge, ventured on any opinion.

"Perhaps," said he, taking breath for a last effort, "if you 'd kindly look at the map of the estate, and just see where this farm trenches on your own limits, you could judge better about the propriety of the renewal."

"Oh, with pleasure!" exclaimed Cashel, while he suffered himself to be led into the study, his face exhibiting very indifferent signs of satisfaction.

"Shall we a.s.sist in the consultation, Mr. Cashel?" said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, smiling in reply to his reluctant look at leaving.

"Oh, by all means!" cried he, enthusiastically; "do come, and give me your advice. Pray, come."

"Come, girls," said the mother, "although I perceive Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k is terribly shocked at the bare thought of our intrusion; but be of good courage, we only accompany Mr. Cashel to save him from any long imprisonment." And so she moved majestically forward, her daughters following her.

An alchemist would probably have received company in his laboratory, or a hermit admitted a jovial party in his cell, with less of constraint and dissatisfaction than did Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k watch the approach of his wife and daughters to the sanctum of his study.

Save at rare intervals, when a disconsolate widow had come to resolve a question of administration, or a no less forlorn damsel had entered to consult upon an action for "breach of promise," St. Kevin himself had never been less exposed to female intervention. It needed, then, all his reverence and fear of Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k to sustain the shock to his feelings, as he saw her seat herself in his office-chair, and look around with the air of command that he alone used to exhibit in these regions.