The Three Clerks Part 49

'You naughty puss!' said Gertrude, 'we have been looking for you all over the gardens. Mrs. Val and the Miss Neverbends have been waiting this half-hour.' Katie looked terribly frightened. 'Come along, and don't keep them waiting any longer. They are all in the pa.s.sage. This was your fault, Master Charley.'

'O no, it was not,' said Katie; 'but we thought----'

'Never mind thinking,' said Gertrude, 'but come along.' And so they hurried on, and were soon replaced in their respective vehicles, and then went back to town.

'Well, I do think the Chiswick Gardens is the nicest place in all the world,' said Katie, leaning back in the cab, and meditating on her past enjoyment.

'They are very pretty--very,' said Lactimel Neverbend. 'I only wish every cottar had such a garden behind his cottage. I am sure we might manage it, if we set about it in the right way.'

'What! as big as Chiswick?' said Katie.

'No; not so big,' said Lactimel; 'but quite as nicely kept.'

'I think the pigs would get in,' said Katie.

'It would be much easier, and more important too, to keep their minds nicely,' said Ugolina; and there the pigs could never get in.'

'No; I suppose not,' said Katie.

'I don't know that,' said Lactimel.

CHAPTER XXVI

KATIE'S FIRST BALL

In spite of Mrs. Val's oft-repeated a.s.surance that they would have none but nice people, she had done her best to fill her rooms, and not unsuccessfully. She had, it is true, eschewed the Golightly party, who resided some north of Oxford Street, in the purlieus of Fitzroy Square, and some even to the east of Tottenham Court Road. She had eschewed the Golightlys, and confined herself to the Scott connexion; but so great had been her success in life, that, even under these circ.u.mstances, she had found herself able to fill her rooms respectably. If, indeed, there was no absolute crowding, if some s.p.a.ce was left in the front drawing-room sufficient for the operations of dancers, she could still attribute this apparent want of fashionable popularity to the selections of the few nice people whom she had asked. The Hon. Mrs. Val was no ordinary woman, and understood well how to make the most of the goods with which the G.o.ds provided her.

The Miss Neverbends were to dine with the Tudors, and go with them to the dance in the evening, and their brother Fidus was to meet them there. Charley was, of course, one of the party at dinner; and as there was no other gentleman there, Alaric had an excellent opportunity, when the ladies went up to their toilets, to impress on his cousin the expediency of his losing no time in securing to himself Miss Golightly's twenty thousand pounds. The conversation, as will be seen, at last became rather animated.

'Well, Charley, what do you think of the beautiful Clementina?'

said Alaric, pushing over the bottle to his cousin, as soon as they found themselves alone. 'A 'doosed' fine girl, as Captain Val says, isn't she?'

'A 'doosed' fine girl, of course,' said Charley, laughing. 'She has too much go in her for me, I'm afraid.'

'Marriage and children will soon pull that down. She'd make an excellent wife for such a man as you; and to tell you the truth, Charley, if you'll take my advice, you'll lose no time in making up to her. She has got that d---- French fellow at her heels, and though I don't suppose she cares one straw about him, it may be well to make sure.'

'But you don't mean in earnest that you think that Miss Golightly would have me?'

'Indeed I do--you are just the man to get on with girls; and, as far as I can see, you are just the man that will never get on in any other way under the sun.'

Charley sighed as he thought of his many debts, his poor prospects, and his pa.s.sionate love. There seemed, indeed, to be little chance that he ever would get on at all in the ordinary sense of the word. 'I'm sure she'd refuse me,' said he, still wishing to back out of the difficulty. 'I'm sure she would--I've not got a penny in the world, you know.'

'That's just the reason--she has got lots of money, and you have got none.'

'Just the reason why she should refuse me, you should say.'

'Well--what if she does? There's no harm done. 'Faint heart never won fair lady.' You've everything to back you--Mrs. Val is led by Undy Scott, and Undy is all on your side.'

'But she has got guardians, hasn't she?'

'Yes--her father's first cousin, old Sam Golightly. He is dying; or dead probably by this time; only Mrs. Val won't have the news brought to her, because of this party. He had a fit of apoplexy yesterday. Then there's her father's brother-in-law, Figgs; he's bedridden. When old Golightly is off the hooks altogether, another will be chosen, and Undy talks of putting in my name as that of a family friend; so you'll have everything to a.s.sist you.'

Charley looked very grave. He had not been in the habit of discussing such matters, but it seemed to him, that if Alaric was about to become in any legal manner the guardian of Miss Golightly's fortune, that that in itself was reason enough why he, Alaric, should not propose such a match as this. Needy men, to be sure, did often marry rich ladies, and the world looked on and regarded it only as a matter of course; but surely it would be the duty of a guardian to protect his ward from such a fate, if it were in his power to do so.

Alaric, who saw something of what was going on in his cousin's mind, essayed to remove the impression which was thus made.

'Besides, you know, Clementina is no chicken. Her fortune is at her own disposal. All the guardians on earth cannot prevent her marrying you if she makes up her mind to do so.'

Charley gulped down his gla.s.s of wine, and then sat staring at the fire, saying nothing further. It was true enough that he was very poor--true enough that Miss Golightly's fortune would set him on his legs, and make a man of him--true enough, perhaps, that no other expedient of which he could think would do so. But then there were so many arguments that were 'strong against the deed.' In the first place, he thought it impossible that he should be successful in such a suit, and then again it would hardly be honest to obtain such success, if it were possible; then, thirdly, he had no sort of affection whatsoever for Miss Golightly; and fourthly, lastly, and chiefly, he loved so dearly, tenderly, loved poor Katie Woodward.

As he thought of this, he felt horror-stricken with himself at allowing the idea of his becoming a suitor to another to dwell for an instant on his mind, and looking up with all the resolution which he was able to summon, he said--'It's impossible, Alaric, quite impossible! I couldn't do it.'

'Then what do you mean to do?' said Alaric, who was angry at having his scheme thus thwarted; 'do you mean to be a beggar?--or if not, how do you intend to get out of your difficulties?'

'I trust not a beggar,' said Charley, sadly.

'What other hope have you? what rational hope of setting yourself right?'

'Perhaps I may do something by writing,' said Charley, very bashfully.

'By writing! ha, ha, ha,' and Alaric laughed somewhat cruelly at the poor navvy--' do something by writing! what will you do by writing? will you make 20,000--or 20,000 pence? Of all trades going, that, I should say, is likely to be the poorest for a poor man--the poorest and the most heart-breaking. What have you made already to encourage you?'

'The editor says that 'Crinoline and Maca.s.sar' will come to 4 10s.'

'And when will you get it?'

'The editor says that the rule is to pay six months after the date of publication. The _Daily Delight_ is only a new thing, you know. The editor says that, if the sale comes up to his expectations, he will increase the scale of pay.'

'A prospect of 4 10s. for a fortnight's hard work! That's a bad look-out, my boy; you had better take the heiress.'

'It may be a bad look-out,' said Charley, whose spirit was raised by his cousin's sneers--'but at any rate it's honest. And I'll tell you what, Alaric, I'd sooner earn 50 by writing for the press, than get 1,000 in any other way you can think of. It may be a poor trade in one way; and authors, I believe, are poor; but I am sure it has its consolations.'

'Well, Charley, I hope with all my heart that you may find them.

For my own part, seeing what a place the world is, seeing what are the general aspirations of other men, seeing what, as it appears to me, the Creator has intended for the goal of our labours, I look for advancement, prosperity, and such rank and station as I may be able to win for myself. The labourer is worthy of his hire, and I do not mean to refuse such wages as may come in my way.'

'Yes,' said Charley, who, now that his spirit was roused, determined to fight his battle manfully, 'yes, the labourer is worthy of his hire; but were I to get Miss Golightly's fortune I should be taking the hire without labour.'

'Bah!' said Alaric.

'It would be dishonest in every way, for I do not love her, and should not love her at the moment that I married her.'

'Honesty!' said Alaric, still sneering; 'there is no sign of the dishonesty of the age so strong as the continual talk which one hears about honesty!' It was quite manifest that Alaric had not sat at the feet of Undy Scott without profiting by the lessons which he had heard.

'With what face,' continued he, 'can you pretend to be more honest than your neighbours?'

'I know that it is wrong, and unmanly too, to hunt a girl down merely for what she has got.'