Part 31 (1/2)
”A sea voyage!” his wife repeated. ”Do you mean that he should go back to England? I don't see anything serious the matter with him.
Surely there cannot be anything serious enough for that.”
”No, not so serious as that, Carrie. Just a cruise for a bit--on board the Antelope, for example.”
Mrs. O'Halloran looked from one to the other; and then, catching a twinkle in Bob's eye, the truth flashed across her.
”You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Gerald,” she said, laughing in spite of herself. ”You have quite frightened me. I see now.
Captain Locket has invited Bob to go for a cruise with him, and all this about his being ill is nonsense, from beginning to end. You don't mean to say that you have been encouraging Bob in this ridiculous idea!”
”I don't know about encouraging, Carrie; but when he put it to me that he had been working very steadily, for the last six months; and that he had got into no sc.r.a.pes; and that he had really earned a holiday, and that this would be a very jolly one; I did not see any particular reason why he shouldn't have it.”
”No particular reason! Why, the Antelope is a privateer; and if she is going to cruise about, that means that she is going to fight, and he may get shot.”
”So he may here, Carrie, if a ball happens to come the right way.
”I think Bob certainly deserves a reward for the way he has stuck to his lessons. You know you never expected he would do as he has done; and I am sure his uncle would be delighted, if he heard how well he speaks Spanish.
”As to his health, the boy is well enough; but there is no denying that this hot weather we are having takes it out of us all, and that it would be a mighty good thing if every soul on the Rock had the chance of a month's cruise at sea, to set him up.
”But seriously, Carrie, I don't see any reason, whatever, why he should not go. We didn't bring the boy out here to make a mollycoddle of him. He has got to settle down, some day, in a musty old office; and it seems to me that he ought to have his share in any fun and diversion that he has a chance of getting at, now. As to danger, sure you are a soldier's wife; and why shouldn't he have a share of it, just the same as if he had gone into the navy? You wouldn't have made any hullabaloo about it, if he had done that.
”This is Bob's good time, let him enjoy it. You are not going to keep a lad of his age tied to your ap.r.o.n strings. He has just got the chance of having two or three years of fighting, and adventure.
It will be something for him to talk about, all his life; and my opinion is, that you had best let him go his own way. There are hundreds and hundreds of lads his age knocking about the world, and running all sorts of risks, without having elder sisters worrying over them.”
”Very well, Gerald, if you and Bob have made up your minds about it, it is no use my saying no. I am sure I don't want to make a mollycoddle, as you call it, of him. Of course, uncle will blame me, if any harm comes of it.”
”No, he won't, Carrie. Your uncle wants the boy to be a gentleman, and a man of the world. If you had said that a year ago, I would have agreed with you; but we know him better, now, and I will be bound he will like him to see as much life as he can, during this time. He has sent him out into the world.
”I will write to your uncle, myself, and tell him it is my doing entirely; and that I think it is a good thing Bob should take every chance he gets, and that I will answer for it that he won't be any the less ready, when the time comes, for buckling to at business.”
”Well, if you really think that, Gerald, I have nothing more to say. You know I should like Bob to enjoy himself, as much as he can; only I seem to have the responsibility of him.”
”I don't see why you worry about that, Carrie. If he had gone out to Cadiz or Oporto, as your uncle intended, you don't suppose the people there would have troubled themselves about him. He would just have gone his own way. You went your own way, didn't you? And it is mighty little you troubled yourself about what your uncle was likely to say, when you took up with an Irishman in a marching regiment; and I don't see why you should trouble now.
”The old gentleman means well with the boy but, after all, he is not either his father or his mother. You are his nearest relation and, though you are a married woman, you are not old enough, yet, to expect that a boy of Bob's age is going to treat you as if you were his mother, instead of his sister. There is not one boy in fifty would have minded us as he has done.”
”Well, Bob, there is nothing more for me to say, after that,”
Carrie said, half laughing--though there were tears in her eyes.
”No, no, Carrie; I won't go, if you don't like,” Bob said, impetuously.
”Yes, you shall go, Bob. Gerald is quite right. It is better you should begin to think for yourself; and I am sure I should like you to see things, and to enjoy yourself as much as you can. I don't know why I should fidget about you, for you showed you had much more good sense than I credited you with, when you gave up your chance of going to sea and went into uncle's office.
”I am sure I am the last person who ought to lecture you, after choosing to run about all over the world, and to take the risk of being starved here,” and she smiled at her husband.
”You do as you like, Bob,” she went on. ”I won't worry about you, in future--only if you have to go back to England without a leg, or an arm, don't blame me; and be sure you tell uncle that I made as good a fight against it as I could.”
And so it was settled.