Part 88 (2/2)
FRANK.--”What? don't you think it would be the best way? I never can save enough,--never can pay off what I owe; and it rolls like a s...o...b..ll.”
RANDAL.--”Judging by the squire's talk, I think that with the first sight of your affairs you would forfeit his favour forever; and your mother would be so shocked, especially after supposing that the sum I brought you so lately sufficed to pay off every claim on you. If you had not a.s.sured her of that it might be different; but she, who so hates an untruth, and who said to the squire, 'Frank says this will clear him; and with all his faults, Frank never yet told a lie!'”
”Oh, my dear mother!--I fancy I hear her!” cried Frank, with deep emotion. ”But I did not tell a lie, Randal; I did not say that that sum would clear me.”
”You empowered and begged me to say so,” replied Randal, with grave coldness; ”and don't blame me if I believed you.”
”No, no! I only said it would clear me for the moment.”
”I misunderstood you, then, sadly; and such mistakes involve my own honour. Pardon me, Frank; don't ask my aid in future. You see, with the best intentions, I only compromise myself.”
”If you forsake me, I may as well go and throw myself into the river,”
said Frank, in a tone of despair; ”and sooner or later, my father must know my necessities. The Jews threaten to go to him already; and the longer the delay, the more terrible the explanation.”
”I don't see why your father should ever learn the state of your affairs; and it seems to me that you could pay off these usurers, and get rid of these bills, by raising money on comparatively easy terms--”
”How?” cried Frank, eagerly.
”Why, the Casino property is entailed on you, and you might obtain a sum upon that, not to be paid till the property becomes yours.”
”At my poor father's death? Oh, no, no! I cannot bear the idea of this cold-blooded calculation on a father's death. I know it is not uncommon; I know other fellows who have done it, but they never had parents so kind as mine; and even in them it shocked and revolted me. The contemplating a father's death, and profiting by the contemplation it seems a kind of parricide: it is not natural, Randal. Besides, don't you remember what the Governor said,--he actually wept while he said it,--'Never calculate on my death; I could not bear that.' Oh, Randal, don't speak of it!”
”I respect your sentiments; but still, all the post-orbits you could raise could not shorten Mr. Hazeldean's life by a day. However, dismiss that idea; we must think of some other device. Ha, Frank! you are a handsome fellow, and your expectations are great--why don't you marry some woman with money?”
”Pooh!” exclaimed Frank, colouring. ”You know, Randal, that there is but one woman in the world I can ever think of; and I love her so devotedly, that, though I was as gay as most men before, I really feel as if the rest of her s.e.x had lost every charm. I was pa.s.sing through the street now--merely to look up at her windows.”
”You speak of Madame di Negra? I have just left her. Certainly, she is two or three years older than you; but if you can get over that misfortune, why not marry her?”
”Marry her!” cried Frank, in amaze, and all his colour fled from his cheeks. ”Marry her! Are you serious?”
”Why not?”
”But even if she, who is so accomplished, so admired, even if she would accept me, she is, you know, poorer than myself. She has told me so frankly. That woman has such a n.o.ble heart,--and--and--my father would never consent, nor my mother either. I know they would not.”
”Because she is a foreigner?”
”Yes--partly.”
”Yet the squire suffered his cousin to marry a foreigner.”
”That was different. He had no control over Jemima; and a daughter-in-law is so different; and my father is so English in his notions; and Madame di Negra, you see, is altogether so foreign. Her very graces would be against her in his eyes.”
”I think you do both your parents injustice. A foreigner of low birth--an actress or singer, for instance--of course would be highly objectionable; but a woman like Madame di Negra, of such high birth and connections--”
Frank shook his head. ”I don't think the Governor would care a straw about her connections, if she were a king's daughter. He considers all foreigners pretty much alike. And then, you know” (Frank's voice sank into a whisper),--”you know that one of the very reasons why she is so dear to me would be an insuperable objection to the old-fas.h.i.+oned folks at home.”
”I don't understand you, Frank.”
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