Volume Iii Part 3 (2/2)
But though a clever man, Mr. Capt was a coward, and he feared to face the fury of Lord Pit Town's heir.
The valet repeatedly turned the matter over in his mind, and found it a very complicated question. Of course, the one person in the world to whom the secret was most valuable was young George Haggard. The facts had but to be published to the world and George would jump at once from the precarious position of a younger son into that of the direct heir to an earldom and the property of a man of enormous wealth, while as for Lucius, he would become but the nameless byblow of old Warrender's niece. But there were several disturbing influences to Mr. Capt's calculations. To neither of the young men could he sell his secret for money down. This was a very serious consideration indeed. As for George, he might decline to do business at all, from loyalty to his mother; while as for Lucius, Mr. Capt well knew that it was impossible to trust him. The valet at length determined that he would sound young George Haggard upon the matter, and having made up his mind, proceeded to do so at the first opportunity.
Mr. Capt had not long to wait, for he encountered the young fellow in one of his solitary rambles in the park, and seeing that they were secure from interruption, plunged at once _in medias res_.
Young George Haggard was seated upon a stile meditatively gazing upon the landscape, when he was roused by a slight cough behind him, which proceeded from his father's discreet body servant.
”Halloa! Capt,” said the youth good-naturedly; ”enjoying the beauties of nature?”
”Yes, Mr. George; one can't well help it in such a lovely place as this.”
”I suppose ordinary people like you and I, Capt, don't appreciate it as we ought. That, as my brother tells me, requires culture. He would doubtless see more in it than we do, being a man of culture, as he is, you know.”
”Perhaps the old place, sir, may look all the pleasanter to him, for in the ordinary course of things, you see, sir, he must come into it some day or other. That must be a very pleasant thought, sir,” added the valet after a pause.
”Well, I'm not so sure about that, you know; there are lots of responsibilities, you see,” and the young man proceeded to fill his pipe philosophically.
”You may come into it yourself, sir, one of these days, who knows?” said the valet in a carneying tone.
Young George Haggard started, and stared at Mr. Capt, who seemed to him to have slightly forgotten himself.
”Stranger things than that have happened, sir,” continued the Swiss.
”Well, you see, my man, as my father and Mr. Lucius--to say nothing of his lords.h.i.+p--would both have to go to the wall first, it doesn't seem a likely contingency. And do you know I don't think it's quite the thing to talk about, Capt.”
But the valet was not to be put down.
”Anyhow, it's a great position for so young a gentleman as Mr. Lucius,”
insisted the man. ”Many a man has sold his soul for less than that,” he continued, as he gazed admiringly at the Castle, which occupied the centre of the peacefully romantic landscape.
Young George Haggard stared at the valet in undisguised astonishment.
”Fellow's been drinking,” he thought; ”he seems strangely impertinent, that accounts for it.”
”Ah, they manage things differently, sir, in my country. It's share and share alike there. My father, sir, had seven sons, and we each of us took an equal share of his little bit of land as a matter of right.”
”Well, perhaps, Capt, that's what they'll do here when England becomes a republic. But I don't think that it'll happen in my time, and I don't think I could persuade Lucius to go halves with me.”
Seeing that the young man was disinclined to continue the conversation, the valet touched his hat respectfully and took himself off.
It is a highly respectable thing to be a landowner; the freeholder has many advantages, but getting rid of the property, particularly in the present day, is as a rule both difficult and expensive. Mr. Capt was like the proprietor of an Irish estate; far from being able to dispose of it at a reasonable figure, he was unable to obtain even an offer for his secret, and it was a valuable secret; but then, though a white elephant is a valuable animal, it is not an investment that most people would care to hold, and Mr. Capt's property now seemed indeed but a white elephant. Had it not been for his holy fear of his master he might have attempted to make terms with Mrs. Haggard, but his terror of Lord Pit Town's heir was extreme and had become a second nature to him.
The love of home is specially developed among the honest and economical inhabitants of Switzerland; like the Scotchmen they quit their dear native land young, in the hope of making their fortunes; but unlike the Scots they inevitably return to the Fatherland with the results of a life of industry, and this was the dream of Mr. Capt's life. Like a wise man, finding he could not get a cash purchaser, he determined, though very much against his own inclination, to make a bargain with young Lucius Haggard at the earliest opportunity; but he knew that if he trusted to the honour of Lucy Warrender's son he would be leaning upon a broken reed, and he walked back to the discharge of his duties at the Castle in a state of considerable depression.
CHAPTER IV.
PALLIDA MORS.
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