Part 18 (2/2)

”Ah, Charles, you promised me not. I shall cut with great discretion, I a.s.sure you.”

”As you please,” said Sir Charles. ”If you want to make me happy, deny yourself nothing. Mind, I shall be angry if you do.”

Soon after this a gaping quidnunc came to Sir Charles and told him Lady Ba.s.sett was felling trees in North Wood.

”And pray who has a better right to fell trees in any wood of mine?”

”But she is building a wall.”

”And who has a better right to build a wall?”

With the delicacy of a gentleman he would not go near the place after this till she asked him; and that was not long, She came into his study, all beaming, and invited him to a ride. She took him into North Wood, and showed him her work. Richard Ba.s.sett's plantation, hitherto divided from North Wood only by a boundary scarcely visible, was now shut off by a brick wall: on Sir Charles's side of that wall every stick of timber was felled and removed for a distance of fifty yards, and about twenty yards from the wall a belt of larches was planted, a little higher than cabbages.

Sir Charles looked amazed at first, but soon observed how thoroughly his enemy was defeated. ”My poor Bella,” said he, ”to think of your taking all this trouble about such a thing!” He stopped to kiss her very tenderly, and she shone with joy and innocent pride. ”And I never thought of this! You astonish me, Bella.”

”Ay,” said she, in high spirits now; ”and, what is more, I have astonished Mr. Moss. He said, 'I wish I had your head-piece, my lady.'

I could have told him Love sharpens a woman's wits; but I reserved that little adage for you.”

”It's all mighty fine, fair lady, but you have told me a fib. You said it was to be all for yourself, and got a hundred pounds out of me.”

”And so it was for myself, you silly thing. Are you not myself? and the part of myself I love the best?” And her supple wrist was round his neck in a moment.

They rode home together, like lovers, and comforted each other.

Richard Ba.s.sett, with Wheeler's a.s.sistance, had borrowed money on Highmore to buy ”Splatchett's”; he now borrowed money on ”Splatchett's,” and bought Dean's Wood--a wood, with patches of gra.s.s, that lay on the east of Sir Charles's boundary. He gave seventeen hundred pounds for it, and sold two thousand pounds' worth of timber off it the first year. This sounds incredible; but, owing to the custom of felling only ripe trees, landed proprietors had no sure clew to the value of all the timber on an acre. Richard Ba.s.sett had found this out, and bought Dean's Wood upon the above terms--_i.e.,_ the vender gave him the soil and three hundred pounds gratis. He grubbed the roots and sold them for fuel, and planted larches to catch the overflow of Sir Charles's game. The gra.s.s grew beautifully, now the trees were down, and he let it for pasture.

He then, still under Wheeler's advice, came out into the world again, improved his dress, and called on several county families, with a view to marrying money.

Now in the country they do not despise a poor gentleman of good lineage, and Ba.s.sett was one of the oldest names in the county; so every door was open to him; and, indeed, his late hermit life had stimulated some curiosity. This he soon turned to sympathy, by telling them that he was proud but poor. Robbed of the vast estates that belonged to him by birth, he had been unwilling to take a lower position. However, Heaven had prospered him; the wrongful heir was childless; he was the heir at law, and felt he owed it to the estate, which must return to his line, to a.s.sume a little more public importance than he had done.

Wherever he was received he was sure to enlarge upon his wrongs; and he was believed; for he was notoriously the direct heir to Ba.s.sett and Huntercombe, but the family arrangement by which his father had been bought out was known only to a few. He readily obtained sympathy, and many persons were disgusted at Sir Charles's illiberality in not making him some compensation. To use the homely expression of Govett, a small proprietor, the baronet might as well have given him back one pig out of his own farrow--_i.e.,_ one of the many farms comprised in that large estate.

Sir Charles learned that Richard was undermining him in the county, but was too proud to interfere; he told Lady Ba.s.sett he should say nothing until some _gentleman_ should indorse Mr. Ba.s.sett's falsehoods.

One day Sir Charles and Lady Ba.s.sett were invited to dine and sleep at Mr. Hardwicke's, distance fifteen miles; they went, and found Richard Ba.s.sett dining there, by Mrs. Hardwicke's invitation, who was one of those ninnies that fling guests together with no discrimination.

Richard had expected this to happen sooner or later, so he was comparatively prepared, and bowed stiffly to Sir Charles. Sir Charles stared at him in return. This was observed. People were uncomfortable, especially Mrs. Hardwicke, whose thoughtlessness was to blame for it all.

At a very early hour Sir Charles ordered his carriage, and drove home, instead of staying all night.

Mrs. Hardwicke, being a fool, must make a little more mischief. She blubbered to her husband, and he wrote Sir Charles a remonstrance.

Sir Charles replied that he was the only person aggrieved; Mr.

Hardwicke ought not to have invited a blackguard to meet _him._

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