Presently the room-door opened, and the young man entered; to whom his father gently waved his hand, and smiled.
“Are you at leisure for a little conversation, sir?” said Edward.
“Surely, Ned. I am always at leisure. You know my constitution.—Have you breakfasted?”
“Three hours ago.”
“What a very early dog!” cried his father, contemplating him from behind the toothpick, with a languid smile.
“The truth is,” said Edward, bringing a chair forward, and seating himself near the table, “that I slept but ill last night, and was glad to rise. The cause of my uneasiness cannot but be known to you, sir; and it is upon that I wish to speak.”
“My dear boy,” returned his father, “confide in me, I beg. But you know my constitution—don't be prosy, Ned.”
“I will be plain, and brief,” said Edward.
“Don't say you will, my good fellow,” returned his father, crossing his legs, “or you certainly will not. You are going to tell me'—
“Plainly this, then,” said the son, with an air of great concern, “that I know where you were last night—from being on the spot, indeed—and whom you saw, and what your purpose was.”
“You don't say so!” cried his father. “I am delighted to hear it. It saves us the worry, and terrible wear and tear of a long explanation, and is a great relief for both. At the very house! Why didn't you come up? I should have been charmed to see you.”
“I knew that what I had to say would be better said after a night's reflection, when both of us were cool,” returned the son.
“'Fore Gad, Ned,” rejoined the father, “I was cool enough last night. That detestable Maypole! By some infernal contrivance of the builder, it holds the wind, and keeps it fresh. You remember the sharp east wind that blew so hard five weeks ago? I give you my honour it was rampant in that old house last night, though out of doors there was a dead calm. But you were saying'—
“I was about to say, Heaven knows how seriously and earnestly, that you have made me wretched, sir. Will you hear me gravely for a moment?”
“My dear Ned,” said his father, “I will hear you with the patience of an anchorite. Oblige me with the milk.”
“I saw Miss Haredale last night,” Edward resumed, when he had complied with this request; “her uncle, in her presence, immediately after your interview, and, as of course I know, in consequence of it, forbade me the house, and, with circumstances of indignity which are of your creation I am sure, commanded me to leave it on the instant.”
“For his manner of doing so, I give you my honour, Ned, I am not accountable,” said his father. “That you must excuse. He is a mere boor, a log, a brute, with no address in life. —Positively a fly in the jug. The first I have seen this year.”
Edward rose, and paced the room. His imperturbable parent sipped his tea.
“Father,” said the young man, stopping at length before him, “we must not trifle in this matter. We must not deceive each other, or ourselves. Let me pursue the manly open part I wish to take, and do not repel me by this unkind indifference.”
“Whether I am indifferent or no,” returned the other, “I leave you, my dear boy, to judge. A ride of twenty-five or thirty miles, through miry roads—a Maypole dinner—a tete-a-tete with Haredale, which, vanity apart, was quite a Valentine and Orson business—a Maypole bed—a Maypole landlord, and a Maypole retinue of idiots and centaurs;—whether the voluntary endurance of these things looks like indifference, dear Ned, or like the excessive anxiety, and devotion, and all that sort of thing, of a parent, you shall determine for yourself.”
“I wish you to consider, sir,” said Edward, “in what a cruel situation I am placed. Loving Miss Haredale as I do'—
“My dear fellow,” interrupted his father with a compassionate smile, “you do nothing of the kind. You don't know anything about it. There's no such thing, I assure you. Now, do take my word for it. You have good sense, Ned,—great good sense. I wonder you should be guilty of such amazing absurdities. You really surprise me.”
“I repeat,” said his son firmly, “that I love her. You have interposed to part us, and have, to the extent I have just now told you of, succeeded. May I induce you, sir, in time, to think more favourably of our attachment, or is it your intention and your fixed design to hold us asunder if you can?”
“My dear Ned,” returned his father, taking a pinch of snuff and pushing his box towards him, “that is my purpose most undoubtedly.”
“The time that has elapsed,” rejoined his son, “since I began to know her worth, has flown in such a dream that until now I have hardly once paused to reflect upon my true position. What is it? From my childhood I have been accustomed to luxury and idleness, and have been bred as though my fortune were large, and my expectations almost without a limit. The idea of wealth has been familiarised to me from my cradle. I have been taught to look upon those means, by which men raise themselves to riches and distinction, as being beyond my heeding, and beneath my care. I have been, as the phrase is, liberally educated, and am fit for nothing. I find myself at last wholly dependent upon you, with no resource but in your favour. In this momentous question of my life we do not, and it would seem we never can, agree. I have shrunk instinctively alike from those to whom you have urged me to pay court, and from the motives of interest and gain which have rendered them in your eyes visible objects for my suit. If there never has been thus much plain-speaking between us before, sir, the fault has not been mine, indeed. If I seem to speak too plainly now, it is, believe me father, in the hope that there may be a franker spirit, a worthier reliance, and a kinder confidence between us in time to come.”
“My good fellow,” said his smiling father, “you quite affect me. Go on, my dear Edward, I beg. But remember your promise. There is great earnestness, vast candour, a manifest sincerity in all you say, but I fear I observe the faintest indications of a tendency to prose.”
“I am very sorry, sir.”
“I am very sorry, too, Ned, but you know that I cannot fix my mind for any long period upon one subject. If you'll come to the point at once, I'll imagine all that ought to go before, and conclude it said. Oblige me with the milk again. Listening, invariably makes me feverish.”
“What I would say then, tends to this,” said Edward. “I cannot bear this absolute dependence, sir, even upon you. Time has been lost and opportunity thrown away, but I am yet a young man, and may retrieve it. Will you give me the means of devoting such abilities and energies as I possess, to some worthy pursuit? Will you let me try to make for myself an honourable path in life? For any term you please to name—say for five years if you will—I will pledge myself to move no further in the matter of our difference without your fall concurrence. During that period, I will endeavour earnestly and patiently, if ever man did, to open some prospect for myself, and free you from the burden you fear I should become if I married one whose worth and beauty are her chief endowments. Will you do this, sir? At the expiration of the term we agree upon, let us discuss this subject again. Till then, unless it is revived by you, let it never be renewed between us.”
“My dear Ned,” returned his father, laying down the newspaper at which he had been glancing carelessly, and throwing himself back in the window-seat, “I believe you know how very much I dislike what are called family affairs, which are only fit for plebeian Christmas days, and have no manner of business with people of our condition. But as you are proceeding upon a mistake, Ned— altogether upon a mistake—I will conquer my repugnance to entering on such matters, and give you a perfectly plain and candid answer, if you will do me the favour to shut the door.”
Edward having obeyed him, he took an elegant little knife from his pocket, and paring his nails, continued:
“You have to thank me, Ned, for being of good family; for your mother, charming person as she was, and almost broken-hearted, and so forth, as she left me, when she was prematurely compelled to become immortal—had nothing to boast of in that respect.”