Roland Cashel Volume Ii Part 12

"His interest, sir," replied Kennyf.e.c.k, calmly, "although more valuable to you than to any one else, must be a matter of small amount; for years back, he has done little more than vegetate on the property, without capital or skill to improve it."

"I 'm not asking you to appraise it, just yet," said Roland, snappishly; "I was simply informing you of the object of the gentleman's visit. It is the advantage of this purchase that I wished you to consider, not its cost."

"The cost will define the advantage, sir," rejoined Kennyf.e.c.k, "particularly as the demand may be high, and the payment inconvenient."

"How do you mean, inconvenient?"

Kennyf.e.c.k hesitated. There was something in the hurried abruptness of the question, as well as in the excited expression of the questioner's face, that confused him; so that Cashel had time to repeat the words before he could reply.

"Is it that I am straitened for money?" said he, pa.s.sionately.

"Not quite--that--sir," replied Kennyf.e.c.k, stopping between every word.

"You have resources--very great resources--untouched, and you have considerable sums in foreign securities, intact--"

"Never mind these," broke in Roland, hurriedly. "How do we stand with those London fellows?"

Kennyf.e.c.k shook his head gravely, but without speaking.

"I pray you, sir," said Roland, in a voice of hardly suppressed pa.s.sion, "keep pantomime for another moment, or a keener interpreter of it, and condescend, in plain English, to answer me my last question."

"There is no difficulty with Bigger and Swain, sir," said Kennyf.e.c.k, as his cheek grew slightly red. "They will neither be pressing for a settlement, nor exacting when making it; besides, you have not overdrawn very heavily, After all."

"Overdrawn, said you?--did you say overdrawn, Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k?"

"Yes, sir. In the account last forwarded, your debit was eleven thousand four hundred and forty pounds; since that you have drawn--but not for any large amount."

"Overdrawn!" repeated Cashel, as though his thoughts had never wandered beyond the first shock of that fact; then rallying into something like his habitual easy humor, he said, "I am, I need not tell you, the stupidest man of business that ever breathed, so pray forgive me if I ask you once more if I understood you aright, that I have not only expended all the money I owned in these people's hands, but actually had contracted a debt to them?"

"That is the case, sir," said Kennyf.e.c.k, gravely.

A deep groan broke from Cashel, and he sat silent and still.

"I would wish to observe, sir," said Kennyf.e.c.k, who was shocked at the alteration a few moments had made in the young man's countenance--"I would wish to observe, sir, that if you desire a sum of money for any purpose--"

"Stay--let me interrupt you here," said Cashel, laying his hand on Kennyf.e.c.k's arm, and using a tone whose earnest distinctness thrilled through his hearer's heart; "I should deceive you, were you to suppose that it is the want of money gives me the pain I am now suffering. That I had believed myself rich a few moments back, and now found myself a beggar, could not give one-thousandth part of that suffering which I feel here. I have braved poverty in every form, and I could brave it again; but I 'll tell you what it is that now cuts me to the soul, and lowers me to myself. It is that, in a senseless, heartless career, I should have squandered the wealth by which I once imagined I was to bless and succor hundreds. It is to think, that of all the gold I have wasted, not one memory has been purchased of a sick-bed consoled, a suffering lessened, a sinking spirit encouraged,--I have done nothing, actually nothing, save pamper vice and sensual heartlessness. I came to this kingdom a few months back, my very dreams filled with schemes of benevolence; I felt as if this wealth were given to me that I might show the world how much of good may be done by one who, having experienced narrow fortune, should best know how to relieve it in others; and now, here am I, the wealth and the high aspirations alike departed, with no tradition to carry away, save of a life pa.s.sed in debauch, the friendship of worthless, the pitying contempt of good men! Hear me out I was nurtured in no school of sentiment; I belonged to a cla.s.s who had too little time or taste to indulge in scruples. We were reckless, pa.s.sionate,--cruel, if you will,--but we were not bad in cold blood; we seldom hated long; we never could turn on a benefactor. These are not the lessons I 've lived to learn here! It is over, however--it is past now! I 'll go back to the old haunts, and the old comrades. It will go hard with me if I quarrel with their rude speech and rough demeanor. I 'll think of _gentlemen!_ and be grateful."

The rapid utterance in which he poured forth these words, and the fervid excitement of his manner, abashed Kenny-f.e.c.k, and deterred him from reply. Cashel was the first to speak.

"This arrangement, however, must be provided for; whatever Mr.

Corrigan's interest be worth--or rather, whatever he will accept in lieu of it--I insist upon his having. But I see Dr. Tiernay coming up to the door; we can talk of these things at another time."

When Tiernay entered the library he was heated with his walk, and his face betrayed unmistakable signs of recent irritation; indeed, he did not long conceal the reason.

"Is it true, Mr. Cashel, that Mr. Linton is your nominee for the borough of Derraheeny?"

"Yes; what of that?"

"Why, that he canva.s.ses the const.i.tuency in a fashion we have not yet been accustomed to; at least _your_ tenants, of whom I am one, are told that our votes are the condition on which our leases will receive renewal; that you will not brook opposition in any one who holds under you. Are these your sentiments, Mr. Cashel, or only his?"

"Not mine, a.s.suredly," replied Cashel, gravely.

"I said as much. I told several of my neighbors that if this mode of canva.s.s had your sanction, it was from not knowing the privileges of an elector."

"I neither sanctioned nor knew of it," rejoined Cashel, eagerly.

"So much the better--at least for me," said Tiernay, seating himself at the breakfast-table, "for I shall not lose a good breakfast, as I should have been forced to do had these been your intentions."

"I would observe, Dr. Tiernay," interposed Kennyf.e.c.k, mildly, "that the borough, being entirely the property of Mr. Cashel, its charities maintained by his bounty, and its schools supported at his cost, he has a fair claim on the grat.i.tude of those who benefit by his benevolence."

"Let him stand himself for the borough, and we 'll not deny the debt,"

said Tiernay, roughly; "but if for every ten he should expend a hundred, ay, sir, or a thousand, on the village, I 'd not vote for Mr.

Linton."

"Most certainly, doctor; I'd never seek to coerce you," said Cashel, smiling.

"Labor lost, sir. I am your tenant for a holding of twenty-two pounds a year. I have never been in arrear; you, consequently, have not granted me any favor, save that of extending your acquaintance to me. Now, sir, except that you are a rich man and I a poor one, how is even that condescension on your part a favor? and how could _you_ purpose, upon it, to ask me to surrender my right of judgment on an important point to you, who, from your high station, your rank and influence, have a thousand prerogatives, while I have but this one?"

"I never heard the just influence of the landed proprietor disputed before," said Kenny f.e.c.k, who felt outraged at the doctor's hardihood.

"It is only _just_ influence, sir," said Tiernay, "when he who wields it is an example, as much by his life, as by the exercise of an ability that commands respect. Show me a man at the head of a large property extending the happiness of his tenantry, succoring the sick, a.s.sisting the needy, spreading the blessings of his own knowledge among those who have neither leisure nor opportunity to acquire it for themselves. Let me see him, while enjoying to the fullest the bounteous gifts that are the portion of but few in this world, not forgetful of those whose life is toil, and whose struggle is for mere existence. Let me not know the landlord only by his liveries and his equipage, his fox-hounds, his plate, his racers, and his sycophants."

"Hard hitting, doctor!" cried Cashel, interrupting.

"Not if you can take it so good-humoredly," said Tiernay; "not if it only lose me the honor of ever entering here, and teach you to reflect on these things."

"You mistake me much," said Cashel, "if you judge me so narrowly."

"I did not think thus meanly of you; nor, if I did, would it have stopped me. I often promised myself, that if I could but eat of a rich man's salt, I'd tell him my mind, while under the protection of his hospitality. I have paid my debt now; and so, no more of it. Kennyf.e.c.k could tell you better than I, if it be not, in part at least, deserved.

All this splendor that dazzles our eyes,--all this luxury, that makes the contrast of our poverty the colder,--all this reckless waste, that is like an unfeeling jest upon our small thrift, is hard to bear when we see it, not the pastime of an idle hour, but the business of a life. You can do far better things than these, and be happier as well as better for doing them! And now, sir, are you in the mood to discuss my friend's project?"

"Perfectly so, doctor; you have only to speak your sentiments on the matter before Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k; my concurrence is already with you."

"We want you to buy our interest in Tubber-beg," said the doctor, drawing his chair in front of Kennyf.e.c.k; "and though you tell us that flower-plats and hollies, laurustinus and geraniums, are not wealth, we 'll insist on your remunerating us for some share of the cost. The spot is a sweet one, and will improve your demesne. Now, what's it worth?"

"There are difficulties which may preclude any arrangement," said Kennyf.e.c.k, gravely. "There was a deed of gift of this very property made out, and only awaiting Mr. Cashel's signature."

"To whom?" said Tiernay, gasping with anxiety.

"To Mr. Linton."

"The very thing I feared," said the old man, dropping his head sorrowfully.

"It is easily remedied, I fancy," said Cashel. "It was a hasty promise given to afford him qualification for Parliament. I 'll give him something of larger value; I know he 'll not stand in our way here."

"How you talk of giving, sir! You should have been the Good Fairy of a nursery tale, and not a mere man of acres and bank-notes. But have your own way. It's only antic.i.p.ating the crash a month or so; ruined you must be!"

"Is that so certain?" said Cashel, half smiling, half seriously.

"Ask Mr. Kennyf.e.c.k, there, whose highest ambition half a year ago was to be your agent, and now he 'd scarcely take you for a son-in-law! Don't look so angry, man; what I said is but an ill.u.s.tration. It will be with your property as it was with your pleasure-boat t'other day; you 'll never know you 've struck till you 're sinking."