Sir Jasper Carew Part 3

"Stand where you are!" he cried, as the father and daughter were about to move aside, and give him room to pa.s.s; and immediately after he rushed his horse at the huge trunk of a fallen beech-tree, and cleared it with a spring.

"He 'll be perfect at timber, when he gets a little cooler in temper,"

said he, turning on his saddle; and then, recognizing f.a.gan, he reined short in, and called out, "Halloo, Tony! who ever expected to see you here?--Miss Polly, your servant. A most unexpected pleasure this," added he, springing from his saddle, and advancing towards them with his hat off.

"It is not often I indulge myself with a holiday, Mr. MacNaghten," said f.a.gan, as though half ashamed of the confession.

"So much the worse for you, f.a.gan, and for your handsome daughter here,--not to speak of the poor thriftless devils, like myself, who are the objects of your industrious hours. Eh, Tony, is n't that true?" and he laughed heartily at his impudent joke.

"And if it were not for such industry, sir," said the daughter, sternly, "how many like you would be abroad to-day?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: 052]

"By Jove, you are quite right, Miss Polly. It is exactly as you say.

Your excellent father is the providence of us younger sons; and I, for one, will never prove ungrateful to him. But pray let us turn to another theme. Shall I show you the grounds and the gardens? The house is in such a mess of confusion that it is scarcely worth seeing. The conservatory, however, and the dairy are nearly finished; and if you can breakfast on grapes and a pineapple, with fresh cream to wash them down, I 'll promise to entertain you."

"We ask for nothing better, Mr. MacNaghten," said f.a.gan, who was not sorry to prolong an interview that might afford him the information he sought for.

"Now for breakfast, and then for sight-seeing," said Dan, politely offering his arm to the young lady, and leading the way towards the house.

CHAPTER IV. A BREAKFAST AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

To do the honors of another man's house is a tremendous test of tact.

In point of skill or address, we know of few things more difficult. The ease which sits so gracefully on a host becomes a.s.surance when practised by a representative; and there is a species of monarchy about the lord of a household that degenerates into usurpation in the hands of a pretender. It is not improbable, then, Dan MacNaghten's success in this trying part was mainly attributable to the fact that he had never thought of its difficulty. He had gone through a fine property in a few years of dissipation, during which he had played the entertainer so often and so well that nothing seemed to him more natural than a seat at the head of a table, nor any task more simple or agreeable than to dispense its hospitalities.

The servants of the Castle were well accustomed to obey him, and when he gave his orders for breakfast to be speedily laid out in the conservatory, they set about the preparations with zeal and activity.

With such prompt.i.tude, indeed, were the arrangements made that by the time MacNaghten had conducted his guests to the spot, all was in readiness awaiting them.

The place was admirably chosen, being a central point in the conservatory, from which alleys branched out in different directions; some opening upon little plots of flowers or ornamental shrubbery, others disclosing views of the woodland scenery or the distant mountains beyond it. The table was spread beside a marble basin, into which a little group of sportive t.i.tans were seen spouting. Great Nile lilies floated on the crystal surface, and gold and silver fish flashed and glittered below. The board itself, covered with luscious fruit, most temptingly arranged amidst beautiful flowers, displayed, besides, some gorgeous specimens of Sevres and Saxony, hastily taken from their packing-cases, while a large vase of silver, richly chased, stood in the centre, and exhibited four views of the Castle, painted in medallions on its sides.

"If you'll sit here, Miss Polly," said MacNaghten, "you'll have a prettier view, for you'll see the lake, and catch a peep, too, of the Swiss Cottage on the crag above it. I must show you the cottage after breakfast. It was a bit of fancy of my own,--copied, I am free to confess, from one I saw in the Oberland.--f.a.gan, help yourself; you 'll find these cutlets excellent. Our friend Carew has made an admirable choice of a cook."

"You treat us in princely fashion, sir," said f.a.gan, whose eyes glanced from the splendor before him to his daughter, and there tried to read her thoughts.

"You gave me no time for that; had you told me you were coming down, I 'd have tried to receive you properly. As it is, pray make up your mind to stay a day or two,--Carew will be so delighted; nothing flatters him so much as to hear praise of this place."

"Ah, sir, you forget that men like myself have but few holidays."

"So much the worse, f.a.gan; remember what the adage says about all work and no play. Not, by Jove, but I 'm sure that the converse of the proposition must have its penalty, too; for if not, I should have been a marvellously clever fellow.--Ay, Miss Polly, my life has been all play."

"A greater fault than the other, sir, and with this addition, too, that it makes proselytes," said she, gravely; "my father's theory finds fewer followers."

"And you not one of them?" said MacNaghten, rapidly; while he fixed a look of shrewd inquiry on her.

"a.s.suredly not," replied she, in a calm and collected tone.

"By Jove, I could have sworn to it," cried he, with a burst of enthusiastic delight. "There, f.a.gan, you see Miss Polly takes my side, after all."

"I have not said so," rejoined she, gravely. "Gain and waste are nearer relatives than they suspect."

"I must own that I have never known but one of the family," said Dan, with one of those hearty laughs which seemed to reconcile him to any turn of fortune.

f.a.gan all this time was ill at ease and uncomfortable; the topic annoyed him, and he gladly took occasion to change it by an allusion to the wine.

"And yet there are people who will tell you not to drink champagne for breakfast," exclaimed Dan, draining his gla.s.s as he spoke; "as if any man could be other than better with this glorious tipple. Miss Polly, your good health, though it seems superfluous to wish you anything."

She bowed half coldly to the compliment, and f.a.gan added hurriedly, "We are at least contented with our lot in life, Mr. MacNaghten."

"Egad, I should think you were, Tony, and no great merit in the resignation, after all. Put yourself in my position, however,--fancy yourself Dan MacNaghten for one brief twenty-four hours. Think of a fellow who began the world--ay, and that not so very long ago either--with something over five thousand a-year, and a good large sum in bank, and who now, as he sits here, only spends five shillings when he writes his name on a stamp; who once had houses and hounds and horses, but who now sits in the rumble, and rides a borrowed hack. If you want to make a virtue of your contentment, f.a.gan, change places with me."

"But would you take mine, Mr. MacNaghten? Would you toil, and slave, and f.a.g,--would you shut out the sun, that your daily labor should have no suggestive temptings to enjoyment,--would you satisfy yourself that the world should be to you one everlasting struggle, till at last the very capacity to feel it otherwise was lost to you forever?"

"That's more than I am able to picture to myself," said MacNaghten, sipping his wine. "I 've lain in a ditch for two hours with a broken thigh-bone, thinking all the time of the jolly things I 'd do when I 'd get well again; I 've spent some very rainy weeks in a debtor's prison, weaving innumerable enjoyments for the days when I should be at liberty; so that as to any conception of a period when I should not be able to be happy, it 's clean and clear beyond me."

Polly's eyes were fixed on him as he spoke, and while their expression was almost severe, the heightened color of her cheeks showed that she listened to him with a sense of pleasure.

"I suppose it's in the family," continued Dan, gayly. "My poor father used to say that no men have such excellent digestion as those that have nothing to eat."

"And has it never occurred to you, sir," said Polly, with a degree of earnestness in her voice and manner,--"has it never occurred to you that this same buoyant temperament could be turned to other and better account than mere "--she stopped, and blushed, and then, as if by an effort, went on--"mere selfish enjoyment? Do you not feel that he who can reckon on such resources but applies them to base uses when he condescends to make them the accessories of his pleasures? Is there nothing within your heart to whisper that a nature such as this was given for higher and n.o.bler purposes; and that he who has the spirit to confront real danger should not sit down contented with a mere indifference to shame?"

"Polly, Polly!" cried her father, alike overwhelmed by the boldness and the severity of her speech.

"By Jove, the young lady has given me a canter," cried MacNaghten, who, in spite of all his good temper, grew crimson; "and I only wish the lesson had come earlier. Yes, Miss Polly," added he, in a voice of more feeling, "it 's too late now."

"You must forgive my daughter, Mr. MacNaghten,--she is not usually so presumptuous," said f.a.gan, rising from the table, while he darted a reproving glance towards Polly; "besides, we are encroaching most unfairly on your time."

"Are you so?" cried Dan, laughing. "I never heard it called mine before!

Why, Tony, it's yours, and everybody's that has need of it. But if you 'll not eat more, let me show you the grounds. They are too extensive for a walk, Miss Polly, so, with your leave, we 'll have something to drive; meanwhile I'll tell the gardener to pluck you some flowers."

f.a.gan waited till MacNaghten was out of hearing, and then turned angrily towards his daughter.

"You have given him a sorry specimen of your breeding, Polly; I thought, indeed, you would have known better."

"You forget already, then, the speech with which he accosted us," said she, haughtily; "but my memory is better, sir."

"His courtesy might have effaced the recollection, I think," said f.a.gan, testily.

"His courtesy! Has he not told you himself that every gift he possesses is but an emanation of his selfishness? The man who can be anything so easily, will be nothing if it cost a sacrifice."

"I don't care what he is," said f.a.gan, in a low, distinct voice, as though he wanted every word to be heard attentively. "For what he has been, and what he will be, I care just as little. It is where he moves, and lives, and exerts influence,--these are what concern me."

"Are the chance glimpses that we catch of that high world so attractive, father?" said she, in an accent of almost imploring eagerness. "Do they, indeed, requite us for the cost we pay for them? When we leave the vulgar circle of our equals, is it to hear of generous actions, exalted sentiments, high-souled motives; or is it not to find every vice that stains the low pampered up into greater infamy amongst the n.o.ble?"

"This is romance and folly, girl. Who ever dreamed it should be otherwise? Nature stamped no n.o.bility on gold, nor made copper plebeian.

This has been the work of men; and so of the distinctions among themselves, and it will not do for us to dispute the ordinance. Station is power, wealth is power; he who has neither, is but a slave; he who has both, may be all that he would be!"