The Knight Of Gwynne Volume I Part 18

"May I ask, sir, how you suppose Providence intended to recommend any particular kind of cookery?" said Helen, seriously.

"Whatever is most natural, most simple, the easiest to do," stammered out Hickman, not over pleased at being asked for an explanation.

"Then the Cossack ranks first in the art," exclaimed Forester; "for nothing can be more simple or easier than to take a slice of a live ox and hang it up in the sun for ten or fifteen minutes."

"Them's barbarians," said Hickman, with an emphasis that made the listeners find it no easy task to keep down a laugh.

"Luncheon, my Lady," said old Tate Sullivan, as with a reverential bow he opened the folding-doors into a small breakfast parlor, where an exquisitely served table was laid out.

"Practice before precept, Mr. Hickman," said Lady Eleanor; "will you join us at luncheon, where I hope you may find something to your liking?"

As the old man seated himself at the table, his eye ranged over the cabinet pictures that covered the walls, the richly chased silver on the table, and the ma.s.sive wine-coolers that stood on the sideboard, with an eye whose brilliancy betokened far more the covetous taste of the miser than the pleased expression of mere connoisseurship; nor could he recall himself from their admiration to hear Forester's twice-repeated question as to what he would eat.

"'T is elegant fine plate, no doubt of it," muttered he, below his breath; "and the pictures may be worth as much more--ay!"

The last monosyllable was the only part of his speech audible, and being interpreted by Forester as a reply to his request, he at once helped the old gentleman to a very highly seasoned French dish before him.

"Eh! what's this?" said Hickman, as he surveyed his plate with unfeigned astonishment; "if I did n't see it laid down on your Ladyship's table, I 'd swear it was a bit of Gal way marble."

"It's a _gelatine truffee_, Mr. Hickman," said Forester, who was well aware of its merits.

"Be it so, in the name of G.o.d!" said Hickman, with resignation, as though to say that any one who could eat it might take the trouble to learn the name. "Ay, my Lady, that 's what I like, a slice of Kerry beef,--a beast made for man's eating."

"Mr. Hickman's pony is more of an epicure than his master," said Forester, as he arose from his chair and moved towards the gla.s.s-door that opened on the garden; "he has just eaten the top of your lemon-tree."

"And by way of dessert, he is now cropping my j.a.ponica," cried Helen, as she sprang from the room to rescue her favorite plant. Forester followed her, and Lady Eleanor was left alone with the doctor.

"Now, my Lady, that I have the opportunity,--and sure it was luck gave it to me,--would you give me the favor of a little private conversation?"

"If the matter be on business, Mr. Hickman, I must frankly own I should prefer your addressing yourself to the Knight; he will be home early next week."

"It is--and it is not, my Lady--but, there! they're coming back, now, and it is too late;" and so he heaved a heavy sigh, and lay back in his chair, as though worn out and disappointed.

"Well, then, in the library, Mr. Hickman," said Lady Eleanor, compa.s.sionately, "when you've eaten some luncheon."

"No more, my Lady; 'tis elegant fine beef as ever I tasted, and the gravy in it, but I'm not hungry now."

Lady Eleanor, without a guess as to what might form the subject of his communication, perceived that he was agitated and anxious; and so, requesting Forester and her daughter to continue their luncheon, she added: "And I have something to tell Mr. Hickman, if he will give five minutes of his company in the next room."

Taking a chair near the fire, Lady Eleanor motioned to the doctor to be seated; but the old man was so engaged in admiring the room and its furniture that he seemed insensible to all else. As his eye wandered over the many objects of taste and luxury on every side, his lips muttered unceasingly, but the sound was inarticulate.

"I cannot pledge myself that we shall remain long uninterrupted, Mr.

Hickman," said Lady Eleanor, "so pray lose no time in the communication you have to make."

"I humbly ask pardon, my Lady," said the old man, in a voice of deep humility; "I'm old and feeble now, and my senses none of the clearest,--but sure it's time for them to be worn out; ninety-one I 'll be, if I live to Lady-day." It was his habit to exaggerate his age; besides, there was a tremulous pathos in his accents to which Lady Eleanor was far from feeling insensible, and she awaited in silence what was to follow.

"Well, well," sighed the old man, "if I succeed in this, the last act of my long life, I 'm well content to go whenever the Lord pleases." And so saying, he took from his coat-pocket the ominous-looking old leather case to which we have already alluded, and searched for some time amid its contents. "Ay! here it is--that is it--it is only a memorandum, my Lady, but it will show what I mean." And he handed the paper to Lady Eleanor.

It was some time before she had arranged her spectacles and adjusted herself to peruse the doc.u.ment; but before she had concluded, her hand trembled violently, and all color forsook her cheek. Meanwhile; the doctor sat with his filmy eyes directed towards her, as if watching the working of his spell; and when the paper fell from her fingers, he uttered a low "Ay," as though to say his success was certain.

"Two hundred thousand pounds!" exclaimed she, with a shudder; "this cannot be true."

"It is all true, my Lady, and so is this too;" and he took from his hat a newspaper and presented it to her.

"The Ballydermot property! The whole estate lost at cards! This is a calumny, sir,--the libellous impertinence of a newspaper paragraphist.

I'll not believe it."

"''T 's true, notwithstanding, my Lady. Harvey Dawson was there himself, and saw it all; and as for the other, the deeds and mortgages are at this moment in the hands of my son's solicitor."

"And this may be foreclosed--"

"On the 24th, at noon, my Lady," continued Hickman, as he folded the memorandum and replaced it in his pocket-book.

"Well, sir," said she, as, with a great effort to master her emotion, she addressed him in a steady and even commanding voice, "the next thing is to learn what are your intentions respecting this debt? You have not purchased all these various liabilities of my husband's without some definite object. Speak it out--what is it? Has Mr. Hickman O'Reilly's ambition increased so rapidly that he desires to date his letters from Gwynne Abbey?"

"The Saints forbid it, my Lady," said the old man, with a pious horror.

"I 'd never come here this day on such an errand as that. If it was not to propose what was agreeable, you 'd not see me here--"

"Well, sir, what is the proposition? Let me hear it at once, for my patience never bears much dallying with."

"I am coming to it, my Lady," muttered Hickman, who already felt really ashamed at the deep emotion his news evoked. "There are two ways of doing it--" A gesture of impatience from Lady Eleanor stopped him, but, after a brief pause, he resumed: "Bear with me, my Lady. Old age and infirmity are always prolix; but I'll do my best."

It would be as unfair a trial of the reader's endurance as it proved to Lady Eleanor's, were we to relate the slow steps by which Mr. Hickman announced his plan, the substance of which, divested of all his own circ.u.mlocution and occasional interruptions, was simply this: a promise had been made by Lord Castlereagh to Hickman O'Reilly that if, through his influence, exercised by means of moneyed arrangements or otherwise, the Knight of Gwynne would vote with the Government on the "Union,"

he should be elevated to the Peerage, an object which, however inconsiderable in the old man's esteem, both his son and grandson had set their hearts upon. For this service they, in requital, would extend the loan to another period of seven years, stipulating only for some trifling advantages regarding the right of cutting timber, some coast fisheries, and other matters to be mentioned afterwards,--points which, although evidently of minor importance, were recapitulated by the old man with a circ.u.mstantial minuteness.

It was only by a powerful effort that Lady Eleanor could control her rising indignation at this proposal, while the very thought of Hickman O'Reilly as a Peer, and member of that proud "Order" of which her own haughty family formed a part, was an insult almost beyond endurance.

"Go on, sir," said she, with a forced composure which deceived old Hickman completely, and made him suppose that his negotiation was proceeding favorably.

"I 'm sure, my Lady, it 's little satisfaction all this grandeur would give me. I 'd rather be twenty years younger, and in the back parlor of my old shop at Loughrea than the first peer in the kingdom."

"Ambition is not your failing, then, sir," said she, with a glance which, to one more quick-sighted, would have conveyed the full measure of her scorn.

"That it is n't, my Lady; but they insist upon it."

"And is the Peerage to be enriched by the enrolment of your name among its members? I thought, sir, it was your son."

"Bob--Mr. Hickman, I mean--suggests that I should be the first lord in the family, my Lady, because then Beecham's t.i.tle won't seem so new when it comes to him. 'T is the only use they can make of me now--ay!" and the word was accented with a venomous sharpness that told the secret anger he had himself awakened by his remark.

"The Knight of Gwynne," said Lady Eleanor, proudly, "has often regretted to me the few opportunities he had embraced through life of serving his country; I have no doubt, sir, when he hears your proposal, that he will rejoice at this occasion of making an _amende_. I will write to him by this post. Is there anything more you wish to add, Mr. Hickman?" said she, as, having risen from her chair, she perceived that the old man remained seated.

"Yes, indeed, my Lady, there is, and I don't think I 'd have the heart for it, if it was n't your Ladyship's kindness about the other business; and even now, maybe, it would take you by surprise."

"You can scarcely do that, sir, after what I have just listened to,"

said she, with a smile.

"Well, there 's no use in going round about the bush, and this is what I mean. We thought there might be a difficulty, perhaps, about the vote; that the Knight might have promised his friends, or said something or other how he 'd go, and would n't be able to get out of it so easily, so we saw another way of serving his views about the money. You see, my Lady, we considered it all well amongst us."

"We should feel deeply grateful, sir, to know how far this family has occupied your kind solicitude. But proceed."