Sir Jasper Carew Part 20

"In Wicklow,--immediately around Castle Carew."

"But he has other property?"

"Yes, he has some northern estates; and there is a mine, also, on Lough Allen belonging to him."

"Well, why not go there?"

"There is no residence; there is nothing beyond the cabins of the peasantry, or the scarcely more comfortable dwelling of the overseer.

I have it, Crowther," cried he, suddenly, as though, a happy notion had just struck him; "I have it. You have heard of that shooting-lodge of mine at the Killeries? It was Carew's property, but has fallen into my hands; he shall go there. So far as seclusion goes, I defy Ireland to find its equal. They who have seen it, tell me it is a perfect picture of landscape beauty. He can shoot and fish and sketch for a week or so, till we see what turn this affair is like to take. Nothing could be better; the only difficulty is the distance."

"You tell me that he is ill."

"It is more agitation than actual illness; he was weak and feeble before this happened, and of course his nerves are terribly shaken by it."

"The next consideration is, how to apprise his wife; at least, what we ought to tell her if he be incapable of writing."

"I hinted that already as I accompanied him upstairs, and by his manner it struck me that he did not lay much stress on the matter; he merely said, 'Oh! she has no curiosity; she never worries herself about what does not concern her.'"

"A rare quality in a wife, f.a.gan," said the other, with a smile.

Whether it was the prompting of his own thoughts, or that some real or fancied emphasis on the word "wife" caught him, but f.a.gan asked suddenly, "What did you say?"

"I remarked that it was a rare quality for a wife to possess. You thought, perhaps, it was rather the gift of those who enjoy the privilege, and not the name of such."

"Maybe you're right, then, Crowther. Shall I own to you, it was the very thought that was pa.s.sing through my own brain!"

"How strange that Rutledge should have hinted the very same suspicion to myself, the last time we ever spoke together," said Crowther, in a low, confidential whisper. "We were sitting in my back office; he had come to show me some bills of money won at play, and ask my advice about them.

Carew was the indorser of two or three amongst them, and Rutledge remarked at the tremendous pace the other was going, and how impossible it was that any fortune could long maintain it. There was some difficulty in catching exactly his meaning, for he spoke rapidly, and with more than his accustomed warmth. It was something, however, to this effect: 'All this extravagant display is madame's doing, and the natural consequence of his folly in France. If, instead of this absurd mistake, he had married and settled in Ireland, his whole career would have taken a different turn.' Now, when I reflected on the words after he left me, I could not satisfy myself whether he had said that Carew ought to have married, in contradistinction to have formed this French attachment, or simply that he deemed an Irish wife would have been a wiser choice than a French one."

"The former strikes me as the true interpretation," said f.a.gan; "and the more I think on every circ.u.mstance of this affair, the more do I incline to this opinion. The secrecy so unnecessary, the mystery as to her family, even as to her name, all so needless. That interval of seclusion, in which, probably, he had not yet resolved finally on the course he should adopt. And, lastly, a point more peculiarly referring to ourselves, and over which I have often pondered,--I mean the selection of my daughter Polly to be her friend and companion. It is not at my time of life," added f.a.gan, with an almost fierce energy of voice, "that I have to learn how the aristocracy regard me and such as me.

No one needs to tell me that any intercourse between us must depend on something else than similarity of taste and pursuit; that if we ever sit down to the same table together, it is on the ground of a compromise.

There is a shame to be concealed or consoled, or there is a debt to be deferred, or left unclaimed forever. Walter Carew's wife would scarcely have sought out the Grinder's daughter for her friend and bosom companion. His mistress might have thought such an alliance most suitable. Polly has herself told me the terms of perfect equality on which they lived; that never by a chance word, look, or gesture was there aught which could imply a position of superiority above her own.

They called each other by their Christian names, they a.s.sumed all the intimacy of sisters, and that almost at once. When she related these things to me," cried f.a.gan, sternly, "my pa.s.sion nearly overcame me, to think how we had been outraged and insulted; but I remembered, suddenly, that there were others, far higher than us, exposed to the same indignity. The Castle was crowded by the rank, the wealth, and the influence of the whole country; and if there be a disgrace to be endured, we have at least partners in our shame."

"Yes, yes," said Crowther, nodding his head slowly in a.s.sent; "the whole a.s.sumes a strange and most remarkable consistency. I remember well, hearing how many of those invited on that occasion had sent letters of apology; and stranger again, the way in which the party broke up and separated has been made public enough in the newspapers. Rutledge's own words were: 'It was a rout, not a retreat.' That was a curious expression."

Who has not, at some time or other of his life, experienced the force of that casuistry which is begotten of suspicion? Who has not felt how completely reason is mastered by the subtle a.s.saults of a wily ingenuity which, whilst combining the false and the true, the possible and impossible together, makes out a mock array of evidence almost too strong for a doubt? The least creative of minds are endowed with this faculty, and even the most commonplace and matter-of-fact temperaments are sometimes the slaves of this delusion! To render its influence all powerful, however, it should be exercised by two who, in the interchange of suspicions, and by bartering their inferences, arrive at a degree of certainty in their conclusions rarely accorded to the most convincing testimony. As a river is swollen by the aid of every tiny rill that trickles down the mountain side, so does the current of conviction receive as tributary, incidents the most trivial, and events of the slightest meaning.

f.a.gan's spirit revolted at what he felt to be a gross insult pa.s.sed upon his daughter; but this very indignation served to rivet more firmly his suspicions, for he reasoned thus: Men are ever ready to credit what they desire to be credible, and to disbelieve that which it is unpleasant to accept as true. Now, here have I every temptation to incredulity!

If this be the fact, as my suspicions indicate, I have been deeply outraged. An affront has been offered to me which dared not have been put upon one of higher rank and better blood. It is, therefore, my interest and my wish to suppose this impossible; and yet I cannot do so. Not all the self-respect I can call to aid, not all the desire to shelter myself behind a doubt, will suffice. My reason accepts what my feelings would reject, and I believe what it is a humiliation for me to credit.

Such was, in brief, the substance of a long mental struggle and self-examination on f.a.gan's part,--a process to which he addressed himself with all the shrewdness of his nature. It was a matter of deep moment to him in every way. He ardently desired that he should arrive at a right judgment upon it; and yet, with all his penetration and keen-sighted-ness, he never perceived that another agency was at work all the while, whose tendencies were exactly in the opposite direction.

To believe Walter Carew still unmarried was to revive his long-extinct hope of calling him his son-in-law, and to bring back once more that gorgeous dream of Polly's elevation to rank and position, which had filled his mind for many a year. His whole heart had been set upon this object. In pursuit of it, he had made the most immense advances of money to my father, many of them on inferior security. For some he had the mere acknowledgment contained in a few lines of a common letter. The measures of severity which he had once menaced were undertaken in the very paroxysm of his first disappointment, and were as speedily relinquished when calm reflection showed him that they could avail nothing against the past. Besides this he felt that there was still an object, to the attainment of which my father's aid might contribute much, and towards which he hoped to urge him,--the emanc.i.p.ation of the Catholics. It had been long f.a.gan's cherished idea that the leadership of that party should be given to one who united to reasonable good abilities the advantages of birth, large fortune, and, above all, personal courage.

"We have orators and writers in abundance," would he say. "There are plenty who can make speeches, and even songs, for us; but we want a few men who, with a large stake in the country, and high position in society, are willing and ready to peril both, and themselves into the bargain, in the a.s.sertion of our cause. If we ever chance to find these, our success is certain. The worst thing about our cause," added he, "is not its disloyalty, for that admits of discussion and denial; but the real plague-spot is its vulgarity. Our enemies have been cunning enough to cast over the great struggle of a nation all the petty and miserable characteristics of a faction, and not of mere faction, but of one agitated by the lowest motives, and led on by the meanest advocates.

A gentleman or two, to take service with us, will at once repulse this tactic; and until we can hit upon these, we shall make no progress."

I have been obliged to dwell even to tediousness on these traits of the Grinder; for if they be not borne in mind, his actions and motives will seem dest.i.tute of any satisfactory explanation. And I now return to the chamber where he sat with Crowther as they compared impressions together, and bartered suspicions about my father's marriage.

"Now that I begin to consider the matter in this light," said Crowther, "it is curious what an explanation it affords to many things that used to puzzle me formerly: all that coldness and reserve towards Carew that his neighbors showed; the way his former acquaintances fell off from him, one by one; and, lastly, those strange hints about him in the newspapers. I suppose we should see the meaning of every one of them now easily enough?"

f.a.gan made no reply; his mind was travelling along over the road it had entered upon, and would not be turned away by any call whatsoever.

"Yes," muttered he to himself, "the little cottage at Fallrach, in the Killeries,--that's the place! and the only thing now is to get him down there. I must go up and see how he gets on, Crowther. I 'm half afraid that he ought to see a surgeon." And, so saying, he arose and left the room.

My father was still sleeping as he entered, but less tranquilly than before, with a feverish flush upon his face, and his lips dry and dark-colored.

With a noiseless hand, f.a.gan drew back the curtain, and, seating himself close to the bed, bent down to gaze on him. The uneasy motions of the sleeper denoted pain; and more than once his hand was pressed against his side, as if it was the seat of some suffering. f.a.gan watched every gesture eagerly, and tried, but in vain, to collect some meaning from the low and broken utterance. Rapidly speaking at intervals, and at times moaning painfully, he appeared to labor either under some mental or bodily agony, in a paroxysm of which, at last, he burst open his vest, and clutched his embroidered shirt-frill with a violence that tore it in fragments.

As he did so, f.a.gan caught sight of a handkerchief stained with blood, which, with cautious gesture, he slowly removed, and, walking to the window, examined it carefully. This done, he folded it up, and, enveloping it in his own, placed it in his pocket. Once more he took his place at the bedside, and seemed to listen with intense anxiety for every sound of the sleeper's lips. The fever appeared to gain ground, for the flush now covered the face and forehead, and the limbs were twitched with short convulsive motions.

At last, as the paroxysm had reached its height, he bounded up from the bed and awoke.

"Where am I?" cried he, wildly. "Who are all these? What do they allege against me?"

"Lie down; compose yourself, Mr. Carew. You are amongst friends, who wish you well, and will treat you kindly," said f.a.gan, mildly.

"But it was not of my seeking,--no one can dare to say so. f.a.gan will be my back to any amount,--ten thousand, if they ask it."

"That will I,--to the last penny I possess."

"There, I told you so. I often said I knew the Grinder better than any of you. You laughed at me for it; but I was right, for all that."

"I trust you were right, sir," said f.a.gan, calmly.

"What I said was this," continued he, eagerly: "the father of such a girl as Polly must be a gentleman at heart. He may trip and stumble, in his imitations of your modish paces; but the soul of a gentleman must be in him. Was I right there, or not?"

"Pray, calm yourself; lie down, and take your rest," said f.a.gan, gently pushing him back upon the pillow.

"You are quite right," said he; "there is nothing for it now but submission. MacNaghten, Harvey, Burton,--all who have known me from boyhood,--can testify if I were one to do a dishonorable action. I tell you again and again, I will explain nothing; life is not worth such a price,--such ignominy is too great!"

He paused, as if the thought was too painful to pursue; and then, fixing his eyes on f.a.gan, he laughed aloud, and added,--

"Eh, f.a.gan! that would be like one of your own contracts,--a hundred per cent!"

"I have not treated you in this wise, Mr. Carew," said he, calmly..

"No, my boy! that you have not. To the last hour of my life--no great stretch of time, perhaps--I 'll say the same. You have been a generous fellow with me--the devil and yourself may perhaps know why,--I do not; nay, more, f.a.gan--I never cared to know. Perhaps you thought I 'd marry Polly. By George! I might have done worse; and who knows what may be yet on the cards? Ay, just so--the cards--the cards!"

He did not speak again for several minutes; but when he did, his voice a.s.sumed a tone of greater distinctness and accuracy, as if he would not that a single word were lost.

"I knew your scheme about the Papists, Tony; I guessed what you were at then. I was to have emanc.i.p.ated you!"

A wild laugh broke from him, and he went on,--

"Just fancy the old trumpeter's face, that hangs up in the dinner-room at Castle Carew! Imagine the look he would bestow on his descendant as I sat down to table. Faith! Old Noll himself would have jumped out of the canvas at the tidings. If you cannot strain your fancy that far, Tony, think what your own father would have said were his degenerate son to be satisfied with lawful interest!--imagine him sorrowing over the lost precepts of his house!"

"There; I'll close the curtains, and leave you to take a sleep," said f.a.gan.