Roland Cashel Volume I Part 19

"I see, sir, your task is a hard one; it is no less than to try and conform my savage tastes and habits to civilized usages,--a difficult thing, I am certain; however, I promise compliance with any ritual for a while. I have often been told that the possession of fortune in these countries imposes more restraints in the shape of duties than does poverty elsewhere. Let me try the problem for myself. Now, dictate, and I obey."

"After all," said Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k, taking courage, "few men would deem it a hard condition in which to find themselves master of above 16,000 a year, to enter Parliament, to keep a good house, and marry--as every man in your circ.u.mstances may--the person of his choice."

"Oh! Is matrimony another article of the code?" said Cashel, smiling.

"Well, that is the greatest feature, because the others are things to abandon, if not found to suit your temper or inclination--but a wife--that does look somewhat more permanent. No matter, I'll adventure all and everything--of course depending on your guidance for the path."

Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k was too happy at these signs of confidence to neglect an opportunity for strengthening the ties, and commenced a very prudent harangue upon the necessity of Cashel's using great caution in his first steps, and not committing himself by anything like political pledges, till he had firmly decided which side to adopt. "As to society," said he, "of course you will select those who please you most for your intimates; but in politics there are many considerations very different from mere liking. Be only guarded, however, in the beginning, and you risk nothing by waiting."

"And as to the other count in the indictment," said Cashel, interrupting a rather prosy dissertation about political parties,--"as to the other count--matrimony I mean. I conclude, as the world is so exceedingly kind as to take a profound interest in all the sayings and doings of a man with money, that perhaps it is not indifferent regarding so eventful a step as his marriage. Now, pray, Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k, having entered Parliament, kept open house, hunted, shot, raced, dined, gambled, duelled, and the rest, to please society, how must I satisfy its exigencies in this last particular? I mean, is there any particular style of lady,--tall, short, brunette or fair, dark-eyed or blue-eyed,--or what, in short, is the person I must marry if I would avoid transgressing any of those formidable rules which seem to regulate every action of your lives, and, if I may believe Mr. Phillis, superintend the very color of your cravat and the shape of your hat?"

"Oh, believe me," replied Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k with a bland persuasiveness, "fashion is only exigeant in small matters; the really momentous affairs of life are always at a man's own disposal. Whoever is fortunate enough to be Mr. Cashel's choice, becomes, by the fact, as elevated above envious criticisms as she will be above the sphere where they alone prevail."

"So far that is very flattering. Now for another point. There is an old shipmate of mine--a young Spanish officer--who has lived rather a rakish kind of life. I 'm not quite sure if he has not had a brush or two with our flag, for he dealt a little in ebony--you understand--the slave-trade, I mean. How would these fine gentlemen, I should like to know, receive him? Would they look coldly and distantly at him? I should naturally wish to see him at my house, but not that he might be offered anything like slight or insult."

"I should defer it, certainly. I would recommend you not pressing this visit, till you have surrounded yourself with a certain set, a party by whom you will be known and upheld."

"So then, if I understand you aright, I must obtain a kind of security for my social good conduct before the world will trust me? Now, this does seem rather hard, particularly as no man is guilty till he has been convicted."

"The bail-bond is little else than a matter of form," said Mr.

Kennyf.e.c.k, smiling, and glad to cap an allusion which his professional pursuits made easy of comprehension.

"Well," sighed Cashel, "I'm not quite certain that this same world of yours and I shall be long friends, if even we begin as such. I have all my life been somewhat of a rebel, except where authority was lax enough to make resistance unnecessary. How am I to get on here, hemmed in and fenced by a hundred restrictions?"

Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k could not explain to him that these barriers were less restrictions against personal liberty than defences against aggression; so he only murmured some commonplaces about "getting habituated," and "time," and so on, and apologized for what he, in reality, might have expatiated on as privileges.

"My mistress wishes to know, sir," said a footman, at this juncture, "if Mr. Cashel will drive out with her? the carriage is at the door."

"Delighted!" cried Cashel, looking at the same time most uncourteously pleased to get away from his tiresome companion.

Cashel found Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k and her daughters seated in a handsome barouche, whose appointments, bating, perhaps, some little exuberance in display, were all perfect. The ladies, too, were most becomingly attired, and the transition from the t.i.ttle cobwebbed den of the solicitor to the free air and pleasant companionship, excited his spirits to the utmost.

"How bored you must have been by that interview!" said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, as they drove away.

"Why do you say so?" said Cashel, smiling.

"You looked so weary, so thoroughly tired out, when you joined us. I'm certain Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k has been reading aloud all the deeds and doc.u.ments of the trial, and reciting the hundred-and-one difficulties which his surpa.s.sing acuteness, poor dear man! could alone overcome."

"No, indeed you wrong him," said Roland, with a laugh; "he scarcely alluded to what he might have reasonably dwelt upon with pride, and what demands all my grat.i.tude. He was rather giving me, what I so much stand in need of, a little lecture on my duties and devoirs as a possessor of fortune; a code, I shame to confess, perfectly strange to me."

A very significant glance from Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k towards the girls revealed the full measure of her contempt for the hardihood of poor Mr.

Kennyf.e.c.k's daring; but quickly a.s.suming a smile, she said, "And are we to be permitted to hear what these excellent counsels were, or are these what the Admiralty calls 'secret instructions'?"

"Not in the least. Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k sees plainly enough--it is but too palpable--that I am as ignorant of this new world as he himself would be, if dropped down suddenly in an Indian encampment, and that as the thing I detest most in this life is any unnecessary notoriety, I want to do as far as in me lies, like my neighbors. I own to you that the little sketch with which he favored me is not too fascinating, but he a.s.sures me that with time and patience and zeal I'll get over my difficulties, and make a very tolerable country gentleman."

"But, my _dear_ Mr. Cashel," said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, with a great emphasis on the epithet, "why do you think of listening to Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k on such a subject? Poor man, he takes all his notions of men and manners from the Exchequer and Common Pleas."

"Papa's models are all in horse-hair wigs,--fat mummies in ermine!" said Miss Kennyf.e.c.k.

"When Mr. Cashel knows Lord Charles," said Olivia.

"Or Mr. Linton--"

"Or the Dean," broke in Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k; "for although a Churchman, his information on every subject is boundless."

Miss Kennyf.e.c.k gave a sly look towards Cashel, which very probably entered a dissent to her mamma's opinion.

"If I were you," resumed she, tenderly, "I know what I should do; coolly rejecting all their counsels, I should fashion my life as it pleased myself to live, well a.s.sured that in following my bent I should find plenty of people only too happy to lend me their companionship. Just reflect, for a moment, how very agreeable you can make your house, without in the least compromising any taste or inclination of your own; without, in fact, occupying your mind on the subject."

"But the world," remarked Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, "must be cared for! It would not do for one in Mr. Cashel's station to form his a.s.sociates only among those whose agreeability is their recommendation."

"Then let him know the Dean, mamma," said Miss Kennyf.e.c.k, slyly.

"Yes, my dear," rejoined Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, not detecting the sarcasm, "I cannot fancy one more capable of affording judicious counsel. You spoke about ordering plate, Mr. Cashel; but of course you will apply to Storr and Mortimer. Everything is so much better in London; otherwise, here we are at Leonard's."

The carriage drove up, as she spoke, to the door of a very splendid-looking shop, where in all the attractive display modern taste has invented, plate and jewellery glittered and dazzled.

"It was part of Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k's counsel this morning," said Cashel, "that I should purchase anything I want in Ireland, so far, at least, as practicable; so, if you will aid me in choosing, we 'll take the present opportunity."

Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k was overjoyed at the bare mention of such an occasion of display, and sailed into the shop with an air that spoke plain as words themselves, "I'm come to make your fortune." So palpable, indeed, was the manner of her approach, that the shopman hastily retired to seek the proprietor of the establishment,--a little pompous man, with a bald head,--who, having a great number of "bad debts" among his high clients, had taken to treating great folk with a very cool a.s.sumption of equality.

"Mr. Cashel is come to look about some plate, Mr. Leonard. Let us see your book of drawings; and have you those models you made for Lord Kellorane?"

"We have better, ma'am," said Leonard. "We have the plate itself. If you will step upstairs. It is all laid out on the tables. The fact is"--here he dropped his voice--"his lordship's marriage with Miss Fenchurch is broken off, and he will not want the plate, and we have his orders to sell it at once."

"And is that beautiful pony-phaeton, with the two black Arabians, to be sold?" asked Miss Kennyf.e.c.k, eagerly. "He only drove them once, I think."

"Yes, madam, everything: they are all to be auctioned at Dycer's to-day."

"At what hour?" inquired Cashel.

"At three, precisely, sir."

"Then it wants but five minutes of the time," said Cashel, looking at his watch.

"But the plate, sir? Such an opportunity may never occur again," broke in Leonard, fearful of seeing his customer depart unprofitably.

"Oh, to be sure. Let us see it," said Cashel, as he handed Mrs.

Kennyf.e.c.k upstairs.

An exclamation of surprise and delight burst from the party at the magnificent display which greeted them on entering the room. How splendid--what taste--how very beautiful--so elegant--so ma.s.sive--so chaste! and fifty other encomiastic phrases.

"Very fine, indeed, ma'am," chimed in Leonard; "cost fifteen and seven-pence the ounce throughout, and now to be sold for thirteen shillings."

"What is the price?" said Cashel, in a low whisper.

"There are, if I remember right, sir, but I 'll ascertain in a moment, eight thousand ounces."

"I want to know the sum in one word," rejoined Cashel, hastily.