Part 11 (1/2)
”Father, hus.h.!.+” whispered Louise, as she glanced at Leslie's sympathetic countenance. ”Hus.h.!.+ be calm!”
”How can I be calm!” cried the old man fiercely. ”The des Vignes! The family estates! The t.i.tle! You hear this, Margaret. Here is a fine opportunity for the search to be made--the old castle and the vineyards to be rescued from the occupiers.”
”George--brother, what do you mean?” cried the old lady indignantly, and she laid her hand upon her nephew's shoulder, as he sat gazing straight down before him at his plate.
”What do I mean?” cried the indignant father tossing the letter towards her. ”I mean that my son is once more dismissed from his situation in disgrace.”
CHAPTER FIVE.
POISON AND ANTIDOTE.
”Now, sir, have the goodness to tell me what you mean to do.”
Harry Vine looked at his father, thrust his hands low down into his pockets, leaned back against the mantelpiece, and was silent.
Vine senior leaned over a shallow gla.s.s jar, with a thin splinter of wood in his hand, upon which he had just impaled a small fragment of raw, minced periwinkle, and this he thrust down to where a gorgeous sea-anemone sat spread open upon a piece of rock--chipped from out of one of the caverns on the coast.
The anemone's tentacles bristled all around, giving the creature the aspect of a great flower; and down among these the sc.r.a.p of food was thrust till it touched them, when the tentacles began to curve over, and draw the sc.r.a.p of sh.e.l.l-fish down toward the large central mouth, in which it soon began to disappear.
Vine senior looked up.
”I have done everything I could for you in the way of education. I have, I am sure, been a most kind and indulgent father. You have had a liberal supply of money, and by the exercise of my own and the personal interests of friends, I have obtained for you posts among our people, any one of which was the beginning of prosperity and position, such as a youth should have been proud to win.”
”But they were so unsuitable, father. All connected with trade.”
”Shame, Harry! As if there was anything undignified in trade. No matter whether it be trade or profession by which a man honestly earns his subsistence, it is an honourable career. And yet five times over you have been thrown back on my hands in disgrace.”
”Well, I can't help it, father; I've done my best.”
”Your best!” cried Vine senior, taking up a gla.s.s rod, and stirring the water in another gla.s.s jar. ”It is not true.”
”But it's so absurd. You're a rich man.”
”If I were ten times as well off, I would not have you waste your life in idleness. You are not twenty-four, and I am determined that you shall take some post. I have seen too much of what follows when a restless, idle young man sits down to wait for his father's money.
There, I am busy now. Go and think over what I have said. You must and shall do something. It is now a month since I received that letter.
What is Mr Pradelle doing down here again?”
”Come for a change, as any other gentleman would.”
”Gentleman?”
”Well, he has a little income of his own, I suppose. If I've been unlucky, that's no reason why I should throw over my friends.”
The father looked at the son in a perplexed way, and then fed another sea-anemone, Harry looking on contemptuously.
”Well, sir, you have heard what I said. Go and think it over.”
”Yes, father.”