"Yes, I'd like it," said Charles gloomily. "But I think I'd better go alone. I don't believe anything's going to come of it."
"I'm afraid not—as far as we're concerned. You'll just have to keep a stiff upper lip and stick to what you believe the right thing to do." To which Charles replied only with a grim nod, and they went ashore1.
"We'll walk up to the town with you," said Graeme, when they got outside the harbour precincts. "When you've got as far as you can with him, come down to the shore due West. You'll find us by that old fort we saw from the boat;" and presently they branched off towards the sea, while Charles went doggedly2 on into St. Anne on as miserable3 an errand as ever son had.
He tramped on along the hot white road, till he found himself in the sleepy little town, where the grass grew between the granite4 sets in the roadways and a dreamy listlessness pervaded5 all things. He sought out No. 99A High Street and knocked on the door.
It was opened by an elderly woman who seemed surprised at sight of a visitor.
"Mr. Peace?" asked Charles, feeling thereby6 particeps criminis.
"He's inside. Will you come in?"
She opened a door off the passage, said, "A gentleman to see you;" and Charles went in and closed the door behind him.
His father had started up from a couch where he had been lying. There was a startled look in his eyes and his face was pale and worn, but a touch of colour came back into his cheeks when he saw who his visitor was.
He had shaved off his bit of side whisker. His face was grayer and thinner and his body somewhat shrunken, even in these few days. He wore a white tie, and his coat and waistcoat were of clerical cut. On the table was a pair of gold spectacles and on the sideboard a soft billycock hat. He looked the not-too-well-off country parson to the life. The only outward and visible sign of the old Jeremiah was the heavy gold pince-nez which lay between the top buttons of his waistcoat, which he hauled out and fingered as of old the moment he began to speak.
"Ah, Charles! This is good of you. I hardly expected a personal visit. I was beginning to fear you had not got my letter, or that you had decided7 not to answer it."
"It followed me to Sark."
"Ah! you are back in Sark?"
"I thought it well to take my mother there, to be out of things for a time."
"Quite so, quite so! That was very thoughtful of you. This is a terrible calamity8 that has befallen us. But, as I said in my letter, I have every hope of being able to redeem9 matters if I can only get to where that is possible."
"Where's that?"
"Well, in the first place to Spain—"
"And afterwards?"
Mr. Pixley hesitated. "Perhaps—for your own sake—it would be as well you should not know—for the present, at all events. You may be asked questions. If you don't know, you can truthfully say so."
"I gather that you have funds put away somewhere."
"If I can get to where I want to go, I can at all events make a fresh start. And I am prepared to devote the rest of my life to the one object I have named.... The last few years have been very wearying. I have had trouble with my heart at times;" and he put his hand to his side to emphasise10 it. "But if I can get quietly away I shall soon pull round and be ready for work again, now that the strain is over."
"You know you're asking me to do what I've no right to do?" said Charles gloomily.
"I know, my boy, and it is very bitter for me to have to ask it. But I can't get away without your help, and the alternative is not pleasant to think of—for either of us.... I do not ask more than I would willingly have done for you if the positions were reversed.... On the whole, I do not think I have been a bad father to you. Circumstances, indeed, have been too strong for me at the end, but—"
"I am willing to do what you want—and more, on one condition."
"What is that? Anything in reason—"
"I will provide you with funds to get away, and I will send you three hundred pounds each year—"
"Good lad!"
"On condition that you hand over to me all the property you've got stowed away—"
"Damn!"
"So that I may hand it over to your creditors11."
"Why not write at once to Scotland Yard and tell them where I am? But, after all, I'm not sure that even your world would applaud so filial an act as that."
"I'm prepared to make sacrifices myself to help right some of this wrong—"
"I had to make many for you, my boy, before you were old enough to understand it—before my own position was assured. Ay, and since too. I would have flung it all up years ago but for you. I wanted you to be set firmly on your feet before the crash came. It has been killing12 work. I'm glad it's over—whatever the end may be. If you can't see your way to help me, the end is obvious and close at hand. I have, I think, something under two pounds in my pocket. If I'd waited to get more I should not be here. The end came unexpectedly. Old Coxley called for some securities which I had—which I couldn't give him at the moment, and I had to go at once or not at all."
Charles stood up. He would have liked to tell him all he felt about the matter. How the tampering13 with securities hit him more hardly than almost anything could have done, since straight dealing14 in such matters is the very first of Stock Exchange tenets. How, if he had come to him, he would have strained himself to the utmost to set things right.
But, facile talker as he was on matters that were of no account, he found himself strangely tongue-tied here.
"Well?" he asked. "Will you let me help you?"
"As you will, my boy ... If you do, it offers me a chance—my only chance. If you don't——" he shrugged15 his heavy shoulders meaningly.
"Do what I ask," urged Charles. "It is the only possible amends16 you can make."
Mr. Pixley shook his head. "It is out of the question. I could do nothing with three hundred a year——"
"You could live quietly on that in many places."
"I don't want simply to live. I want to work and redeem myself."
"You have worked hard enough and long enough," said Charles; and he might have added, as was in his mind, "And it has all ended in this."
"I would like to help you," he said, as he moved slowly towards the door, striving hard to keep the stiff upper lip Graeme had enjoined17 on him. "But I don't think you should expect me to do what I know to be wrong. I'll do what I said——"
Mr. Pixley shook his head. His face was gray, his lips pinched in. Charles went out and closed the door behind him.
But he could not leave him so. He had known from the first that he would have to help him, right or wrong.
He opened the door again quietly and went in. His father was sitting at the table with his head in his hands. Charles laid down the money he had, with Graeme's assistance, prepared, laid his hand on his shoulder for a moment, and went quietly out again, and out of the house.
It was a miserable business altogether. He never forgot that last sight of him sitting at the mean little table in the mean little room with his head in his hands.
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1
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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2
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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3
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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4
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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5
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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7
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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8
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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9
redeem
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| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
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10
emphasise
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| vt.加强...的语气，强调，着重 | |
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creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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12
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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13
tampering
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| v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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14
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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15
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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16
amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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