Part 91 (1/2)
”As good a fellow as ever stepped, and a true friend of mine. What of him?”
”Don't look as if you would tear me in pieces, and scatter the fragments to the four winds of heaven. Sir, I 'll not stand it,--none of your buccaneering savageries _to me!_”
Tony laughed, and laughed heartily at the air of offended dignity of the other; and Skeff was himself disposed at last to smile at his own anger.
”That 's the crying sin of _your_ nature, Tony,” said he. ”It is the one defect that spoils a really fine fellow. I tell you frankly about it, because I 'm your friend; and if you don't curb it, you 'll never be anything,--never! never!”
”But what is this fault? you have forgotten to tell it.”
”Over and over again have I told it It is your stupid animal confidence in your great hulking form: your coa.r.s.e reliance on your ma.s.sive shoulders,--a degenerate notion that muscle means manhood. It is here, sir,--here;” and Skeff touched his forehead with the tip of his finger; ”here lies the G.o.dlike attribute. And until you come to feel that, you never will have arrived at the real dignity of a great creature.”
”Well, if I be the friend of one, Skeffy, it will satisfy all my ambition,” said he, grasping his hand warmly; ”and now what of M'Gruder?
How did you come to know of him?”
”Officially,--officially, of course. Skeffington Darner and Sam M'Gruder might revolve in ether for centuries and their orbits never cross!
but it happened this honest fellow had gone off in search of you into Sicily; and with that blessed propensity for blundering the British subject is gifted with, had managed to offend the authorities and get imprisoned. Of course he appealed to me. They all appeal to _me!_ but at the moment unhappily for him, the King was appealing to me, and Cavour was appealing to me, and so was the Emperor; and, I may mention in confidence, so was Garibaldi!--not in person, but through a friend. I know these things must be. Whenever a fellow has a head on his shoulders in this world, the other fellows who have no heads find it out and work _him_. Ay, sir, work him! That 's why I have said over and over again the stupid dogs have the best of it. I declare to you, on my honor, Tony, there are days I 'd rather be you than be Skeff Darner!”
Tony shook his head.
”I know it sounds absurd, but I pledge you my sacred word of honor I _have_ felt it.”
”And M'Gruder?” asked Tony.
”M'Gruder, sir, I liberated! I said, Free him! and, like the fellow in Curran's celebrated pa.s.sage, his chains fell to the ground, and he stood forward, not a bit grateful,--far from it,--but a devilish crusty Scotchman, telling me what a complaint he 'd lodge against me as soon as he arrived in England.”
”No, no; he 's not the fellow to do that.”
”If he did, sir, _it_ would crush him! The Emperor of Russia could not prefer a complaint against Skeff Darner, and feel the better of it!”
”He 's a true-hearted, fine fellow,” said Tony.
”With all my heart I concede to him all the rough virtues you may desire to endow him with; but please to bear in mind, Master Tony, that a man of your station and your fortune cannot afford such intimacies as your friend Rory here and this M'Gruder creature.”
”Then I was a richer man when I had nothing, for I _could_ afford it then,” said Tony, st.u.r.dily; ”and I tell you more, Skeffy,--I mean to afford it still. There is no fellow living I love better--no, nor as well--as I love yourself; but even for your love I'll not give up the fine-hearted fellows who were true to me in my days of hards.h.i.+p, shared with me what they had, and gave me--what was better to me--their loving-kindness and sympathy.”
”You'd bring down the house if you said that in the Adelphi, Tony.”
”It 's well for you that I can't get out of bed,” said Tony, with a grim laugh.
”There it is again; another appeal to the brute man and the man brute!
Well, I 'll go to dinner, and I 'll tell the fair Sister to prepare your barley-water, and administer it in a more diluted form than heretofore;”
and, adjusting his hat so as to display a favorite lock to the best advantage, and drawing on his gloves in leisurely fas.h.i.+on, Skeff Darner walked proudly away, bestowing little benevolent gestures on the patients as he pa.s.sed, and intimating by certain little signs that he had taken an interest in their several cases, and saying, by a sweet smile, ”You 'll be the better of this visit of mine. You 'll see, you will.”
CHAPTER LVIII. THE SIXTH OF SEPTEMBER
On the evening of the 6th of September a corvette steamed rapidly out of the Bay of Naples, threading her way deviously through the other s.h.i.+ps of war, unacknowledged by salute,--not even an ensign dipped as she pa.s.sed.
”There goes the King and the monarchy,” said Skeff, as he stood on the balcony with the Lyles, and pointed to the fast-retreating vessel.