Part 46 (1/2)

”Live! die!” cried Francis, recoiling in horror. ”What do you mean by such language? Tell me, George, am I not your brother? Your only brother and best friend?”

Francis felt he had no friend if George was not that friend, and his face grew pale while the tears flowed rapidly down his cheeks.

George could not resist such an appeal. He caught the hand of his brother and made him acquainted with his losses and his wants.

Francis mused some little time over his narration, ere he broke silence.

”It was all you had?”

”The last s.h.i.+lling,” cried George, beating his head with his hand.

”How much will you require to make out the quarter?”

”Oh I must have at least fifty guineas, or how can I live at all?”

The ideas of life in George were connected a good deal with the manner it was to be enjoyed. His brother appeared struggling with himself, and then turning to the other, continued,

”But surely, under present circ.u.mstances, you could make less do.”

”Less, never--hardly that”--interrupted George, vehemently. ”If Lady Margaret did not inclose me a note now and then, how could we get along at all? don't you find it so yourself, brother?”

”I don't know,” said Francis, turning pale--

”Don't know!” cried George, catching a view of his altered countenance--”you get the money, though?”

”I do not remember it,” said the other, sighing heavily.

”Francis,” cried George, comprehending the truth, ”you shall share every s.h.i.+lling I receive in future--you shall--indeed you shall.”

”Well, then,” rejoined Francis with a smile, ”it is a bargain; and you will receive from me a supply in your present necessities.”

Without waiting for an answer, Francis withdrew into an inner apartment, and brought out the required sum for his brother's subsistence for two months. George remonstrated, but Francis was positive; he had been saving, and his stock was ample for his simple habits without it.

”Besides, you forget we are partners, and in the end I shall be a gainer.”

George yielded to his wants and his brother's entreaties, and he gave him great credit for the disinterestedness of the act. Several weeks pa.s.sed without any further allusion to this disagreeable subject, which had at least the favorable result of making George more guarded and a better student.

The brothers, from this period, advanced gradually in those distinctive qualities which were to mark the future men; George daily improving in grace and attraction, Francis, in an equal ratio, receding from those very attainments which it was his too great desire to possess. In the education of his sons, General Denbigh had preserved the appearance of impartiality; his allowance to each was the same: they were at the same college, they had been at the same school; and if Frank did not improve as much as his younger brother, it was unquestionably his own obstinacy and stupidity, and surely not want of opportunity or favor.

Such, then, were the artificial and accidental causes, which kept a n.o.ble, a proud, an acute but a diseased mind, in acquirements much below another every way its inferior, excepting in the happy circ.u.mstance of wanting those very excellences, the excess and indiscreet management of which proved the ruin instead of the blessing of their possessor.

The duke would occasionally rouse himself from his lethargy, and complain to the father, that the heir of his honors was far inferior to his younger brother in acquirements, and remonstrate against the course which produced such an unfortunate inequality. On these occasions a superficial statement of his system from the general met the objection; they cost the same money, and he was sure he not only wished but did everything an indulgent parent could, to render Francis worthy of his future honors. Another evil of the admission of feelings of partiality, in the favor of one child, to the prejudice of another, is that the malady is contagious as well as lasting: it exists without our own knowledge, and it seldom fails to affect those around us. The uncle soon learnt to distinguish George as the hope of the family, yet Francis must be the heir of its honors, and consequently of its wealth.

The duke and his brother were not much addicted to action, hardly to reflection; but if anything could rouse them to either, it was the reputation of the house of Denbigh. Their ideas of reputation, it is true, were of their own forming.

The hour at length drew near when George expected a supply from the ill-judged generosity of his mother; it came, and with a heart beating with pleasure, the youth flew to the room of Francis with a determination to force the whole of his twenty pounds on his acceptance. On throwing open his door, he saw his brother evidently striving to conceal something behind his books. It was at the hour of breakfast, and George had intended for a novelty to share his brother's morning repast. They always met at dinner, but the other meals were made in their own rooms. George looked in vain for the usual equipage of the table; suspicion flashed upon him; he threw aside the books, and a crust of bread and a gla.s.s of water met his eye; the truth now flashed upon him in all its force.

”Francis, my brother, to what has my extravagance reduced you!” exclaimed the contrite George with a heart nearly ready to burst. Francis endeavored to explain, but a sacred regard to the truth held him tongue-tied, until dropping his head on the shoulder of George, he sobbed out--