Captain Lake did look in at the Lodge in the morning, and remained an hour in conference with Mr. Jos. Larkin. I suppose everything went off pleasantly. For although Stanley Lake looked very pale and vicious as he walked down to the iron gate of the Lodge among the evergreens and bass-mats, the good attorney’s countenance shone with a serene and heavenly light, so pure and bright, indeed, that I almost wonder his dazzled servants, sitting along the wall while he read and expounded that morning, did not respectfully petition that a veil, after the manner of Moses, might be suspended over the seraphic effulgence.
Somehow his ‘Times’ did not interest him at breakfast; these parliamentary wrangles, commercial speculations, and foreign disputes, are they not, after all, but melancholy and dreary records of the merest worldliness; and are there not moments when they become almost insipid? Jos. Larkin tossed the paper upon the sofa. French politics, relations with Russia, commercial treaties, party combinations, how men can so wrap themselves up in these things!
And he smiled ineffable pity over the crumpled newspaper — on the poor souls in that sort of worldly limbo. In which frame of mind he took from his coat pocket a copy of Captain Lake’s marriage settlement, and read over again a covenant on the captain’s part that, with respect to this particular estate of Five Oaks, he would do no act, and execute no agreement, deed, or other instrument whatsoever, in any wise affecting the same, without the consent in writing of the said Dorcas Brandon; and a second covenant binding him and the trustees of the settlement against executing any deed, &c., without a similar consent; and especially directing, that in the event of alienating the estate, the said Dorcas must be made an assenting party to the deed.
He folded the deed, and replaced it in his pocket with a peaceful smile and closed eyes, murmuring —
‘I’m much mistaken if the gray mare’s the better horse in that stud.’
He laughed gently, thinking of the captain’s formidable and unscrupulous nature, exhibitions of which he could not fail to remember.
‘No, no, Miss Dorkie won’t give us much trouble.’
He used to call her ‘Miss Dorkie,’ playfully to his clerks. It gave him consideration, he fancied. And now with this Five Oaks to begin with —￡1,400 a year — a great capability, immensely improvable, he would stake half he’s worth on making it more than ￡2,000 within five years; and with other things at his back, an able man like him might before long look as high as she. And visions of the grand jury rose dim and splendid — an heiress and a seat for the county; perhaps he and Lake might go in together, though he’d rather be associated with the Hon. James Cluttworth, or young Lord Griddlestone. Lake, you see, wanted weight, and, nothwithstanding his connections, was, it could not be denied, a new man in the county.
So Wylder, Lake, and Jos. Larkin had each projected for himself, pretty much the same career; and probably each saw glimmering in the horizon the golden round of a coronet. And I suppose other modest men are not always proof against similar flatteries of imagination.
Jos. Larkin had also the vicar’s business and reversion to attend to. The Rev. William Wylder had a letter containing three lines from him at eight o’clock, to which he sent an answer, whereupon the solicitor despatched a special messenger, one of his clerks to Dollington, with a letter to the sheriff’s deputy, from whom he received duly a reply, which necessitated a second letter with a formal undertaking, to which came another reply; whereupon he wrote to Burlington, Smith, and Co., acquainting them respectfully, in diplomatic fashion, with the attitude which affairs had assumed.
With this went a private and confidential, non-official, note to Smith, desiring him to answer stiffly and press for an immediate settlement, and to charge costs fairly, as Mr. William Wylder would have ample funds to liquidate them. Smith knew what fairly meant, and his entries went down accordingly. By the same post went up to the same firm a proposition — an afterthought — sanctioned by a second miniature correspondence with his client, now sailing before the wind, to guarantee them against loss consequent against staying the execution in the sheriff’s hands for a fortnight, which, if they agreed to, they were further requested to send a draft of the proposed undertaking by return, at foot of which, in pencil, he wrote, ‘N.B. — Yes.’
This arrangement necessitated his providing himself with a guarantee from the vicar; and so the little account as between the vicar and Jos. Larkin, solicitor, and the vicar and Messrs. Burlington, Smith, and Co., solicitors, grew up and expanded with a tropical luxuriance.
About the same time — while Mr. Jos. Larkin, I mean, was thinking over Miss Dorkie’s share in the deed, with a complacent sort of interest, anticipating a struggle, but sure of victory — that beautiful young lady was walking slowly from flower to flower, in the splendid conservatory which projects southward from the house, and rears itself in glacial arches high over the short sward and flowery patterns of the outer garden of Brandon. The unspeakable sadness of wounded pride was on her beautiful features, and there was a fondness in the gesture with which she laid her fingers on these exotics and stooped over them, which gave to her solitude a sentiment of the pathetic.
From the high glass doorway, communicating with the drawing-rooms, at the far end, among towering ranks of rare and gorgeous flowers, over the encaustic tiles, and through this atmosphere of perfume, did Captain Stanley Lake, in his shooting coat, glide, smiling, toward his beautiful young wife.
She heard the door close, and looking half over her shoulder, in a low tone indicating surprise, she merely said:
‘Oh!’ receiving him with a proud sad look.
‘Yes, Dorkie, I’m here at last. I’ve been for some weeks so insufferably busy,’ and he laid his white hand lightly over his eyes, as if they and the brain within were alike weary.
‘How charming this place is — the temple of Flora, and you the divinity!’
And he kissed her cheek.
‘I’m now emancipated for, I hope, a week or two. I’ve been so stupid and inattentive. I’m sure, Dorkie, you must think me a brute. I’ve been shut up so in the library, and keeping such tiresome company — you’ve no idea; but I think you’ll say it was time well spent, at least I’m sure you’ll approve the result; and now that I have collected the facts, and can show you, darling, exactly what the chances are, you must consent to hear the long story, and when you have heard, give me your advice.’
Dorcas smiled, and only plucked a little flowery tendril from a plant that hung in a natural festoon above her.
‘I assure you, darling, I am serious; you must not look so incredulous; and it is the more provoking, because I love you so. I think I have a right to your advice, Dorkie.’
‘Why don’t you ask Rachel, she’s cleverer than I, and you are more in the habit of consulting her?’
‘Now, Dorkie is going to talk her wicked nonsense over again, as if I had never answered it. What about Radie? I do assure you, so far from taking her advice, and thinking her an oracle, as you suppose, I believe her in some respects very little removed from a fool.’
‘I think her very clever, on the contrary,’ said Dorcas, enigmatically.
‘Well, she is clever in some respects; she is gay, at least she used to be, before she fell into that transcendental parson’s hands — I mean poor dear William Wylder; and she can be amusing, and talks very well, but she has no sense — she is utterly Quixotic — she is no more capable of advising than a child.’
‘I should not have fancied that, although you say so, Stanley.’ she answered carelessly, adding a geranium to her bouquet.
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