Volume Ii Part 3 (1/2)
”Far from it, Cave. It is without any qualification whatever. I deem him the worst fellow I ever knew; nor am I aware of any greater misfortune to a young fellow entering on life than to have become his a.s.sociate.”
”You astonish me! I was prepared to hear things of him that one could not justify, nor would have willingly done themselves, but not to learn that he was beyond the pale of honor.”
”It is exactly where he stands, sir,--beyond the pale of honor. I wish we had not spoken of him,” said the old man, rising, and pacing the room. ”The memory of that fellow is the bitterest draught I ever put to my lips; he has dashed my mind with more unworthy doubts and mean suspicions of other men than all my experience of life has ever taught me. I declare, I believe if I had never known him my heart would have been as hopeful to-day as it was fifty years ago.”
”How came it that I never heard you speak of him?”
”Is it my wont, Cave, to talk of my disasters to my friends? You surely have known me long enough to say whether I dwell upon the reverses and disappointments of my life. It is a sorry choice of topics, perhaps, that is left to men old as myself when they must either be croakers or boasters. At all events, I have chosen the latter; and people bear with it the better because they can smile at it.”
”I wish with all my heart I had never played with Sewell, and still more that I had not won of him.”
”Was it a heavy sum?”
”For a man like myself, a very heavy sum. I was led on--giving him his revenge, as it is called--till I found myself playing for a stake which, had I lost, would have cost me the selling my commission.”
Fossbrooke nodded, as though to say he had known of such, incidents in the course of his life.
”When he appeared at my quarters the next morning to settle the debt, I was so overcome with shame that I pledge you my word of honor, I believe I 'd rather have been the loser and taken all the ruin the loss would have brought down upon me.”
”How your friend must have appreciated your difficulty!” said Fossbrooke, sarcastically.
”He was frank enough, at all events, to own that he could not share my sense of embarra.s.sment. He jeered a little at my pretension to be an example to my young officers, as well he might. I had selected an unlucky moment to advance such a claim; and then he handed me over my innings, with all the ease and indifference in life.”
”I declare, Cave, I was expecting, to the very last moment, a different ending to your story. I waited to hear that he had handed you a bond of his wife's guardian, which for prudential reasons should not be pressed for prompt payment.”
”Good heavens! what do you mean?” cried Cave, leaning over the table in intense eagerness. ”Who could have told you this?”
”Beresford told me; he brought me the very doc.u.ment once to my house with my own signature annexed to it,--an admirable forgery as ever was, done. My seal, too, was there. By bad luck, however, the paper was stolen from me that very night,--taken out of a locked portfolio. And when Beresford charged the fellow with the fraud, Sewell called him out and shot him.”
Cave sat for several minutes like one stunned and overcome. He looked vacantly before him, but gave no sign of hearing or marking what was said to him. At last he arose, and, walking over to a table, unlocked his writing-desk, and took out a large packet, of which he broke the seal, and without examining the contents, handed it to Fossbrooke, saying,--”Is that like it?”
”It is the very bond itself; there's my signature. I wish I wrote as good a hand now,” said he, laughing. ”It is as I always said, Cave,”
cried he, in a louder, fuller voice; ”the world persists in calling this swindler a clever fellow, and there never was a greater mistake. The devices of the scoundrel are the very fewest imaginable; and he repeats his three or four tricks, with scarcely a change, throughout a life long.”
”And this is a forgery!” muttered Cave, as he bent over the doc.u.ment and scanned it closely.
”You shall see me prove it such. You 'll intrust me with it. I 'll promise to take better care of it this time.”
”Of course. What do you mean to do?”
”Nothing by course of law, Cave. So far I promise you, and I know it is of that you are most afraid. No, my good friend. If you never figure in a witness-box till brought there by _me_, you may snap your fingers for many a day at cross-examinations.”
”This cannot be made the subject of a personal altercation,” said Cave, hesitatingly.
”If you mean a challenge, certainly not; but it may be made the means of extricating Trafford from his difficulties with this man, and I can hardly see where and what these difficulties are.”
”You allude to the wife?”
”We will not speak of that, Cave,” said Fossbrooke, coloring deeply.