Volume Iii Part 6 (1/2)

The fact is, the young waif, as Rose thought him, was placed, at her expense, on board one of the training-s.h.i.+ps lying off Greenhithe. They are n.o.ble inst.i.tutions, these training-s.h.i.+ps-saving lads who, if left to themselves, might become tempted by circ.u.mstances or bad companions into crime, and at the same time supplying us with what we English emphatically require at the present day-English sailors on whom captains can rely on board our merchant s.h.i.+ps and men-of-war. There was no difficulty in getting the actress's _protege_ there, and there he was rapidly training into a good sailor and a fine fellow, well-built, obedient to his superiors, handy, and hardy, and st.u.r.dy, morally and physically, as all sailors should be.

The next thing was to talk to a lawyer. In this wicked world lawyers are necessary evils. Sometimes, however, they do a great deal of good. The lawyer recommended Wentworth to call on the family lawyer of the deceased Baronet. He came back looking unhappy and uncomfortable, as people often do when they have interviews with lawyers who are supposed to be on the other side. He found him in comfortable quarters on a first floor in Bedford Row, Holborn, looking the very image of respectability-bald, and in black, with an appearance partly suggestive of the fine old clergyman of the port-wine school, with a touch of the thorough man of the world; a lawyer, in short, who would give an air of plausibility and rect.i.tude to any cause in which he was embarked.

To him Wentworth apologized for making an intrusion.

'No apology at all was needed, my dear sir. Happy to make your acquaintance. I have not only read your books-very clever, too, Mr.

Wentworth-but I heard of you more than once through Sir Watkin Strahan.'

'Perhaps in no complimentary terms?'

'Well, you know the late Baronet was a man of strong pa.s.sions, and, when annoyed, I must admit that his language was what we might call a little unparliamentary.'

'It is about his business I have called. You are aware there is an heir?'

'Oh yes; Colonel Strahan, the brother.'

'I don't mean him. A son.'

'A son! Impossible. The deceased baronet had only one son, and the fine fellow-'

'Is now alive.'

'Nonsense, my dear sir. He was buried in the family vault, after the doctor and the family were satisfied of his ident.i.ty, and I was present at the funeral. There was a coroner's inquest held in order to leave no room for doubt.'

'I think not,' said Wentworth, as he proceeded to unfold the details of his case, to which the lawyer listened at first with a severely judicial air, and then with an incredulous smile.

'Is that all you've got to say?' he asked, when Wentworth had finished his statement.

'Pretty much so,' replied Wentworth.

'Then,' replied the lawyer, with a triumphant air, 'we have little to fear. Sergeant B.'-naming a popular advocate of the day-'would laugh the case out of court in a quarter of an hour. You have a quarrel with the deceased. Your good lady has-to put it not too strongly-been insulted and shamefully ill-treated by him. Who would believe that, in promoting this suit-should you be so ill-advised as to do that-you came into court with clean hands? The idea is perfectly preposterous.'

The worst of it was that Wentworth, as he withdrew, was compelled to own that there was not a little truth in what the lawyer had said.

It was not law but equity that was required in his particular case. In England law and equity, alas! have often different meanings.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE ITALIAN COUNTESS.

'How lovely!' said a lady to a gentleman on the deck by her side, as they were drinking in all the beauty of the scene as one of the fine s.h.i.+ps of the Orient Company dropped her anchor in the Bay of Naples. 'And look what a swarm of boats have come out to greet us!'

They were a swarm indeed, some of them with divers to exhibit their prowess, some with fruit and flowers, some with the lava ornaments in the manufacture of which the Neapolitans exhibit such exquisite skill, and others with musicians-vocal and instrumental-keeping up for the time quite a serenade. These Neapolitans gain but little, it is to be feared, on such occasions, but the Neapolitans are a frugal people, and make a little go a long way.

The lady was Rose, the gentleman by her side was her husband.

'Yes; and see, one of the boats has a young girl who has come on deck with flowers, which she is fastening in the gentlemen's coats in hope of a small fee. How pretty she looks!'

The girl approached Rose, to whom she offered a flower.