“Didn’t he know Verney House? He thought every cabman in London knew Verney House! The house of Lord Viscount Verney, in —— Square. Why it fills up a whole side of it!”
He looked at his watch. He had thirty-seven minutes to reach it in. It was partly to get rid of a spare half hour, that he had paid his unprofitable visit to Rosemary Court.
Mr. Larkin registered a vow1 to confer no more with Mr. Dingwell. He eased his feelings by making a note of this resolution in that valuable little memorandum2 book which he carried about with him in his pocket.
“Saw Mr. Dingwell this day — as usual impracticable and ill-bred to a hopeless degree — waste of time and worse — resolved that this gentleman being inaccessible3 to reason, is not to be argued, but DEALT with, should occasion hereafter arise for influencing his conduct.”
Somewhere about Temple Bar, Mr. Larkin’s cab got locked in a string of vehicles, and he put his head out of window, not being sorry for an opportunity of astonishing the citizens by calling to the driver —
“I say, my good fellow, can’t you get on? I told Lord Verney to expect me at half-past one. Do, pray, get me out of this, any way, and you shall have a gratuity4 of half-a-crown. Verney House is a good way from this. Do try. His lordship will be as much obliged to you as I am.”
Mr. Larkin’s assiduities and flatteries were, in truth, telling upon Lord Verney, with whom he was stealing into a general confidence which alarmed many people, and which Cleve Verney hated more than ever.
With the pretty mansion5 of Hazelden, the relations, as Lord Verney would have said of the House of Ware6, were no longer friendly. This was another instance of the fragility of human arrangements, and the vanity of human hopes. The altar had been erected7, the swine sacrificed, and the augurs8 and haruspices on both sides had predicted nothing but amity9 and concord10. Game, fruit, and venison, went and came — “Much good may it do your good heart.” “It was ill-killed,” &c. Master Shallow and Master Page could not have been more courteous11 on such occasions. But on the fête champêtre had descended12 a sudden procella. The roses were whirling high in the darkened air, the flatteries and laughter were drowned in thunder, and the fiddles13 and glasses smashed with hailstones as large as potatoes.
A general election had come and gone, and in that brief civil war old Vane Etherage was found at the wrong side. In Lord Verney’s language neighbour meant something like vassal14, and Etherage who had set up his banner and arrayed his power on the other side, was a rebel — the less forgivable that he had, as was authentically15 demonstrated, by this step himself inflicted16 that defeat in the county which had wounded Lord Verney to the quick.
So silence descended upon the interchange of civil speeches; the partridges and pheasants, winged from Ware in a new direction, and old Vane Etherage stayed his friendly hand also; and those tin cases of Irish salmon17, from the old gentleman’s fisheries, packed in ice, as fresh as if they had sprung from the stream only half an hour before, were no longer known at Ware; and those wonderful fresh figs18, green and purple, which Lord Verney affected19, for which Hazelden is famous, and which Vane Etherage was fond of informing his guests were absolutely unequalled in any part of the known world! England could not approach them for bulk and ripeness, nor foreign parts — and he had eaten figs wherever figs grow — for aroma20 and flavour, no longer crossed the estuary21. Thus this game of beggar-my-neighbour began. Lord Verney recalled his birds, and Mr. Etherage withdrew his figs. Mr. Etherage lost his great black grapes; and Lord Verney sacrificed his salmon, and in due time Lord Verney played a writ22, and invited an episode in a court of law, and another, more formidable, in the Court of Chancery.
So the issues of the war were knit again, and Vane Etherage was now informed by his lawyers there were some very unpleasant questions mooted23 affecting the title to the Windermore estate, for which he payed a trifling24 rent to the Verneys.
So, when Larkin went into Verney House, he was closeted with its noble master for a good while, and returning to a smaller library — devoted25 to blue books and pamphlets — where he had left a despatch-box and umbrella during his wait for admission to his noble client, he found Cleve busy there.
“Oh, Mr. Larkin. How d’ye do? Anything to say to me?” said the handsome young man, whose eye looked angry though he smiled.
“Ah, thanks. No —no, Mr. Verney. I hope and trust I see you well; but no, I had not any communication to make. Shall I be honoured, Mr. Verney, with any communication from you?”
“I’ve nothing to say, thanks, except of course to say how much obliged I am for the very particular interest you take in my affairs.”
“I should be eminently26 gratified, Mr. Verney, to merit your approbation27; but I fear, sir, as yet I can hardly hope to have merited your thanks,” said Mr. Larkin, modestly.
“You won’t let me thank you; but I quite understand the nature and extent of your kindness. My uncle is by no means so reserved, and he has told me very frankly28 the care you have been so good as to take of me. He’s more obliged even than I am, and so, I am told, is Lady Wimbledon also.”
Cleve had said a great deal more than at starting he had at all intended. It would have been easy to him to have dismissed the attorney without allusion29 to the topic that made him positively30 hateful in his eyes; but it was not easy to hint at it, and quite command himself also, and the result illustrated31 the general fact that total abstinence is easier than moderation.
Now the effect of this little speech of Cleve’s upon the attorney, was to abash32 Mr. Larkin, and positively to confound him, in a degree quite unusual in a Christian33 so armed on most occasions with that special grace called presence of mind. The blood mounted to his hollow cheeks, and up to the summit of his tall bald head; his eyes took their rat-like character, and looked dangerously in his for a second, and then down to the floor, and scanned his own boots; and he bit his lip, and essayed a little laugh, and tried to look innocent, and broke down in the attempt. He cleared his voice once or twice to speak, but said nothing; and all this time Cleve gave him no help whatsoever34, but enjoyed his evident confusion with an angry sneer35.
“I hope Mr. Cleve Verney,” at length Mr. Larkin began, “where duty and expediency36 pull in opposite directions, I shall always be found at the right side.”
“The winning side at all events,” said Cleve.
“The right side, I venture to repeat. It has been my misfortune to be misunderstood more than once in the course of my life. It is our duty to submit to misinterpretation, as to other afflictions, patiently. I hope I have done so. My first duty is to my client.”
“I’m no client of yours, sir.”
“Well, conceding that, sir, to your uncle— to Lord Verney, I will say — to his views of what the interests of his house demand, and to his feelings.”
“Lord Verney has been good enough to consult me, hitherto, upon this subject; a not quite unnatural37 confidence, I venture to think; more than you seem to suspect. He seems to think, and so do I, that I’ve a voice in it, and has not left me absolutely in the hands — in a matter of so much importance and delicacy38 — of his country lawyer.”
“I had no power in this case, sir; not even of mentioning the subject to you, who certainly, in one view, are more or less affected by it.”
“Thank you for the concession,” sneered39 Cleve.
“I make it unaffectedly, Mr. Cleve Verney,” replied Larkin, graciously.
“My uncle, Lord Verney, has given me leave to talk to you upon the subject. I venture to decline that privilege. I prefer speaking to him. He seems to think that I ought to be allowed to advise a little in the matter, and that with every respect for his wishes; mine also are entitled to be a little considered. Should I ever talk to you, Mr. Larkin, it shan’t be to ask your advice. I’m detaining you, sir, and I’m also a little busy myself.”
Mr. Larkin looked at the young man a second or two a little puzzled; but encountering only a look of stern impatience40, he made his best bow, and the conference ended.
A few minutes later, in came our old friend, Tom Sedley.
“Oh! Sedley! Very glad to see you here; but I thought you did not want to see my uncle just now; and this is the most likely place, except the library, to meet him in.”
“He’s gone; I saw him go out this moment. I should not have come in otherwise; and you mustn’t send me away, dear Cleve, I’m in such awful trouble. Everything has gone wrong with us at Hazelden. You know that quarrying41 company — the slates42, that odious43 fellow, Larkin, led him into, before the election and all the other annoyances44 began.”
“You mean the Llanrwyd company?”
“Yes; so I do.”
“But that’s quite ruined, you know. Sit down.”
“I know. He has lost — frightfully — and Mr. Etherage must pay up ever so much in calls beside; and unless he can get it on a mortgage of the Windermore estate, he can’t possibly pay them — and I’ve been trying, and the result is just this — they won’t lend it anywhere till the litigation is settled.”
“Well, what can I do?” said Cleve, yawning stealthily into his hand, and looking very tired. I am afraid these tragic45 confidences of Tom Sedley’s did not interest Cleve very much; rather bored him, on the contrary.
“They won’t lend, I say, while this litigation is pending46.”
“Depend upon it they won’t,” acquiesced47 Cleve.
“And in the meantime, you know, Mr. Etherage would be ruined.”
“Well, I see; but, I say again, what can I do?”
“I want you to try if anything can be done with Lord Verney,” said Tom, beseechingly48.
“Talk to my uncle? I wish, dear Tom, you could teach me how to do that.”
“It can’t do any harm, Cleve — it can’t,” urged Tom Sedley, piteously.
“Nor one particle of good. You might as well talk to that picture — I do assure you, you might.”
“But it could be no pleasure to him to ruin Mr. Etherage!”
“I’m not so sure of that; between ourselves, forgiving is not one of his weaknesses.”
“But I say it’s quite impossible — an old family, and liked in the county — it would be a scandal for ever!” pleaded Tom Sedley, distractedly.
“Not worse than that business of Booth Fanshawe,” said Cleve, looking down; “no, he never forgives anything. I don’t think he perceives he’s taking a revenge; he has not mind enough for repentance,” said Cleve, who was not in good humour with his uncle just then.
“Won’t you try? you’re such an eloquent49 fellow, and there’s really so much to be said.”
“I do assure you, there’s no more use than in talking to the chimney-piece; if you make a point of it, of course, I will; but, by Jove, you could hardly choose a worse advocate just now, for he’s teasing me to do what I can’t do. If you heard my miserable50 story, it would make you laugh; it’s like a thing in a petite comédie, and it’s breaking my heart.”
“Well, then, you’ll try — won’t you try?” said Tom, overlooking his friend’s description of his own troubles.
“Yes; as you desire it, I’ll try; but I don’t expect the slightest good from it, and possibly some mischief,” he replied.
“A thousand thanks, my dear Cleve; I’m going down to-night. Would it be too much to ask you for a line, or, if it’s good news, a telegram to Llwynan.”
“I may safely promise you that, I’m sorry to say, without risk of trouble. You mustn’t think me unkind, but it would be cruel to let you hope when there is not, really, a chance.”
So Tom drove away to his club, to write his daily love letter to Agnes Etherage, in time for post; and to pen a few lines for old Vane Etherage, and try to speak comfortably to that family, over whose pretty home had gathered so awful a storm.
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1
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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gratuity
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| n.赏钱，小费 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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8
augurs
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| n.（古罗马的）占兆官( augur的名词复数 )；占卜师，预言者v.预示，预兆，预言( augur的第三人称单数 )；成为预兆；占卜 | |
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amity
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| n.友好关系 | |
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concord
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| n.和谐；协调 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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fiddles
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| n.小提琴( fiddle的名词复数 )；欺诈；（需要运用手指功夫的）细巧活动；当第二把手v.伪造( fiddle的第三人称单数 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动 | |
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vassal
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| n.附庸的；属下；adj.奴仆的 | |
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authentically
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| ad.sincerely真诚地 | |
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inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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figs
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| figures 数字，图形，外形 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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aroma
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| n.香气，芬芳，芳香 | |
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estuary
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| n.河口，江口 | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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mooted
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| adj.未决定的，有争议的，有疑问的v.提出…供讨论( moot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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abash
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| v.使窘迫，使局促不安 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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41
quarrying
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| v.采石；从采石场采得( quarry的现在分词 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石 | |
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42
slates
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| （旧时学生用以写字的）石板( slate的名词复数 )； 板岩； 石板瓦； 石板色 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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annoyances
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| n.恼怒( annoyance的名词复数 )；烦恼；打扰；使人烦恼的事 | |
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45
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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pending
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| prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的 | |
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47
acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
beseechingly
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| adv. 恳求地 | |
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49
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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