If you heed my warning It will save you much.--A. A. PROCTOR.
Clement Underwood was so much better as to be arrived at taking solitaryrides and walks, these suiting him better than having companions, as heliked to go his own pace, and preferred silence. His sister had becomemuch engrossed with her painting, and saw likewise that in this matterof exercise it was better to let him go his own way, and he declaredthat this time of thought and reading was an immense help to him,restoring that balance of life which he seemed to himself to have lostin the whirl of duties at St. Matthew's after Felix's death.
The shore, with the fresh, monotonous plash of the waves, when the tideserved, was his favourite resort. He could stand still and look outover the expanse of ripples, or wander on, as he pleased, watching thesea-gulls float along--
"As though life's only call and care Were graceful motion."
There had been a somewhat noisy luncheon, for Edward Harewood, amidshipman in the Channel Fleet, which was hovering in the offing, hadcome over on a day's leave with Horner, a messmate whose parents livedin the town. He was a big lad, a year older than Gerald, and as soon asa little awe of Uncle Clement and Aunt Cherry had worn off, he showedhimself of the original Harewood type, directing himself chiefly to whathe meant to be teasing Gerald about Vale Leston and Penbeacon.
"All the grouse there were on the bit of moor are snapped up."
"Very likely," said Gerald coolly.
"Those precious surveyors and engineers that Walsh brings down can givean account of them! As soon as you come of age, you'll have to doubleyour staff of keepers, I can tell you."
"Guardians of ferae naturae," said Gerald.
"I thought your father did all that was required in that line," saidClement.
"Not since duffers and land-lubbers have been marauding overPenbeacon--aye, and elsewhere. What would you say to an engineerpoaching away one of the august house of Vanderkist?"
"The awful cad! I'd soon show him what I thought of his cheek," criedAdrian, with a flourish of his knife.
"Ha, ha! I bet that he will be shooting over Ironbeam Park long beforeyou are of age."
"I shall shoot him, then," cried Adrian.
"Not improbably there will be nothing else to shoot by that time,"quietly said Gerald.
"I shall have a keeper in every lodge, and bring up four or five hundredpheasants every year," boasted the little baronet, quite alive to thepride of possession, though he had never seen Ironbeam in his life.
Edward laughed a "Don't you wish you may get it," and the others, whoknew very well the futility of the poor boy's expectations, evenif Gerald's augury were not fulfilled, hastened to turn away theconversation to plans for the afternoon. Anna asked the visitor if hewould ride out with her and Gerald to Clipstone or to the moor, and wasrelieved when he declined, saying he had promised to meet Horner.
"You will come in to tea at five?" said his aunt, "and bring him if youlike."
"Thanks awfully, but we hardly can. We have to start from the quay atsix sharp."
All had gone their several ways, and Clement, after the heat of the day,was pacing towards a secluded cove out of an inner bay which lay nearerthan Anscombe Cove, but was not much frequented. However, he smelttobacco, and heard sounds of boyish glee, and presently saw Adrian andFergus Merrifield, bare-legged, digging in the mud.
"Ha! youngsters! Do you know the tide has turned? I thought you had hadenough of that."
"I thought I might find my aralia!" sighed Fergus. "The tide was almostas low."
Just then there resounded from behind a projecting rock a peal ofundesirable singing, a shout of laughter, and an oath, with--
"Holloa, those little beasts of teetotallers have hooked it."
There were confused cries--"Haul 'em back! Drench 'em. Give 'em a rollin the mud!" and Adrian shrank behind his uncle, taking hold of hiscoat, as there burst from behind the rock a party of boys, headed by thetwo cadets, all shouting loudly, till brought to a sudden standstill bythe sight of "Parson! By Jove!" as the Horner mid muttered, takingout his pipe, while Edward Harewood mumbled something about "Horner'sbrother's tuck-out." One or two other boys were picking up the remainsof the feast, which had been on lobsters, jam tarts, clotted cream,and the like delicacies dear to the juvenile mind. The two biggestschool-boys came forward, one voluble and thick of speech about Horner'stuck-out, and "I assure you, sir, it is nothing--not a taste. Neverthought of such--" Just then the other lad, staggering about, had almostlurched over into the deepening channel; but Clement caught him by thecollar and held him fast, demanding in a low voice, very terrible to hishearers--
"Where does this poor boy live?"
It was Adrian who answered.
"Devereux Buildings."
"You two, Adrian and Fergus, run to the quay and fetch a cab as nearthis place as it can come," said Clement. "You little fellows, you hadbetter run home at once. I hope you will take warning by the shame anddisgrace of this spectacle."
The boys were glad enough to disperse, being terrified by the conditionof the prisoner, as well as by the detection; but the two who wereencumbered with the baskets containing the bottles, jam-pots, and tinof cream remained, and so did the two young sailors, Horner sayingcivilly--
"You'll not be hard on the kids, sir, for just a spree carried a littletoo far."
"I certainly shall not be hard on the children, whom you seem to havetempted," was the answer as they moved along; and as the younger Hornerturned towards a little shop near the end of the steps to restore thegoods, he asked--"Were you supplied from hence?"
"Yes," said Horner, who was perhaps hardly sober enough for caution."Mother Butterfly is a jolly old soul."
Looking up. Clement saw no licence to sell spirituous liquors under thename of Sarah Schnetterling, tobacconist. The window had the placard'Ici on parle Francais', and was adorned in a tasteful manner withornamental pipes, fishing-rods and flies, jars of sweets, sheets offoreign stamps, pictorial advertisements of innocuous beverages. A womanwith black grizzling hair, fashionably dressed, flashing dark eyes, longgold ear-rings, gold beads and gaudy attire, came out to reclaim herproperty. A word or two passed about payment, during which Clement hada strange thrill of puzzled recollection. The bottles bore the labels ofraspberry vinegar and lemonade, but he had seen too much not to say--
"You drive a dangerous trade."
"Ah, sir, young people will be gourmands," she said, with a foreignaccent. "Ah, that poor young gentleman is very ill. Will he not come inand lie down to recover?"
"No, thank you," said Clement. "A carriage is coming to take him home."
Something about the fat in the fire was passing between the cadets, andthe younger of them began to repeat that he had come for his brother'sbirthday, and that he feared they had brought the youngsters into ascrape by carrying the joke too far.
"I have nothing to say to you, sir," said the Vicar of St. Matthew's,looking very majestic, "except that it is time you were returning toyour ship. As to you," turning to Edward Harewood, "I can only say thatif you are aware of the peculiar circumstances of Adrian Vanderkist,your conduct can only be called fiendish."
Fergus and Adrian came running up with tidings that the cab was waiting.Edward Harewood stood sullen, but the other lad said--
"Unlucky. We are sorry to have got the little fellows into trouble."
He held out his hand, and Clement did not refuse it, as he did that ofhis own nephew. Still, there was a certain satisfaction at his heart ashe beheld the clear, honest young faces of the other two boys, and hebade Adrian run home and wait for him, saying to Fergus--
"You seem to have been a good friend to my little nephew. Thank you."
Fergus coloured up, speechless between pleasure at the warm tone ofcommendation and the obligations of school-boy honour, nor, with youngCampbell on their hands, was there space for questions. That youthsubsided into a heavy doze in the cab, and so continued till the arrivalat No. 7, Devereux Buildings,
where a capable-looking maid-servantopened the door, and he was deposited into her hands, the Vicar leavinghis card with his present address, but feeling equal to nothing more,and hardly able to speak.
He drove home, finding his nephew in the doorway. Signing to the maid topay the driver, and to the boy to follow him, he reached his study, andsank into his easy-chair, Adrian opening frightened eyes and saying--
"I'll call Sibby."
"No--that bottle--drop to there," signing to the mark on the glass withhis nail.
After a pause, while he held fast the boy, so to speak, with his eyes,he said--
"Thank you, dear lad."
"Uncle Clement," said Adrian then, "we weren't doing anything.Merrifield thought his old bit of auralia, or whatever he calls it, wasthere."
"I saw--I saw, my boy. To find you--as you were, made me most thankful.You must have resisted. Tell me, were you of this party, or did you comeon them by accident?"
"Horner asked me," said Adrian, twisting from one leg to another.
Clement saw the crisis was come which he had long expected, and rejoicedat the form it had taken, though he knew he should suffer from pursuingthe subject.
"Adrian," he said, "I am much pleased with you. I don't want to get youinto a row, but I should be much obliged if you would tell me how allthis happened."
"It wouldn't," returned Adrian, "but for that Ted and the other chap."
"Do you mean that there would have been none of this--drinking--but forthem? Don't be afraid to tell me all. Was the stuff all got from thatMrs. Schnetter--?"
"Mother Butterfly's? Oh yes. She keeps bottles of grog with thoselabels, and it is such a lark for her to be even with the gangers thatour fellows generally get some after cricket, or for a tuck-out."
"Not Fergus Merrifield?"
"Oh no; he's captain, you know, but he is two years younger thanCampbell and Horner, and they can't bear him, and when he made a jawabout it--he can jaw awfully, you know--and he is stuck up, and Hornermajor swore he would make him know his bearings--"
"I wonder he was there at all."
"Well, Horner asked him, and he can't get those fossils that were lostout of his head, and he thought they might be washed up. He said too, heknew they would be up to something if he wasn't there."
"Oh!" said Clement, with an odd recollection, "but I suppose he did notknow about these cadets?"
"No, the big Horner sent up to Mother Butterfly's for some more stuff,not so mild, and then Ted set upon me, and said it was all because of methat Vale Leston had to live like a boiling of teetotal frogs and toads,just to please the little baronet's lady mamma, but I was a Dutchmanall the same, and should sell them yet--I sucked it in so well, and theytalked of seeing how much I could stand. Something about my governor,and here--that word in the Catechism."
"Ah!" gasped Clement, fairly clutching his arm, "and what spared you?"
"Horner came down, and Sweetie Bob, that's the errand-boy, and there wasa bother about the money, for Bob wasn't to leave anything without beingpaid, and while they were jawing about that, Merry laid hold of me andsaid, 'Come and look for the aralia.' They got to shouting and singing,and I don't think they saw what was doing. They were nasty songs, andMerry touched me and said, 'Let us go after the aralia.' We got awaywithout their missing us at first, but they ran after us when they foundit out, and if you had not been there, Uncle Clem--"
"Thank God I was! Now, Adrian, first tell me, did you taste this stuff?You said you sucked it in."
"Well, I did, a little. You know, uncle, one cannot always be made ababy. Women don't understand, you know, and don't know what a fool itmakes a man to have them always after him, and have everything put outof his way like a precious infant, and people drinking it on the slylike Gerald, or--"
"Or me, eh, Adrian? I can tell you that I never tasted it for thirtyyears, and now only as a medicine. Lance, never."
"But they did not treat you like a baby, and never let you see so muchas a glass of beer."
"Well, I am going to treat you like a man, but it is a sorrowful historythat I have to tell you. You know that your mother and Aunt Wilmet aretwin sisters?"
"Oh yes, though Aunt Wilmet is stout and jolly, and mother ever so muchprettier and more delicate and nice."
"Yes, from ill-health. She is never free from suffering."
"I know. Old Dr. May said there was no help for it."
"Do you know what caused that ill-health? My boy, they spoke of yourfather to-day--brutes that they were," he could not help muttering.
"Yes, he died when I was a week old."
"He had ruined himself when quite a young man, body, soul, andestate--and you too, beforehand, in estate, and broken your mother'sheart and health by being given up to that miserable habit from which wewant to save you."
"I thought it was only poor men that got drunk and beat their wives"(more knowledge, by the bye, than he was supposed to possess). "He didnot beat her?"
"Oh no, no," said Clement, "but he as surely destroyed all herhappiness, and made you and your sisters very poor for your station inlife, so that it is really hard to educate you, and you will have towork for yourself and them. And at only thirty-six years old his lifewas cut off."
"Was that what D. T. meant? I heard Ted whisper something about that."
"It was well," thought Clement, "that he had grace enough to whisper.Yes, my poor boy, it is only too true. I was sent for to find yourfather dying of delirium tremens--you just born, your mother nearlydead, the desolation of your sisters unspeakable. He was onlythirty-six, and that vice, together with racing, had devoured him andall the property that should have come to his children. I think he triedto repent at the very last, but there was little time, little power,only he put you and your sisters in my charge, and begged me to save youfrom being like him."
"Did they mean that I was sure to be like that? Like a pointer puppy,pointing."
"They meant it. And, Adrian, it is so far true that there is aninheritance--with some more, with some less--of our forefathers' nature.Some have tendencies harder to repress than others. But, my dear boy,you know that we all have had a force given us wherewith to repress andconquer those tendencies, and that we can."
"When we were baptized, God the Holy Spirit," said Adrian, under hisbreath.
"You know it, you can believe now. Your uncle Lance and I prayed thatthe old nature might be put down, the new raised up. We pray, yourmother and sisters have prayed ever since, that so it may be, that youmay conquer any evil tendencies that may be in you; but, Adrian, no onecan save you from the outside if you do not strive yourself. Now you seewhy your poor mother has been so anxious to keep all temptation out ofyour reach."
"But I'm growing a man now. I can't always go on so."
"No, you can't. You shall be treated as a man while you are with me.But I do very seriously advise you--nay, I entreat of you, not to begintaking any kind of liquor, for it would incite the taste to grow uponyou, till it might become uncontrollable, and be your tyrant. If youhave reason to think the pledge would be a protection to you, come tome, or to Uncle Bill."
He was interrupted by Sibby coming in with his cup of tea, and--
"Now, Mr. Clement, whatever have you been after now? Up to yourantics the minute Miss Cherry is out of the way. Aye, ye needn't goto palavering me. I hear it in your breath," and she darted at thestimulant.
"I've had some, Sibby, since I came in."
"More reason you should have it now. Get off with you, Sir Adrian, don'tbe worriting him. Now, drink that, sir, and don't speak another word."
He was glad to obey. He wanted to think, in much thankfulness for thepresent, and in faith and love which brought hope for the future.
CHAPTER XV. -- A POOR FOREIGN WIDOW