in the old oak dining-room, where the above colloquy took place, hung a series of family portraits. one was of a lovely girl with oval face, olive complexion, and large dark tender eyes: and this was the gem of the whole collection; but it conferred little pleasure on the spectator, owing to a trivial circumstance—it was turned with its face to the wall; and all that met the inquiring eye was an inscription on the canvas, not intended to be laudatory.
this beauty, with her back to creation, was edith raby, guy's sister.
during their father's lifetime she was petted and allowed her own way. hillsborough, odious to her brother, was, naturally, very attractive to her, and she often rode into the town to shop and chat with her friends, and often stayed a day or two in it, especially with a mrs. manton, wife of a wealthy manufacturer.
guy merely sneered at her, her friends, and her tastes, till he suddenly discovered that she had formed an attachment to one of the obnoxious class, mr. james little, a great contract builder. he was too shocked at first to vent his anger. he turned pale, and could hardly speak; and the poor girl's bosom began to quake.
but guy's opposition went no further than cold aversion to the intimacy—until his father died. then, though but a year older than edith, he assumed authority and, as head of the house, forbade the connection. at the same time he told her he should not object, under the circumstances, to her marrying dr. amboyne, a rising physician, and a man of good family, who loved her sincerely, and had shown his love plainly before ever mr. little was heard of.
edith tried to soften her brother; but he was resolute, and said raby hall should never be an appendage to a workshop. sooner than that, he would settle it on his cousin richard, a gentleman he abhorred, and never called, either to his face or behind his back, by any other name than “dissolute dick.”
then edith became very unhappy, and temporized more or less, till her lover, who had shown considerable forbearance, lost patience at last, and said she must either have no spirit, or no true affection for him.
then came a month or two of misery, the tender clinging nature of the girl being averse to detach itself from either of these two persons. she loved them both with an affection she could have so easily reconciled, if they would only have allowed her.
and it all ended according to nature. she came of age, plucked up a spirit, and married mr. james little.
her brother declined to be present at the wedding; but, as soon as she returned from her tour, and settled in hillsborough, he sent his groom with a cold, civil note, reminding her that their father had settled nineteen hundred pounds on her, for her separate use, with remainder to her children, if any; that he and mr. graham were the trustees of this small fund; that they had invested it, according to the provisions of the settlement, in a first mortgage on land; and informing her that half a year's interest at 4 12 per cent was due, which it was his duty to pay into her own hand and no other person's; she would therefore oblige him by receiving the inclosed check, and signing the inclosed receipt.
the receipt came back signed, and with it a few gentle lines, “hoping that, in time, he would forgive her, and bestow on her what she needed and valued more than money; her own brother's, her only brother's affection.”
on receiving this, his eyes were suddenly moist, and he actually groaned. “a lady, every inch!” he said; “yet she has gone and married a bricklayer.”
well, blood is thicker than water, and in a few years they were pretty good friends again, though they saw but little of one another, meeting only in hillsborough, which guy hated, and never drove into now without what he called his antidotes: a bible and a bottle of lavender-water. it was his humor to read the one, and sprinkle the other, as soon as ever he got within the circle of the smoky trades.
when edith's little boy was nine years old, and much admired for his quickness and love of learning, and of making walking-stick heads and ladies' work-boxes, mr. little's prosperity received a severe check, and through his own fault. he speculated largely in building villas, overdid the market, and got crippled. he had contracts uncompleted, and was liable to penalties; and at last saw himself the nominal possessor of a brick wilderness, but on the verge of ruin for want of cash.
he tried every other resource first; but at last he came to his wife, to borrow her l1900. the security he offered was a mortgage on twelve carcasses, or houses the bare walls and roofs of which were built.
mrs. little wrote at once to mr. raby for her money.
instead of lending the trust-money hastily, raby submitted the proposal to his solicitor, and that gentleman soon discovered the vaunted security was a second mortgage, with interest overdue on the first; and so he told guy, who then merely remarked, “i expected as much. when had a tradesman any sense of honor in money matters? this one would cheat his very wife and child.”
he declined the proposal, in two words, “rotten security!”
then mr. james little found another security that looked very plausible, and primed his wife with arguments, and she implored guy to call and talk it over with them both.
he came that very afternoon, and brought his father's will.
then edith offered the security, and tried to convey to the trustee her full belief that it was undeniable.
guy picked terrible holes in it, and read their father's will, confining the funds to consols, or a first mortgage on land. “you take the money on these conditions: it is almost as improper of you to wish to evade them, as it would be of me to assist you. and then there is your child; i am hound in honor not to risk his little fortune. see, here's my signature to that.”
“my child!” cried edith. “when he comes of age, i'll go on my knees to him and say, 'my darling, i borrowed your money to save your father's credit.' and my darling will throw his arms round me, and forgive me.”
“simpleton!” said guy. “and how about your daughters and their husbands? and their husbands' solicitors? will they throw their arms round your neck, and break forth into twaddle? no! i have made inquiries. your husband's affairs are desperate. i won't throw your money into his well; and you will both live to thank me for seeing clearer than you do, and saving this l1900 for you and yours.”
james little had writhed in his chair for some time: he now cried out wildly,
“edith, you shall demean yourself no more. he always hated me: and now let him have his will, and seal my dishonor and my ruin. oblige me by leaving my house, mr. raby.”
“oh, no, james!” cried edith, trembling, and shocked at this affront. but guy rose like a tower. “i've noticed this trait in all tradespeople,” said he grimly. “they are obsequious to a gentleman so long as they hope to get the better of him; but, the moment they find it is impossible to overreach him, they insult him.” and with this he stalked out of the house.
“oh, my poor james, how could you?” said edith.
“forgive me,” said he, quietly. “it is all over. that was our last chance.”
guy raby walked down the street, stung to the quick. he went straight to his solicitor and arranged to borrow l1900 on his own property. “for,” said he, “i'll show them both how little a snob can understand a gentleman. i won't tamper with her son's money, but i'll give her my own to throw into his well. confound him! why did she ever marry him?”
when the business was virtually settled, he came back to the house in great haste.
meantime mr. james little went up to his dressing-room, as usual, to dress for dinner; but he remained there so long that, at last, mrs. little sent her maid to tell him dinner was ready.
the girl had hardly reached the top of the stairs, when she gave a terrible scream that rang through the whole house.
mrs. little rushed upstairs, and found her clinging to the balusters, and pointing at the floor, with eyes protruding and full of horror. her candle-stick had fallen from her benumbed hand; but the hall-lamp revealed what her finger was quivering and pointing at: a dark fluid trickling slowly out into the lobby from beneath the bedroom door.
it was blood.
the room was burst into, and the wretched, tottering wife, hanging upon her sobbing servants, found her lover, her husband, her child's father, lying on the floor, dead by his own hand; stone dead. a terrible sight for strangers to see; but for her, what words can even shadow the horror of it!
i drop the veil on her wild bursts of agony, and piteous appeals to him who could not hear her cries.
the gaping wound that let out that precious life, her eye never ceased to see it, nor her own heart to bleed with it, while she lived.
she was gently dragged away, and supported down to another room. doctor amboyne came and did what he could for her; and that was—nothing.
at this time she seemed stupefied. but when guy came beaming into the room to tell her he had got her the money, a terrible scene occurred. the bereaved wife uttered a miserable scream at sight of him, and swooned away directly.
the maids gathered round her, laid her down, and cut her stays, and told guy the terrible tidings, in broken whispers, over her insensible body.
he rose to his feet horrified. he began to gasp and sob. and he yearned to say something to comfort her. at that moment his house, his heart, and all he had, were hers.
but, as soon as she came to herself, and caught sight of him, she screamed out, “oh, the sight of him! the sight of him!” and swooned away again.
then the women pushed him out of the room, and he went away with uneven steps, and sick at heart.
he shut himself up in raby hall, and felt very sad and remorseful. he directed his solicitor to render mrs. little every assistance, and supply her with funds. but these good offices were respectfully declined by mr. joseph little, the brother of the deceased, who had come from birmingham to conduct the funeral and settle other matters.
mr. joseph little was known to be a small master-cutler, who had risen from a workman, and even now put blades and handles together with his own hands, at odd times, though he had long ceased to forge or grind.
mr. raby drew in haughtily at this interference.
it soon transpired that mr. james little had died hopelessly insolvent, and the l1900 would really have been ingulfed.
raby waited for this fact to sink into his sister's mind; and then one day nature tugged so at his heart-strings, that he dashed off a warm letter beginning—“my poor edith, let bygones be bygones,” and inviting her and her boy to live with him at raby hall.
the heart-broken widow sent back a reply, in a handwriting scarcely recognizable as hers. instead of her usual precise and delicate hand, the letters were large, tremulous, and straggling, and the lines slanted downward.
“write to me, speak to me, no more. for pity's sake let me forget there is a man in the world who is my brother and his murderer.
“edith.”
guy opened this letter with a hopeful face, and turned pale as ashes at the contents.
but his conscience was clear, and his spirit high. “unjust idiot!” he muttered, and locked her letter up in his desk.
next morning he received a letter from joseph little, in a clear, stiff, perpendicular writing:
“sir,—i find my sister-in-law wrote you, yesterday, a harsh letter, which i do not approve; and have told her as much. deceased's affairs were irretrievable, and i blame no other man for his rash act, which may god forgive! as to your kind and generous invitation, it deserves her gratitude; but mrs. little and myself have mingled our tears together over my poor brother's grave, and now we do not care to part. before your esteemed favor came to hand, it had been settled she should leave this sad neighborhood and keep my house at birmingham, where she will meet with due respect. i am only a small tradesman; but i can pay my debts, and keep the pot boiling. will teach the boy some good trade, and make him a useful member of society, if i am spared.
“i am, sir, yours respectfully,
“joseph little.”
“sir,—i beg to acknowledge, with thanks, your respectable letter.
“as all direct communication between mrs. james little and myself is at an end, oblige me with your address in birmingham, that i may remit to you, half-yearly, as her agent, the small sum that has escaped bricks and mortar.
“when her son comes of age, she will probably forgive me for declining to defraud him of his patrimony.
“but it will be too late; for i shall never forgive her, alive or dead.
“i am, sir, your obedient servant,
“guy raby.”
when he had posted this letter he turned edith's picture to the wall, and wrote on the canvas—
“gone into trade.”
he sent for his attorney, made a new will, and bequeathed his land, houses, goods, and chattels, to dissolute dick and his heirs forever.
