The Adventures of Harry Richmond - Volume 4

left him that he was not to be hoodwinked: he must see the money standing in my name on the day appointed. His doubts were evident, but he a

ire; that done, I would speedily repay it. I admitted, in a letter to my aunt Dorothy, the existing objections: but the lady had long been enamoured of him, I pleaded, and he was past the age for passionate affection, and would infallibly be cou

d a peaceful Riversley, and a life of quiet English distinction, beckoned to me visibly, and not hatefully. The image of Ottilia conjured up pictures of a sea of shipwrecks, a scene of immeasurable hopelessness. Still, I strove toward that. M

n on both sides, prudent in a worldly sense, we might wish for him, perhaps, if he could feel quite sure of himself. His wife might persuade him not to proceed in his law-case. There I have long seen his ruin. He builds such expectations on it! You speak of something worse than a mercenary marriage. I see this in your handwriting!-your approval of it! I have to check the whisper that tells me it reads like a conspiracy. Is she not a simpleton? Can you withhold your pity? and pitying, can you possibly allow her to be entrapped? Forgive my seeming harshness. I do not often speak to m

by one of the early morning trains; entreating me once more to cause 'any actual dee

y before she committed herself to the deeps. The money to be advanced to me would lie at my bankers, in my name,-untouched: it would be repaid in the bulk after a season. This I dwelt on particularly, both to satisfy her and to appease my sense of the obligation. An airy ple

d me to permit him to start: but it was too ignominious to think of its being done under my very eyes, and I refused. He had tried the money-lenders yesterday. They required

ve so. Let me go to her and have it over, for with me a step taken is a thing sanctified. I have in fact held her in reserve. Not that I think Fortune has abandoned us: but a sagacious schemer will not leave

the money to her husband. When I pledged my word to the squire I had reason to imagine the two months a sufficient time. We have still a couple of days. I have heard of men who lost heart

ive to Lady Sampleman. But that he would have been prompt to go, at a word from

relief of mind to Det

le's district, and met in the street young Eckart vom Hof, my champion and second on a memorable occasion, fresh upon London, and looking very Germanic in this drab forest of our city people. He could hardly speak of Deutschland for enthusiasm at the sight of the moving masses. His object in coming

hand and know the meaning of her presence in London. She had family business to do: she said no more. I mentioned that I had checked my father for a day or two. She appeared grateful. Her anxiety was extreme that she might not miss the return train, so I relinquished her hand, commanded the cabman to hasten, and turned to rescue Eckart-

or his father, Baron vom Hof, might some day relate the circumstance at Prince Ernest's table, and fix in Ottilia's mind the recognition of my having tried to perform my part of the contract. Beggared myself, and k

arles Etherell, my friendly introductor, by whom I was passingly, per

a present theme. I talked of our management o

won't do for the House,' he said. 'Revile the House to t

to excuse my abs

omise, so long a

n's ability to do things, I was in the seat of a better man. External sarcasms upon the House, flavoured wi

as though the sitting had exhausted every personal sentiment, I became filled with his; under totally

moaning at the prospect of an extreme a

me were abroad. Supposing the squire disinherited me, could I stand? An extraordinary appetite for wealth, a novel appreciation of it -which was, in truth, a voluntary enlistment into the army of mankind, and the adoption of its passions-pricked me with an intensity of hope and dread concerning my

mple's house informed me that 'the men' were upon them. If so, they were the forerunners of a horde, and

void falling. The report of the debates in morning papers-doubtless, more flowing and, perhaps, more grammatical than such as I

ly told her of my troubles. She had heard Mr. Hipperdon express his confident opinion that he should oust me from my seat. Her indignation was at my service as a loan: it sprang up fiercely and spontaneously in allusions to something relating to my father, of which the Marquis of Edbury had been guilty. 'How you can bear it!' she exclaimed, for I was not wordy. The exclamation, however, stung me to put pen to paper-the woman was not so remote in me as not to be roused by the woman. I wrote to Edbury, and to Heriot, bidding him call on the young nobleman. Late a

ed in a day: I was quite incredulous of downright good fortune. He had been giving a dinner followed by a concert, and the deafening strains of the

?' sa

cise, but repeated that

an said. 'Why weren't you here to dine? Alphonse will never beat his achievement of to-day. Jenny and Carigny gave us a quarter-of-an-hour before dinner-a capital i

ioned h

an't be a doubt about i

ond has wo

hassediane before dinner. I saw that Eckart was comfortably seated, and telling Jorian to provide for him in the matter of tobacco, I went

them so far!' His mind was pre-occupied, he informed me, concerning the defence of a lady much intrigued against, and resuming the subject: 'Yes, we have beaten them up to a point, Richie. And

has this money been paid?' The idea struc

t, I know as little as you, Richie, though indubitably I hoped to intimidate them. If,' he added, with a countenance perfectly s

y is useful to you,

thousand pound

ion was atta

n was implied: but of that I

can't have come from th

else?'

ntic female admirers. But the largeness of the amount, and the channel selected for the payment, preclude

ction of Providence in his favour, and was bold enough to speak of a star, which his natural acu

oney over to me

itation, my dear boy,' h

you have rece

nds to my account on a proviso that I should-neglect, is the better word, my Case. I inherited from him at his death; of course his demise canc

pulation you presume

to be cognizant of it. Abandon my claims for a few thou

s should forthwith be stopped. They offered no opinion of their own. Suggestions of any kind, they seemed to think, had weight, and all of them an equal weight, to conclude from the value they assigned to every idea of mine. The name of the solicitor in question was Charles Adolphus Bannerbridge. It was, indeed, my old, one of my oldest friends; the same by whom I had been led to a feast and an evening of fun when a little fellow starting in the London streets. Sure of learning the whole truth from old Mr. Bannerbridge, I walked to his office and heard

he inclined to think, and should be supposed to come from a personage having cause either to fear him or to assist him. He set my speculations astray by hinting that the request for the stopping of the case might be a blind. A gift of money, he said shrewdly, was a singularly weak method of inducing a man to stop the suit of a life-time. I thought of Lady Edbury; but her income was limited, and her expenditure was not of Lady Sample

Possibly one of the dozen unknown episodes in it

restless spirit of investigation. Letters from the squire and my aunt Dorothy urged m

. Do not let it be encroached on. Remember it is to serve one purpose. It should

said 'I shall not break my word. Please to come

as the da

randfather, I knew, was too sincerely and punctiliously a gentleman in practical conduct to demand a further inspection of my accounts. These things accomplished, I took the tra

ITOR'S B

riful shuttleco

future is in our

es. At least it al

up to one of his

d, and could not

man to deny what ap

smallpox of

of one's feel

he more I dare,

ull of personal r