Roland Cashel Volume I Part 6

Amphytrion, Canto IV.

It was about half-past six of an autumn evening, just as the gray twilight was darkening into the gloom that precedes night, that a servant, dressed in the most decorous black, drew down the window-blinds of a large and splendidly furnished drawing-room of a house in Merrion Square, Dublin.

Having arranged certain portly deep-cushioned chairs into the orderly disorder that invites social groupings, and having disposed various other articles of furniture according to those notions of domestic landscape so popular at the present day, he stirred the fire and withdrew,--all these motions being performed with the noiseless decorum of a church.

A glance at the apartment, even by the fitful light of the coal-fire, showed that it was richly, even magnificently, furnished. The looking-gla.s.ses were immense in size, and framed with all that the most lavish art of the carver could display. The hangings were costly Lyons silk, the sofas, tables, and cabinets were all exquisite specimens of modern skill and elegance, while the carpet almost rose above the foot in the delicate softness of its velvet pile. A harp, a grand pianoforte, and several richly-bound and gilded volumes strewed about gave evidence of tastes above the mere voluptuous enjoyment of ease, and in one window stood an embroidery-frame, with its unfinished labor, from which the threads depended in that fashion, that showed it had lately occupied the fair hands of the artist.

This very enviable apartment belonged to Mr. Mountjoy Kennyf.e.c.k, the leading solicitor of Dublin, a man who, for something more than thirty years, had stood at the head of his walk in the capital, and was reputed to be one of its most respected and richest citizens. Mrs. Mountjoy Kennyf.e.c.k--neither for our own nor our reader's convenience dare we omit the "prenom"--was of a western family considerably above that of her liege lord and master in matter of genealogy, but whose quarterings had so far survived the family acres that she was fain to accept the hand of a wealthy attorney, after having for some years been the belle of her county, and the admired beauty of Castle b.a.l.l.s and drawing-rooms.

It had been at first, indeed, a very hard struggle for the O'Haras to adopt the style and t.i.tle of Kennyf.e.c.k, and poor Matilda was pitied in all the moods and tenses for exchanging the riotous feudalism of Mayo for the decorous quietude and wealthy _insouciance_ of a Dublin mansion; and the various scions of the house did not scruple to express very unqualified opinions on the subject of her fall; but Time--that heals so much--Time and Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k's claret, of which they all drank most liberally during the visits to town, a.s.suaged the rancor of these prejudices, and "Matty," it was hinted, might have done worse; while some hardy spirit averred that "Kennyf.e.c.k, though not one of ourselves, has a great deal of the gentleman about him, notwithstanding."

A word of Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k himself, and even a word will almost suffice. He was a very tall, pompous-looking personage, with a retiring forehead and a large prominent nose; he wore a profusion of powder, and always dressed in the most scrupulous black; he spoke little, and that slowly; he laughed never. It was not that he was melancholy or depressed; it seemed rather that his nature had been fashioned in conformity with the onerous responsibilities of his pursuit, and that he would have deemed any exhibition of mirthful emotion unseemly and unbecoming one who, so to say, was a kind of high priest in the temple of equity. Next to the Chancellor's he venerated the decisions of Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k; after Mrs.

Kennyf.e.c.k came the Master of the Rolls. This was his brief and simple faith, and it is astonishing in what simple rules of guidance men ama.s.s vast fortunes, and obtain the highest suffrages of civic honor and respect!

Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k's family consisted of two daughters: the eldest had been a beauty for some years, and, even at the period our tale opens, had lost few of her attractions. She was tall, dark-haired, and dark-eyed, with an air of what in the Irish capital is called "decided fashion" about her, but in less competent circles might have been called almost effrontery. She looked strangers very steadily in the face, spoke with a voice full, firm, and unabashed,--no matter what the subject, or who the audience,--and gave her opinions on people and events with a careless indifference to consequences that many mistook for high genius rebellious against control.

Olivia, three years younger than her sister, had just come out; and whether that her beauty--and she was very handsome--required a different style, or that she saw more clearly "the mistake" in Miss Kennyf.e.c.k's manner, but she took a path perfectly her own. She was tenderness itself; a delicacy too susceptible for this work-a-day world pervaded all she said and did,--a retiring sensitiveness that she knew, as she plaintively said, would never "let her be loved," overlaid her nature, and made her the victim of her own feelings. Her sketches, everlasting Madonnas dissolved in tears; her music, the most mournful of the melodies; her reading, the most disastrously ending of modern poems,--all accorded with this tone, which, after all, scarcely consorted well with a very blooming cheek, bright hazel eyes, and an air and carriage that showed a full consciousness of her captivations, and no small reliance on her capacity to exercise them.

A brief interval after the servant left the room, the door opened, and Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k entered. She was dressed for dinner, and if not exactly attired for the reception of a large company, exhibited, in various details of her costume, unequivocal signs of more than common care. A ma.s.sive diamond brooch fastened the front of her dark velvet dress, and on her fingers several rings of great value glittered. Miss Kennyf.e.c.k, too, who followed her, was, though simply, most becomingly dressed; the light and floating material of her robe contrasting well with the more stately folds of the matronly costume of her mother.

"I am surprised they are not here before this," said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, lying back in the deep recess of a luxurious chair, and placing a screen between herself and the fire. "Your father said positively on the 5th, and as the weather has been most favorable, I cannot understand the delay. The packets arrive at four, I think?"

"Yes, at four, and the carriage left this at three to fetch them."

"Read the note again,--he writes so very briefly always. I 'm sure I wish the dear man would understand that I am not a client, and that a letter is not exactly all it might be, because it can be charged its thirteen-and-fourpence, or six-and-eightpence, whatever it is."

Miss Kennyf.e.c.k took an open note from the chimney, and read:--

Dear Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k,--We have made all the necessary arrangements in London, and shall leave on the 2nd, so as to arrive at Merrion Square by the 5th. Mr. C---- would, I believe, rather have remained another day in town; but there was no possibility of doing so, as the "Chancellor"

will sit on Tuesday. Love to the girls, and believe me, yours very truly,

M. Kennyf.e.c.k.

Invite Jones and Softly to meet us at dinner.

The clock on the mantelpiece now struck seven; and scarcely had the last chime died away as a carriage drove up to the door.

"Here they come, I suppose," said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, with a half-sigh.

"No, mamma; it is a hackney-coach. Mr. Jones, or Mr. Softly, perhaps."

"Oh, dear! I had forgotten them. How absurd it was to ask these people, and your father not here."

The door opened, and the servant announced the Rev. Mr. Knox Softly. A very tall, handsome young man entered, and made a most respectful but cordial salutation to the ladies. He was in look and mien the _beau ideal_ of health, strength, and activity, with bright, full blue eyes, and cheeks rosy as the May. His voice, however, was subdued to the dulcet accent of a low whisper, and his step, as he crossed the room, had the stealthy noiselessness of a cat's approach.

"Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k quite restored, I hope, from the fatigue of his journey?"

"We 've not seen him yet," replied his lady, almost tartly. "He ought to have been here at four o'clock, and yet it's past seven."

"I think I hear a carriage."

"Another ------," hackney, Miss Kennyf.e.c.k was about to say, when she stopped herself, and, at the instant, Counsellor Clare Jones was announced.

This gentleman was a rising light of the Irish bar, who had the good fortune to attract Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k's attention, and was suddenly transferred from the dull duties of civil bills and declarations to business of a more profitable kind. He had been somewhat successful in his college career,--carried off some minor honors; was a noisy member of a debating society; wrote leaders for some provincial papers; and with overbearing powers of impudence, and a good memory, was a very likely candidate for high forensic honor.

Unlike the first arrival, the Counsellor had few, if any, of the forms of good society in his manner or address. His costume, too, was singularly negligent; and as he ran a very dubious hand through a ma.s.s of thick and tangled hair on entering, it was easy to see that the greatest part of his toilet was then and there performed. The splashed appearance of his nether garments, and of shoes that might have done honor to snipe-shooting, also showed that the carriage which brought him was a mere ceremonial observance, and, as he would himself say, "the act of conveyance was a surplusage."

Those who saw him in court p.r.o.nounced him the most unabashed and cool of men; but there was certainly a somewhat of haste and impetuosity in his drawing-room manner that even a weak observer would have ascribed to awkwardness.

"How do you do, Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k?--how do you do, Miss Kennyf.e.c.k?--glad to see you. Ah! Mr. Softly,--well, I hope? Is he come--has he arrived?"

A shake of the head replied in the negative. "Very strange; I can't understand it. We have a consultation with the Solicitor-General to-morrow, and a meeting in chambers at four."

"I should n't wonder if Mr. Cashel detained papa; he is very young, you know, and London must be so new and strange to him, poor lad!"

"Yes; but your father would scarce permit it," said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, smartly. "I rather think it must have been some accidental circ.u.mstance; coaches are constantly upsetting, and post-horses cannot always be had."

Mr. Knox Softly smiled benignly, as though to say in these suggestions Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k was displaying a very laudable spirit of uncertainty as to the course of human events.

"Here 's Olivia," said Mrs. Kennyf.e.c.k, as her younger daughter entered.

"Let us hear her impressions,--full of forebodings, I don't doubt."

Miss Olivia Kennyf.e.c.k performed her salutations to the guests with the most faultless grace, throwing into her courtesy to the curate a certain air of filial reverence very pretty to behold, and only a little objectionable on the score of the gentleman's youth and personal attractions; and then, turning to her mother said,--

"You are not uneasy, mamma, I hope? Though, after all, this is about the period of the equinox."

"Nonsense, child! packets are never lost nowadays in the Irish Channel.

It's merely some sudden freak of gayety,--some London distraction detains them. Will you touch that bell, Mr. Clare Jones? It is better to order dinner."

There was something peremptory in the lady's tone and manner that rather damped the efforts at small-talk,--never very vigorous or well-sustained at these ante-dinner moments; nor were any of the party very sorry when the servant announced that the soup was served.

CHAPTER V. HOW ROLAND BECAME ENt.i.tLED TO THE G.o.dFREY BROWNE PROPERTY.

The sherry iced,--the company still colder.

Bell: Images.

The party who now took their seats at table were not made of those ingredients whose admixture accomplishes a social meeting. Their natures, pursuits, and tastes were only sufficiently unlike to suggest want of agreement, without possessing the broad contrasts that invite conversation by their own contrariety. Besides this, there was a sense of constraint over every one, from the absence of the host and his expected guest; and lastly, the very aspect of a gorgeously decorated table, with vacant places, has always a chilling influence over those who sit around. A certain amount of propinquity is as essential to conversation as good roads and easy distances are a necessary condition to a visiting neighborhood. If you cannot address him or her who sits beside you without attracting the attention of the whole table to your remark, you are equally debarred from the commonplaces that induce table-talk, or the smart thing that cannot well be said too publicly.

The dinner here proceeded in very stately quietude, nor were the efforts of Mr. Jones to introduce a conversational spirit at all successful; indeed, that gifted gentleman would have willingly exchanged the unexceptionable cookery and admirably conditioned wine before him for the riotous freedom of a bar mess,--where sour sherry and nisi-prius jokes abounded, and Father Somebody's song was sure to give the scene a conviviality that only yielded its fascination to blind hookey or spoiled five.

Far otherwise the curate. The angelic smile that sat upon his features mechanically; his low, soft, liquid voice; his gentle gestures; and even his little sallies of pleasantry, were in perfect accordance with the decorous solemnity of a scene where the c.h.i.n.k of a cut decanter, or the tingling sound of a silver dish-cover, were heard above the stillness of the company.

If, then, Mr. Knox Softly accompanied the ladies to the door, and followed them out with his eyes with an expression beaming regretfulness at their departure, the Counsellor, very differently minded, surrounded himself with an array of the dessert-dishes and decanters, and prepared to discuss his wine and walnuts to his perfect contentment.