“Le bien nous le faisons: le mal c’est la Fortune.On a toujours raison, le Destin toujours tort.”—LA FONTAINE.[The Good, we effect ourselves; the Evil is the handiwork ofFortune. Mortals are always in the right, Destiny always in thewrong.]
Upon the early morning of the day commemorated by the historical events of our last chapter, two men were deposited by a branch coach at the inn of a hamlet about ten miles distant from the town in which Mr. Roger Morton resided. Though the hamlet was small, the inn was large, for it was placed close by a huge finger-post that pointed to three great roads: one led to the town before mentioned; another to the heart of a manufacturing district; and a third to a populous seaport. The weather was fine, and the two travellers ordered breakfast to be taken into an arbour in the garden, as well as the basins and towels necessary for ablution. The elder of the travellers appeared to be unequivocally foreign; you would have guessed him at once for a German. He wore, what was then very uncommon in this country, a loose, brown linen blouse, buttoned to the chin, with a leathern belt, into which were stuck a German meerschaum and a tobacco-pouch. He had very long flaxen hair, false or real, that streamed half-way down his back, large light mustaches, and a rough, sunburnt complexion, which made the fairness of the hair more remarkable. He wore an enormous pair of green spectacles, and complained much in broken English of the weakness of his eyes. All about him, even to the smallest minutiae, indicated the German; not only the large muscular frame, the broad feet, and vast though well-shaped hands, but the brooch—evidently purchased of a Jew in some great fair—stuck ostentatiously and superfluously into his stock; the quaint, droll-looking carpet-bag, which he refused to trust to the boots; and the great, massive, dingy ring which he wore on his forefinger. The other was a slender, remarkably upright and sinewy youth, in a blue frock, over which was thrown a large cloak, a travelling cap, with a shade that concealed all of the upper part of his face, except a dark quick eye of uncommon fire; and a shawl handkerchief, which was equally useful in concealing the lower part of the countenance. On descending from the coach, the German with some difficulty made the ostler understand that he wanted a post-chaise in a quarter of an hour; and then, without entering the house, he and his friend strolled to the arbour. While the maid-servant was covering the table with bread, butter, tea, eggs, and a huge round of beef, the German was busy in washing his hands, and talking in his national tongue to the young man, who returned no answer. But as soon as the servant had completed her operations the foreigner turned round, and observing her eyes fixed on his brooch with much female admiration, he made one stride to her.
“Der Teufel, my goot Madchen—but you are von var pretty—vat you call it?” and he gave her, as he spoke, so hearty a smack that the girl was more flustered than flattered by the courtesy.
“Keep yourself to yourself, sir!” said she, very tartly, for chambermaids never like to be kissed by a middle-aged gentleman when a younger one is by: whereupon the German replied by a pinch,—it is immaterial to state the exact spot to which that delicate caress was directed. But this last offence was so inexpiable, that the “Madchen” bounced off with a face of scarlet, and a “Sir, you are no gentleman—that’s what you arn’t!” The German thrust his head out of the arbour, and followed her with a loud laugh; then drawing himself in again, he said in quite another accent, and in excellent English, “There, Master Philip, we have got rid of the girl for the rest of the morning, and that’s exactly what I wanted to do—women’s wits are confoundedly sharp. Well, did I not tell you right, we have baffled all the bloodhounds!”
“And here, then, Gawtrey, we are to part,” said Philip, mournfully.
“I wish you would think better of it, my boy,” returned Mr. Gawtrey, breaking an egg; “how can you shift for yourself—no kith nor kin, not even that important machine for giving advice called a friend—no, not a friend, when I am gone? I foresee how it must end. [D—- it, salt butter, by Jove!]”
“If I were alone in the world, as I have told you again and again, perhaps I might pin my fate to yours. But my brother!”
“There it is, always wrong when we act from our feelings. My whole life, which some day or other I will tell you, proves that. Your brother—bah! is he not very well off with his own uncle and aunt?—plenty to eat and drink, I dare say. Come, man, you must be as hungry as a hawk—a slice of the beef? Let well alone, and shift for yourself. What good can you do your brother?”
“I don’t know, but I must see him; I have sworn it.”
“Well, go and see him, and then strike across the country to me. I will wait a day for you,—there now!”
“But tell me first,” said Philip, very earnestly, and fixing his dark eyes on his companion,—“tell me—yes, I must speak frankly—tell me, you who would link my fortunes with your own,—tell me, what and who are you?”
Gawtrey looked up.
“What do you suppose?” said he, dryly.
“I fear to suppose anything, lest I wrong you; but the strange place to which you took me the evening on which you saved me from pursuit, the persons I met there—”
“Well-dressed, and very civil to you?”
“True! but with a certain wild looseness in their talk that—But I have no right to judge others by mere appearance. Nor is it this that has made me anxious, and, if you will, suspicious.”
“What then?”
“Your dress—your disguise.”
“Disguised yourself!—ha! ha! Behold the world’s charity! You fly from some danger, some pursuit, disguised—you, who hold yourself guiltless—I do the same, and you hold me criminal—a robber, perhaps—a murderer it may be! I will tell you what I am: I am a son of Fortune, an adventurer; I live by my wits—so do poets and lawyers, and all the charlatans of the world; I am a charlatan—a chameleon. ‘Each man in his time plays many parts:’ I play any part in which Money, the Arch-Manager, promises me a livelihood. Are you satisfied?”
“Perhaps,” answered the boy, sadly, “when I know more of the world, I shall understand you better. Strange—strange, that you, out of all men, should have been kind to me in distress!”
“Not at all strange. Ask the beggar whom he gets the most pence from—the fine lady in her carriage—the beau smelling of eau de Cologne? Pish! the people nearest to being beggars themselves keep the beggar alive. You were friendless, and the man who has all earth for a foe befriends you. It is the way of the world, sir,—the way of the world. Come, eat while you can; this time next year you may have no beef to your bread.”
Thus masticating and moralising at the same time, Mr. Gawtrey at last finished a breakfast that would have astonished the whole Corporation of London; and then taking out a large old watch, with an enamelled back—doubtless more German than its master—he said, as he lifted up his carpet-bag, “I must be off—tempos fugit, and I must arrive just in time to nick the vessels. Shall get to Ostend, or Rotterdam, safe and snug; thence to Paris. How my pretty Fan will have grown! Ah, you don’t know Fan—make you a nice little wife one of these days! Cheer up, man, we shall meet again. Be sure of it; and hark ye, that strange place, as you call it, where I took you,—you can find it again?”
“Not I.”
“Here, then, is the address. Whenever you want me, go there, ask to see Mr. Gregg—old fellow with one eye, you recollect—shake him by the hand just so—you catch the trick—practise it again. No, the forefinger thus, that’s right. Say ‘blater,’ no more—‘blater;’—stay, I will write it down for you; and then ask for William Gawtrey’s direction. He will give it you at once, without questions—these signs understood; and if you want money for your passage, he will give you that also, with advice into the bargain. Always a warm welcome with me. And so take care of yourself, and good-bye. I see my chaise is at the door.”
As he spoke, Gawtrey shook the young man’s hand with cordial vigour, and strode off to his chaise, muttering, “Money well laid out—fee money; I shall have him, and, Gad, I like him,—poor devil!”
“He is a cunning coachman that can turn well in a narrow room.”Old Play: from Lamb’s Specimens.“Here are two pilgrims,And neither knows one footstep of the way.”HEYWOOD’s Duchess of Suffolk, Ibid.
The chaise had scarce driven from the inn-door when a coach stopped to change horses on its last stage to the town to which Philip was, bound. The name of the destination, in gilt letters on the coach-door, caught his eye, as he walked from the arbour towards the road, and in a few moments he was seated as the fourth passenger in the “Nelson Slow and Sure.” From under the shade of his cap, he darted that quick, quiet glance, which a man who hunts, or is hunted,—in other words, who observes, or shuns,—soon acquires. At his left hand sat a young woman in a cloak lined with yellow; she had taken off her bonnet and pinned it to the roof of the coach, and looked fresh and pretty in a silk handkerchief, which she had tied round her head, probably to serve as a nightcap during the drowsy length of the journey. Opposite to her was a middle-aged man of pale complexion, and a grave, pensive, studious expression of face; and vis-a-vis to Philip sat an overdressed, showy, very good-looking man of about two or three and forty. This gentleman wore auburn whiskers, which met at the chin; a foraging cap, with a gold tassel; a velvet waistcoat, across which, in various folds, hung a golden chain, at the end of which dangled an eye-glass, that from time to time he screwed, as it were, into his right eye; he wore, also, a blue silk stock, with a frill much crumpled, dirty kid gloves, and over his lap lay a cloak lined with red silk. As Philip glanced towards this personage, the latter fixed his glass also at him, with a scrutinising stare, which drew fire from Philip’s dark eyes. The man dropped his glass, and said in a half provincial, half haw-haw tone, like the stage exquisite of a minor theatre, “Pawdon me, and split legs!” therewith stretching himself between Philip’s limbs in the approved fashion of inside passengers. A young man in a white great-coat now came to the door with a glass of warm sherry and water.
“You must take this—you must now; it will keep the cold out,” (the day was broiling,) said he to the young woman.
“Gracious me!” was the answer, “but I never drink wine of a morning, James; it will get into my head.”
“To oblige me!” said the young man, sentimentally; whereupon the young lady took the glass, and looking very kindly at her Ganymede, said, “Your health!” and sipped, and made a wry face—then she looked at the passengers, tittered, and said, “I can’t bear wine!” and so, very slowly and daintily, sipped up the rest. A silent and expressive squeeze of the hand, on returning the glass, rewarded the young man, and proved the salutary effect of his prescription.
“All right!” cried the coachman: the ostler twitched the cloths from the leaders, and away went the “Nelson Slow and Sure,” with as much pretension as if it had meant to do the ten miles in an hour. The pale gentleman took from his waistcoat pocket a little box containing gum-arabic, and having inserted a couple of morsels between his lips, he next drew forth a little thin volume, which from the manner the lines were printed was evidently devoted to poetry.
The smart gentleman, who since the episode of the sherry and water had kept his glass fixed upon the young lady, now said, with a genteel smirk:
“That young gentleman seems very auttentive, miss!”
“He is a very good young man, sir, and takes great care of me.”
“Not your brother, miss,—eh?”
“La, sir—why not?”
“No faumily likeness—noice-looking fellow enough! But your oiyes and mouth—ah, miss!”
Miss turned away her head, and uttered with pert vivacity: “I never likes compliments, sir! But the young man is not my brother.”
“A sweetheart,—eh? Oh fie, miss! Haw! haw!” and the auburn-whiskered Adonis poked Philip in the knee with one hand, and the pale gentleman in the ribs with the other. The latter looked up, and reproachfully; the former drew in his legs, and uttered an angry ejaculation.
“Well, sir, there is no harm in a sweetheart, is there?”
“None in the least, ma’am; I advoise you to double the dose. We often hear of two strings to a bow. Daun’t you think it would be noicer to have two beaux to your string?” As he thus wittily expressed himself, the gentleman took off his cap, and thrust his fingers through a very curling and comely head of hair; the young lady looked at him with evident coquetry, and said, “How you do run on, you gentlemen!”
“I may well run on, miss, as long as I run aufter you,” was the gallant reply.
Here the pale gentleman, evidently annoyed by being talked across, shut his book up, and looked round. His eye rested on Philip, who, whether from the heat of the day or from the forgetfulness of thought, had pushed his cap from his brows; and the gentleman, after staring at him for a few moments with great earnestness, sighed so heavily that it attracted the notice of all the passengers.
“Are you unwell, sir?” asked the young lady, compassionately.
“A little pain in my side, nothing more!”
“Chaunge places with me, sir,” cried the Lothario, officiously. “Now do!” The pale gentleman, after a short hesitation, and a bashful excuse, accepted the proposal. In a few moments the young lady and the beau were in deep and whispered conversation, their heads turned towards the window. The pale gentleman continued to gaze at Philip, till the latter, perceiving the notice he excited, coloured, and replaced his cap over his face.
“Are you going to N——? asked the gentleman, in a gentle, timid voice.
“Yes!”
“Is it the first time you have ever been there?”
“Sir!” returned Philip, in a voice that spoke surprise and distaste at his neighbour’s curiosity.
“Forgive me,” said the gentleman, shrinking back; “but you remind me of-of—a family I once knew in the town. Do you know—the—the Mortons?”
One in Philip’s situation, with, as he supposed, the officers of justice in his track (for Gawtrey, for reasons of his own, rather encouraged than allayed his fears), might well be suspicious. He replied therefore shortly, “I am quite a stranger to the town,” and ensconced himself in the corner, as if to take a nap. Alas! that answer was one of the many obstacles he was doomed to build up between himself and a fairer fate.
The gentleman sighed again, and never spoke more to the end of the journey. When the coach halted at the inn,—the same inn which had before given its shelter to poor Catherine,—the young man in the white coat opened the door, and offered his arm to the young lady.
“Do you make any stay here, sir?” said she to the beau, as she unpinned her bonnet from the roof.
“Perhaps so; I am waiting for my phe-a-ton, which my faellow is to bring down,—tauking a little tour.”
“We shall be very happy to see you, sir!” said the young lady, on whom the phe-a-ton completed the effect produced by the gentleman’s previous gallantries; and with that she dropped into his hand a very neat card, on which was printed, “Wavers and Snow, Staymakers, High Street.”
The beau put the card gracefully into his pocket—leaped from the coach—nudged aside his rival of the white coat, and offered his arm to the lady, who leaned on it affectionately as she descended.
“This gentleman has been so perlite to me, James,” said she. James touched his hat; the beau clapped him on the shoulder,—“Ah! you are not a hauppy man,—are you? Oh no, not at all a hauppy man!—Good day to you! Guard, that hat-box is mine!”
While Philip was paying the coachman, the beau passed, and whispered him—
“Recollect old Gregg—anything on the lay here—don’t spoil my sport if we meet!” and bustled off into the inn, whistling “God save the king!”
Philip started, then tried to bring to mind the faces which he had seen at the “strange place,” and thought he recalled the features of his fellow-traveller. However, he did not seek to renew the acquaintance, but inquired the way to Mr. Morton’s house, and thither he now proceeded.
He was directed, as a short cut, down one of those narrow passages at the entrance of which posts are placed as an indication that they are appropriated solely to foot-passengers. A dead white wall, which screened the garden of the physician of the place, ran on one side; a high fence to a nursery-ground was on the other; the passage was lonely, for it was now the hour when few persons walk either for business or pleasure in a provincial town, and no sound was heard save the fall of his own step on the broad flagstones. At the end of the passage in the main street to which it led, he saw already the large, smart, showy shop, with the hot sum shining full on the gilt letters that conveyed to the eyes of the customer the respectable name of “Morton,”—when suddenly the silence was broken by choked and painful sobs. He turned, and beneath a compo portico, jutting from the wall, which adorned the physician’s door, he saw a child seated on the stone steps weeping bitterly—a thrill shot through Philip’s heart! Did he recognise, disguised as it was by pain and sorrow, that voice? He paused, and laid his hand on the child’s shoulder: “Oh, don’t—don’t—pray don’t—I am going, I am indeed:” cried the child, quailing, and still keeping his hands clasped before his face.
“Sidney!” said Philip. The boy started to his feet, uttered a cry of rapturous joy, and fell upon his brother’s breast.
“O Philip!—dear, dear Philip! you are come to take me away back to my own—own mamma; I will be so good, I will never tease her again,—never, never! I have been so wretched!”
“Sit down, and tell me what they have done to you,” said Philip, checking the rising heart that heaved at his mother’s name.
So, there they sat, on the cold stone under the stranger’s porch, these two orphans: Philip’s arms round his brother’s waist, Sidney leaning on his shoulder, and imparting to him—perhaps with pardonable exaggeration, all the sufferings he had gone through; and, when he came to that morning’s chastisement, and showed the wale across the little hands which he had vainly held up in supplication, Philip’s passion shook him from limb to limb. His impulse was to march straight into Mr. Morton’s shop and gripe him by the throat; and the indignation he betrayed encouraged Sidney to colour yet more highly the tale of his wrongs and pain.
When he had done, and clinging tightly to his brother’s broad chest, said—
“But never mind, Philip; now we will go home to mamma.”
Philip replied—
“Listen to me, my dear brother. We cannot go back to our mother. I will tell you why, later. We are alone in the world—we two! If you will come with me—God help you!—for you will have many hardships: we shall have to work and drudge, and you may be cold and hungry, and tired, very often, Sidney,—very, very often! But you know that, long ago, when I was so passionate, I never was wilfully unkind to you; and I declare now, that I would bite out my tongue rather than it should say a harsh word to you. That is all I can promise. Think well. Will you never miss all the comforts you have now?”
“Comforts!” repeated Sidney, ruefully, and looking at the wale over his hands. “Oh! let—let—let me go with you, I shall die if I stay here. I shall indeed—indeed!”
“Hush!” said Philip; for at that moment a step was heard, and the pale gentleman walked slowly down the passage, and started, and turned his head wistfully as he looked at the boys.
When he was gone. Philip rose.
“It is settled, then,” said he, firmly. “Come with me at once. You shall return to their roof no more. Come, quick: we shall have many miles to go to-night.”
“He comes—Yet careless what he brings; his one concernIs to conduct it to the destined inn;And having dropp’d the expected bag, pass on—To him indifferent whether grief or joy.”COWPER: Description of the Postman.
The pale gentleman entered Mr. Morton’s shop; and, looking round him, spied the worthy trader showing shawls to a young lady just married. He seated himself on a stool, and said to the bowing foreman—
“I will wait till Mr. Morton is disengaged.”
The young lady having closely examined seven shawls, and declared they were beautiful, said, “she would think of it,” and walked away. Mr. Morton now approached the stranger.
“Mr. Morton,” said the pale gentleman; “you are very little altered. You do not recollect me?”
“Bless me, Mr. Spencer! is it really you? Well, what a time since we met! I am very glad to see you. And what brings you to N——? Business?”
“Yes, business. Let us go within?”
Mr. Morton led the way to the parlour, where Master Tom, reperched on the stool, was rapidly digesting the plundered muffin. Mr. Morton dismissed him to play, and the pale gentleman took a chair.
“Mr. Morton,” said he, glancing over his dress, “you see I am in mourning. It is for your sister. I never got the better of that early attachment—never.”
“My sister! Good Heavens!” said Mr. Morton, turning very pale; “is she dead? Poor Catherine!—and I not know of it! When did she die?”
“Not many days since; and—and—” said Mr. Spencer, greatly affected, “I fear in want. I had been abroad for some months: on my return last week, looking over the newspapers (for I always order them to be filed), I read the short account of her lawsuit against Mr. Beaufort, some time back. I resolved to find her out. I did so through the solicitor she employed: it was too late; I arrived at her lodgings two days after her—her burial. I then determined to visit poor Catherine’s brother, and learn if anything could be done for the children she had left behind.”
“She left but two. Philip, the elder, is very comfortably placed at R——; the younger has his home with me; and Mrs. Morton is a moth—that is to say, she takes great pains with him. Ehem! And my poor—poor sister!”
“Is he like his mother?”
“Very much, when she was young—poor dear Catherine!”
“What age is he?”
“About ten, perhaps; I don’t know exactly; much younger than the other. And so she’s dead!”
“Mr. Morton, I am an old bachelor” (here a sickly smile crossed Mr. Spencer’s face); “a small portion of my fortune is settled, it is true, on my relations; but the rest is mine, and I live within my income. The elder of these boys is probably old enough to begin to take care of himself. But, the younger—perhaps you have a family of your own, and can spare him!”
Mr. Morton hesitated, and twitched up his trousers. “Why,” said he, “this is very kind in you. I don’t know—we’ll see. The boy is out now; come and dine with us at two—pot-luck. Well, so she is no more! Heigho! Meanwhile, I’ll talk it over with Mrs. M.”
“I will be with you,” said Mr. Spencer, rising.
“Ah!” sighed Mr. Morton, “if Catherine had but married you she would have been a happy woman.”
“I would have tried to make her so,” said Mr. Spencer, as he turned away his face and took his departure.
Two o’clock came; but no Sidney. They had sent to the place whither he had been despatched; he had never arrived there. Mr. Morton grew alarmed; and, when Mr. Spencer came to dinner, his host was gone in search of the truant. He did not return till three. Doomed that day to be belated both at breakfast and dinner, this decided him to part with Sidney whenever he should be found. Mrs. Morton was persuaded that the child only sulked, and would come back fast enough when he was hungry. Mr. Spencer tried to believe her, and ate his mutton, which was burnt to a cinder; but when five, six, seven o’clock came, and the boy was still missing,—even Mrs. Morton agreed that it was high time to institute a regular search. The whole family set off different ways. It was ten o’clock before they were reunited; and then all the news picked up was, that a boy, answering Sidney’s description, had been seen with a young man in three several parts of the town; the last time at the outskirts, on the high road towards the manufacturing districts. These tidings so far relieved Mr. Morton’s mind that he dismissed the chilling fear that had crept there,—that Sidney might have drowned himself. Boys will drown themselves sometimes! The description of the young man coincided so remarkably with the fellow-passenger of Mr. Spencer, that he did not doubt it was the same; the more so when he recollected having seen him with a fair-haired child under the portico; and yet more, when he recalled the likeness to Catherine that had struck him in the coach, and caused the inquiry that had roused Philip’s suspicion. The mystery was thus made clear—Sidney had fled with his brother. Nothing more, however, could be done that night. The next morning, active measures should be devised; and when the morning came, the mail brought to Mr. Morton the two following letters. The first was from Arthur Beaufort.
“SIR,—I have been prevented by severe illness from writing to you before. I can now scarcely hold a pen; but the instant my health is recovered I shall be with you at N ——, on her deathbed, the mother of the boy under your charge, Sidney Morton, committed him solemnly to me. I make his fortunes my care, and shall hasten to claim him at your kindly hands. But the elder son,—this poor Philip, who has suffered so unjustly,—for our lawyer has seen Mr. Plaskwith, and heard the whole story—what has become of him? All our inquiries have failed to track him. Alas, I was too ill to institute them myself while it was yet time. Perhaps he may have sought shelter, with you, his uncle; if so, assure him that he is in no danger from the pursuit of the law,—that his innocence is fully recognised; and that my father and myself implore him to accept our affection. I can write no more now; but in a few days I shall hope to see you.
“I am, sir, &c.,“ARTHUR BEAUFORT.“Berkely Square.”
The second letter was from Mr. Plaskwith, and ran thus:
“DEAR MORTON,—Something very awkward has happened,—not my fault, and very unpleasant for me. Your relation, Philip, as I wrote you word, was a painstaking lad, though odd and bad mannered,—for want, perhaps, poor boy! of being taught better, and Mrs. P. is, you know, a very genteel woman—women go too much by manners—so she never took much to him. However, to the point, as the French emperor used to say: one evening he asked me for money for his mother, who, he said, was ill, in a very insolent way: I may say threatening. It was in my own shop, and before Plimmins and Mrs. P.; I was forced to answer with dignified rebuke, and left the shop. When I returned, he was gone, and some shillings-fourteen, I think, and three sovereigns—evidently from the till, scattered on the floor. Mrs. P. and Mr. Plimmins were very much frightened; thought it was clear I was robbed, and that we were to be murdered. Plimmins slept below that night, and we borrowed butcher Johnson’s dog. Nothing happened. I did not think I was robbed; because the money, when we came to calculate, was all right. I know human nature. He had thought to take it, but repented—quite clear. However, I was naturally very angry, thought he’d comeback again—meant to reprove him properly—waited several days—heard nothing of him—grew uneasy—would not attend longer to Mrs. P.; for, as Napoleon Buonaparte observed, ‘women are well in their way, not in ours.’ Made Plimmins go with me to town—hired a Bow Street runner to track him out—cost me L1. 1s, and two glasses of brandy and water. Poor Mrs. Morton was just buried—quite shocked! Suddenly saw the boy in the streets. Plimmins rushed forward in the kindest way—was knocked down—hurt his arm—paid 2s. 6d. for lotion. Philip ran off, we ran after him—could not find him. Forced to return home. Next day, a lawyer from a Mr. Beaufort—Mr. George Blackwell, a gentlemanlike man called. Mr. Beaufort will do anything for him in reason. Is there anything more I can do? I really am very uneasy about the lad, and Mrs. P. and I have a tiff about it: but that’s nothing—thought I had best write to you for instructions.
“Yours truly,“C. PLASHWITH.
“P. S.—Just open my letter to say, Bow Street officer just been here—has found out that the boy has been seen with a very suspicious character: they think he has left London. Bow Street officer wants to go after him—very expensive: so now you can decide.”
Mr. Spencer scarcely listened to Mr. Plaskwith’s letter, but of Arthur’s he felt jealous. He would fain have been the only protector to Catherine’s children; but he was the last man fitted to head the search, now so necessary to prosecute with equal tact and energy.
A soft-hearted, soft-headed man, a confirmed valtudinarian, a day-dreamer, who had wasted away his life in dawdling and maundering over Simple Poetry, and sighing over his unhappy attachment; no child, no babe, was more thoroughly helpless than Mr. Spencer.
The task of investigation devolved, therefore, on Mr. Morton, and he went about it in a regular, plain, straightforward way. Hand-bills were circulated, constables employed, and a lawyer, accompanied by Mr. Spencer, despatched to the manufacturing districts: towards which the orphans had been seen to direct their path.
“Give the gentle SouthYet leave to court these sails.”BEAUMONT AND FLLTCHER: Beggar’s Bush.“Cut your cloth, sir,According to your calling.”—Ibid.
Meanwhile the brothers were far away, and He who feeds the young ravens made their paths pleasant to their feet. Philip had broken to Sidney the sad news of their mother’s death, and Sidney had wept with bitter passion. But children,—what can they know of death? Their tears over graves dry sooner than the dews. It is melancholy to compare the depth, the endurance, the far-sighted, anxious, prayerful love of a parent, with the inconsiderate, frail, and evanescent affection of the infant, whose eyes the hues of the butterfly yet dazzle with delight. It was the night of their flight, and in the open air, when Philip (his arms round Sidney’s waist) told his brother-orphan that they were motherless. And the air was balmy, the skies filled with the effulgent presence of the August moon; the cornfields stretched round them wide and far, and not a leaf trembled on the beech-tree beneath which they had sought shelter. It seemed as if Nature herself smiled pityingly on their young sorrow, and said to them, “Grieve not for the dead: I, who live for ever, I will be your mother!”
They crept, as the night deepened, into the warmer sleeping-place afforded by stacks of hay, mown that summer and still fragrant. And the next morning the birds woke them betimes, to feel that Liberty, at least, was with them, and to wander with her at will.
Who in his boyhood has not felt the delight of freedom and adventure? to have the world of woods and sward before him—to escape restriction—to lean, for the first time, on his own resources—to rejoice in the wild but manly luxury of independence—to act the Crusoe—and to fancy a Friday in every footprint—an island of his own in every field? Yes, in spite of their desolation, their loss, of the melancholy past, of the friendless future, the orphans were happy—happy in their youth—their freedom—their love—their wanderings in the delicious air of the glorious August. Sometimes they came upon knots of reapers lingering in the shade of the hedge-rows over their noonday meal; and, grown sociable by travel, and bold by safety, they joined and partook of the rude fare with the zest of fatigue and youth. Sometimes, too, at night, they saw, gleam afar and red by the woodside, the fires of gipsy tents. But these, with the superstition derived from old nursery-tales, they scrupulously shunned, eying them with a mysterious awe! What heavenly twilights belong to that golden month!—the air so lucidly serene, as the purple of the clouds fades gradually away, and up soars, broad, round, intense, and luminous, the full moon which belongs to the joyous season! The fields then are greener than in the heats of July and June,—they have got back the luxury of a second spring. And still, beside the paths of the travellers, lingered on the hedges the clustering honeysuckle—the convolvulus glittered in the tangles of the brake—the hardy heathflower smiled on the green waste.
And ever, at evening, they came, field after field, upon those circles which recall to children so many charmed legends, and are fresh and frequent in that month—the Fairy Rings! They thought, poor boys! that it was a good omen, and half fancied that the Fairies protected them, as in the old time they had often protected the desolate and outcast.
They avoided the main roads, and all towns, with suspicious care. But sometimes they paused, for food and rest, at the obscure hostel of some scattered hamlet: though, more often, they loved to spread the simple food they purchased by the way under some thick tree, or beside a stream through whose limpid waters they could watch the trout glide and play. And they often preferred the chance shelter of a haystack, or a shed, to the less romantic repose offered by the small inns they alone dared to enter. They went in this much by the face and voice of the host or hostess. Once only Philip had entered a town, on the second day of their flight, and that solely for the purchase of ruder clothes, and a change of linen for Sidney, with some articles and implements of use necessary in their present course of shift and welcome hardship. A wise precaution; for, thus clad, they escaped suspicion.
So journeying, they consumed several days; and, having taken a direction quite opposite to that which led to the manufacturing districts, whither pursuit had been directed, they were now in the centre of another county—in the neighbourhood of one of the most considerable towns of England; and here Philip began to think their wanderings ought to cease, and it was time to settle on some definite course of life. He had carefully hoarded about his person, and most thriftily managed, the little fortune bequeathed by his mother. But Philip looked on this capital as a deposit sacred to Sidney; it was not to be spent, but kept and augmented—the nucleus for future wealth. Within the last few weeks his character was greatly ripened, and his powers of thought enlarged. He was no more a boy,—he was a man: he had another life to take care of. He resolved, then, to enter the town they were approaching, and to seek for some situation by which he might maintain both. Sidney was very loath to abandon their present roving life; but he allowed that the warm weather could not always last, and that in winter the fields would be less pleasant. He, therefore, with a sigh, yielded to his brother’s reasonings.
They entered the fair and busy town of one day at noon; and, after finding a small lodging, at which he deposited Sidney, who was fatigued with their day’s walk, Philip sallied forth alone.
After his long rambling, Philip was pleased and struck with the broad bustling streets, the gay shops—the evidences of opulence and trade. He thought it hard if he could not find there a market for the health and heart of sixteen. He strolled slowly and alone along the streets, till his attention was caught by a small corner shop, in the window of which was placed a board, bearing this inscription:
“OFFICE FOR EMPLOYMENT.—RECIPROCAL ADVANTAGE.
“Mr. John Clump’s bureau open every day, from ten till four. Clerks, servants, labourers, &c., provided with suitable situations. Terms moderate. N.B.—The oldest established office in the town.
“Wanted, a good cook. An under gardener.”
What he sought was here! Philip entered, and saw a short fat man with spectacles, seated before a desk, poring upon the well-filled leaves of a long register.
“Sir,” said Philip, “I wish for a situation. I don’t care what.”
“Half-a-crown for entry, if you please. That’s right. Now for particulars. Hum!—you don’t look like a servant!”
“No; I wish for any place where my education can be of use. I can read and write; I know Latin and French; I can draw; I know arithmetic and summing.”
“Very well; very genteel young man—prepossessing appearance (that’s a fudge!), highly educated; usher in a school, eh?”
“What you like.”
“References?”
“I have none.”
“Eh!—none?” and Mr. Clump fixed his spectacles full upon Philip.
Philip was prepared for the question, and had the sense to perceive that a frank reply was his best policy. “The fact is,” said he boldly, “I was well brought up; my father died; I was to be bound apprentice to a trade I disliked; I left it, and have now no friends.”
“If I can help you, I will,” said Mr. Clump, coldly. “Can’t promise much. If you were a labourer, character might not matter; but educated young men must have a character. Hands always more useful than head. Education no avail nowadays; common, quite common. Call again on Monday.”
Somewhat disappointed and chilled, Philip turned from the bureau; but he had a strong confidence in his own resources, and recovered his spirits as he mingled with the throng. He passed, at length, by a livery-stable, and paused, from old associations, as he saw a groom in the mews attempting to manage a young, hot horse, evidently unbroken. The master of the stables, in a green short jacket and top-boots, with a long whip in his hand, was standing by, with one or two men who looked like horsedealers.
“Come off, clumsy! you can’t manage that I ‘ere fine hanimal,” cried the liveryman. “Ah! he’s a lamb, sir, if he were backed properly. But I has not a man in the yard as can ride since Will died. Come off, I say, lubber!”
But to come off, without being thrown off, was more easily said than done. The horse was now plunging as if Juno had sent her gadfly to him; and Philip, interested and excited, came nearer and nearer, till he stood by the side of the horse-dealers. The other ostlers ran to the help of their comrade, who at last, with white lips and shaking knees, found himself on terra firma; while the horse, snorting hard, and rubbing his head against the breast and arms of the ostler, who held him tightly by the rein, seemed to ask, in his own way, “Are there any more of you?”
A suspicion that the horse was an old acquaintance crossed Philip’s mind; he went up to him, and a white spot over the left eye confirmed his doubts. It had been a foal reserved and reared for his own riding! one that, in his prosperous days, had ate bread from his hand, and followed him round the paddock like a dog; one that he had mounted in sport, without saddle, when his father’s back was turned; a friend, in short, of the happy Lang syne;—nay, the very friend to whom he had boasted his affection, when, standing with Arthur Beaufort under the summer sky, the whole world seemed to him full of friends. He put his hand on the horse’s neck, and whispered, “Soho! So, Billy!” and the horse turned sharp round with a quick joyous neigh.
“If you please, sir,” said Philip, appealing to the liveryman, “I will undertake to ride this horse, and take him over yon leaping-bar. Just let me try him.”
“There’s a fine-spirited lad for you!” said the liveryman, much pleased at the offer. “Now, gentlemen, did I not tell you that ‘ere hanimal had no vice if he was properly managed?”
The horse-dealers shook their heads.
“May I give him some bread first?” asked Philip; and the ostler was despatched to the house. Meanwhile the animal evinced various signs of pleasure and recognition, as Philip stroked and talked to him; and, finally, when he ate the bread from the young man’s hand, the whole yard seemed in as much delight and surprise as if they had witnessed one of Monsieur Van Amburgh’s exploits.
And now, Philip, still caressing the horse, slowly and cautiously mounted; the animal made one bound half-across the yard—a bound which sent all the horse-dealers into a corner—and then went through his paces, one after the other, with as much ease and calm as if he had been broken in at Mr. Fozard’s to carry a young lady. And when he crowned all by going thrice over the leaping-bar, and Philip, dismounting, threw the reins to the ostler, and turned triumphantly to the horse-dealer, that gentleman slapped him on the back, and said, emphatically, “Sir, you are a man! and I am proud to see you here.”
Meanwhile the horse-dealers gathered round the animal; looked at his hoofs, felt his legs, examined his windpipe, and concluded the bargain, which, but for Philip, would have been very abruptly broken off. When the horse was led out of the yard, the liveryman, Mr. Stubmore, turned to Philip, who, leaning against the wall, followed the poor animal with mournful eyes.
“My good sir, you have sold that horse for me—that you have! Anything as I can do for you? One good turn de serves another. Here’s a brace of shiners.”
“Thank you, sir! I want no money, but I do want some employment. I can be of use to you, perhaps, in your establishment. I have been brought up among horses all my life.”
“Saw it, sir! that’s very clear. I say, that ‘ere horse knows you!” and the dealer put his finger to his nose.
“Quite right to be mum! He was bred by an old customer of mine—famous rider!—Mr. Beaufort. Aha! that’s where you knew him, I s’pose. Were you in his stables?”
“Hem—I knew Mr. Beaufort well.”
“Did you? You could not know a better man. Well, I shall be very glad to engage you, though you seem by your hands to be a bit of a gentleman—eh? Never mind; don’t want you to groom!—but superintend things. D’ye know accounts, eh?”
“Yes.”
“Character?”
Philip repeated to Mr. Stubmore the story he had imparted to Mr. Clump. Somehow or other, men who live much with horses are always more lax in their notions than the rest of mankind. Mr. Stubmore did not seem to grow more distant at Philip’s narration.
“Understand you perfectly, my man. Brought up with them ‘ere fine creturs, how could you nail your nose to a desk? I’ll take you without more palaver. What’s your name?”
“Philips.”
“Come to-morrow, and we’ll settle about wages. Sleep here?”
“No. I have a brother whom I must lodge with, and for whose sake I wish to work. I should not like him to be at the stables—he is too young. But I can come early every day, and go home late.”
“Well, just as you like, my man. Good day.”
And thus, not from any mental accomplishment—not from the result of his intellectual education, but from the mere physical capacity and brute habit of sticking fast on his saddle, did Philip Morton, in this great, intelligent, gifted, civilised, enlightened community of Great Britain, find the means of earning his bread without stealing it.