Page images
PDF
EPUB

L

-SO

been expected. This might be so; but yet, how dismaying and hopeless to him the idea of carrying it into effect! How, indeed, was it to be done? First of all, how were Messrs Runningtons' and Mr Parkinson's bills to be got rid of the former amounting to L.1670, 12s., the latter to L.756? And how were Mr Aubrey and his family to live in the meanwhile, and how, moreover, were to be met the expenses of his legal education? As was intimated in a former part of this history, all that Mr Aubrey had, on settling in London, was L.3000 stock (equal to L.2640 of money) and L.423 in his banker's hands ;that all his cash in hand was L.3063; and if he were to devote the whole of it to the discharge of the three attorneys' bills which he owed, he would still leave a gross balance unpaid of L.3310, 6s. 6d. And yet for him to talk of giving security for the payment of L.10,000 within eighteen months, and his own notes of hand for L. 10,000 more! It was really almost maddening to sit down and contemplate all this. But he could not fold his arms in impotence and despairhe must look his difficulties straight in the face, and do the best that was in his power. He resolved to devote every farthing he had, except L.200, to the liquidation of Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap's account, and (in smaller proportion) of those also of Messrs Runnington and Mr Parkinson: if necessary he resolved, though his heart thrilled with anguish at the thought, to sell his books, and the remnant of old family plate that he had preserved. Then he would strain every nerve to contribute towards the support of himself and of his family-poor oppressed soul !—by his literary exertions, in every moment that he could spare from his legal studies; and practise the severest economy that was consistent with health and the preservation of a respectable exterior.

He

resolved also, though with a shudder, to commit himself to Gammon and Titmouse's mercy, by handing to them (though a fearful farce it seemed) his two notes of hand for L. 10,000— payable on demand-for such Gammon intimated was usual in such a case, and would be required in the present one. But whither was he to look for security for the payment of L.10,000 within eighteen months' time? This

was a matter that indeed staggered him, and almost prostrated his energies whenever he directed them to the subject; it occasioned him inexpres< sible agitation and anguish. Individuals there were, he believed-he knew-who would cheerfully enter into the desired security on his behalf; but what a mockery — cruel and insulting! For them to be asked to secure his payment of the sum at the time mentioned, was, in effect, palpably asking them to pay the money for him, and in that light they could not but view such an application. The reader will easily understand the potency of such considerations upon so sensitive and high-minded a person as Aubrey. While revolving these distracting and harassing topics in his mind, the name of Lord de la Zouch always presented itself to him. Had he not solemnly-repeatedly-pledged himself to communicate with that kind and wealthy and generous nobleman, in such an emergency as the present? His lordship's income was at least eighty or a hundred thousand pounds a-year; his habits were simple and unostentatious, though he was of a truly munificent disposition; and he had not a large and expensive family-bis only child being Mr Delamere. He had ever professed, and, as far as he had hitherto had an opportunity, proved himself to be a devoted, a most affectionate friend to Mr Aubrey :-did not Providence, then, seem to point him out distinctly as one who should be applied to, to rescue from destruction a fallen friend? And why should Aubrey conjure up an array of ima ginary obstacles, arising out of excessive and morbid fastidiousness? And whom were such scruples reducing to destitution along with him?his wife, his children, his devoted and noble-minded sister! But, alas! the thought of sweet Kate suggested another source of exquisite pain and embarrassment to Aubrey, who well knew the ardent and inextinguishable passion for her entertained by young Delamere. 'Twas true that to pacify his father, and also not to grieve or harass Miss Aubrey by the constant attentions, with which he would have otherwise followed her, he had consented to devote himself with great assiduity and ardour to his last year's studies at Oxford; yet was he by no means an infrequent visiter at Vivian

Street, resolutely regardless of the earnest entreaties of Miss Aubrey, and even of her brother. Not that there was ever any thing indelicate or obtrusive in his attentions;-how could it be? Alas! Kate really loved him, and it required no very great acute ness in Delamere to discover it. He was as fine, handsome, a young fellow as you could see any where; frank, high-spirited, accomplished, with an exceedingly elegant deportment, and simple, winning manners-and could she but be touched with a lively sense of the noble disinterestedness of his attachment to her! I declare that Kate wrote him several letters in dissuasion of his addresses, that wore such a genuine and determined air of repulsion as would have staggered most men; but young Delamere cared not one straw for any of them: let Kate vary her tone as she pleased, he simply told her that he had sent them to his mother, who said they were very good letters indeed; so he would make a point of reading all she would send him, and so forth. When Kate, with too solemn an emphasis to be mistaken or encountered with raillery, assured him that nothing upon earth should prevail upon her to quit her present station in her brother's family, at all events until he had completely surmounted all his troubles, Delamere, with looks of fond admiration, would reply that it signified nothing, as he was prepared to wait her pleasure, and submit to any caprice or unkindness which her heart would let her exhibit. I must own that poor Kate was, on more than one occasion of his exhibiting traits of delicate generosity towards her brother, so moved and melted towards her lover, that she could-shall I say it?-have sunk into his arms in silent and passionate acquiescence; for her heart had, indeed, long been really his. Now, I say, when Mr Aubrey adverted for a moment to this state of things, was it not calculated a thousand-fold to enhance the difficulty of his applying to the father of Delamere? So indeed it was; and, torn with conflicting emotions and considerations of this kind, nearly the whole of the fortnight granted to him for deliberation had elapsed, before he could make up his mind to apply to Lord de la Zouch. At length, however, he determined to do so; and when he had

dropped into the Post-Office his letter

one in every line of which the noble and generous person to whom it was addressed might easily detect the writhings of its writer's wounded spirit and broken heart-he looked indeed a melancholy object. The instant that, by dropping his letter into the box, he had irrecoverably parted with all control over it, and to Lord de la Zouch it must go, Aubrey felt as if he would have given the world to recall it. Never had he heaved so many profound sighs, and felt so utterly miserable and destitute as during his walk homeward that afternoon. There they did not know of the step he had intended to take, nor did he tell them that he had taken it. When he saw his sister he felt sick at heart; and du ring the whole of the evening was so oppressed and subdued, that the faint anxious raillery of Mrs Aubrey and Kate, and the unconscious sportiveness of his children, served only to deepen the gloom that was around his spirit. He had requested Lord de la Zouch to address his answer to him at the Temple; and sure enough, by return of post, Mr Aubrey found lying on his desk, on reaching the Temple in the morning, a letter addressed," Charles Aubrey, Esq., at

Weasel's, Esq., No. 3, Pomegranate Court, Temple, London ;" and franked, “ DE LA ZOUCH."

"I shall return presently," said Mr Aubrey to the clerk, with as much calmness as he could assume, having put the letter into his pocket, resolving to go into the Temple gardens and there read it, where any emotion which it might excite would be unobserved. Having at length seated himself on a bench, under one of the old trees near the river, with a somewhat tremulous hand he took out and opened the letter, and read as follows:

"Fotheringham Castle, 18th July, 18-. "My very dear Aubrey,

"If If you really value my friendship, never pain my feelings again by expressions of distrust as to the issue of any application of yours to me, such as are contained in your letter now lying before me. Has any thing tha has ever hitherto passed between us justified them? For Heaven's sake tell your attorneys not to lose a moment in procuring the necessary in

struments, and forwarding them to me through Messrs Framlingham, my lawyers; I will then execute them immediately, and return them to you by the next post or mail. If you will but at once set about this in a business-like way, I will forgive and forget all the absurd and unkind scruples with which your letter abounds. Since you would probably make a mighty stir about it, I shall not at present dwell upon the inexpressible pleasure it would give me to be allowed to exonerate you at once from the vulgar and grasping wretches who are now harassing you, my very dear Aubrey, and to constitute myself your creditor instead of them. But, on further consideration, I suppose you would distress yourself on the ground of my restricted means rendering it so much more difficult for me than for them to give you time for the payment of your debt!! Or will you play the man, and act at once in the way in which, I assure you, upon my honour, I would act by you, on a similar solicitation, were our situations reversed? By the way, I intend to insist on be ing your sole surety; unless, indeed, your creditors doubt my solvency, in which case I hope we shall be able, amongst our common friends, to find a sufficient co-surety.

"And now, dear Aubrey, how get you on with law? Does she smile or scowl upon you? I wonder why you did not go to the fountain-head, and become at once a pupil to your friend, the Attorney-General. Who is the gentleman whom you are reading with? He certainly has rather a ourious name! Well, my dear Aubrey, Heaven in its own good time crown your virtuous efforts-your unconquerable resolution-with success! Won't it be odd if, when I am dead and gone, and my son is occupying my present place on the benches, you should be sitting on the woolsack? More unlikely things than this have come to pass: look at

! How are

dear Mrs Aubrey and Miss Aubrey, and your little ones? Though we are going in a fortnight's time to fill this old place, (the -8, the -s, and the -s, and others, are coming,) we shall be till then quite deserted, and so after they are gone. Would that we could insist on all of you taking up your abode with us! Have you seen Geoffrey lately? He tells me

that he is working very hard indeed at It is Oxford; and so says his tutor. more than ever I did. Pray write by return. I am ever, my dear Aubrey, yours, faithfully and affectionately, "DE LA ZOUCH.

"CHARLES AUBREY, Esq.

"P.S. On further consideration, let your people send the deeds, &c., at once on to me, direct from themselves; -'tis a private matter, which is of no consequence to any one but ourselves. No one, indeed, except ourselves, your own solicitors, and your opponents, need know any thing about it. Neither Lady de la Zouch nor my son will have the least inkling of the matter."

No language of mine can do justice to the feelings with which Mr Aubrey, after many pauses, occasioned by irrepressible emotion, perused the foregoing letter. Its generosity was infinitely enhanced by its delicacy; and both were most exquisitely appreciated by a man of his susceptibility, and in his circumstances. His eyes-his heart overflowed with unutterable gratitude towards the Almighty, and the noble instrument of his mercy. He would have flown on the wings of the wind to the dear beings in Vivian Street, with joyous face and light elastic step, to make them participators in his joy. He rose and walked to and fro by the river side with most exhilarated spirits. The sky was cloudless; the sun shone brilliantly; and innumerable brisk and busy craft were moving to and fro upon the swelling bosom of the magnificent Thames. Gladness was in his soul. The light without was typical of that within. Several times he was on the point of starting off to Vivian Street; but, on consideration, he resolved to ge to Messrs Runnington, and set them into instant communication with Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap; and matters having been set in train for the speediest possible settlement, Mr Aubrey returned to chambers, but quitted them an hour earlier than usual, to brighten the countenances of those he loved by the joyous intelligence he bore. But he found that they also had cheering news to communicate; so that this was indeed a memorable day to them.

Old Lady Stratton, an early and bosom friend of the late Mrs Aubrey,

had, it may easily be believed, never ceased to take a lively interest in the fortunes of the unhappy Aubreys. She was now far advanced in years; and though she enjoyed an ample income, derived from the liberality of her husband, Sir Beryl Stratton, Barouet, who had died some twenty or thirty years before; yet, having no children, and seeing no necessity for saving money, she had followed the noble example of her deceased friend Mrs Aubrey, and bestowed annually all her surplus income in the most liberal and systematic charity. Many years before, however, she had resolved upon making a provision for Miss Aubrey, whom she loved as if she had been her mother; and the expedient she had resorted to (quite unknown to the Aubreys) was to insure her life for the sum of L. 15,000, the whole of which sum she had intended to bequeath to Miss Aubrey. The premiums on so large an insurance as this were heavy annual drains upon her purse; and, together with her long-continued charities, and the expenditure necessary to support her station, left her but stinted means for contributing to the relief of the ruined Aubreys. With some difficulty, however, the old lady, in one way or another, principally by effecting a loan from the insurance company upon her policy, had contrived to raise a sum of L.2000; and Miss Aubrey had that morning received a letter from her, full of tenderness, begging her to present the sum in question (for which Lady Stratton had lodged a credit with her bankers in London) to her brother Mr Aubrey, to dispose of as he pleased-trusting that it might be effectual in relieving him from the difficulties which were more immediately pressing upon him. Never had they spent so happy an evening to gether since they had quitted Yatton. In the excitement of the hour, even Aubrey felt for a while as if they now saw their way through all their embarrassments and dangers. Can the reader imagine what must have been the feelings of Miss Aubrey when she first heard of, and afterwards reflected upon, the princely munificence of Lord de la Zouch? If he can, it is well-it is more than I am equal to describing. They kept her awake more than half the night; and when she appeared at breakfast, her bro

.

ther's quick eye detected in her countenance the traces of a severe conflict of feelings. With him also much of the excitement occasioned by the two occurrences above mentioned, had disappeared by the time that he took his seat in his little study at his usual early hour. First of all, he felt very uneasy in receiving so large a sum from Lady Stratton, whom he knew not to be rich-at all events, not rich enough to part with so considerable a sum without inconvenience; and he resolved not to accept of her proffered kindness, unless she would allow him to transmit to her his bond for the amount, together with interest. Surely this was an unnecessary step; yet where is the man who, on all occasions, acts precisely as a calm and reflecting observer of his conduct, long afterwards, could have wished him to act? One must make allowance for the feelings which prompted himthose of a highly honourable and independent and over-sensitive man, who felt himself oppressed already by the weight of pecuniary obligation which he had incurred, and sought for the semblance of relief to his feelings by receiving that as a loan only which had been nobly proffered as a gift; and thus, as it were, in point of fact destroying all the grace and courtesy of the benefaction; but it is useless discussing the matter. I regret that Mr Aubrey should have allowed himself to be influenced by such considerations but so it was-and poor old Lady Stratton was informed by him in a letter certainly abounding in expressions of heartfelt gratitude and affection, that he had availed himself of her generous assistance, but only on the terms of his being allowed to deposit his bond for the repayment of it, with interest, with her solicitors; earnestly trusting that, erelong, he should be enabled to fulfil his engagements to all who had assisted him.

This seasonable assistance enabled him to make the following arrangement for liquidating the sums due on account of the tremendous attorneys' bills:

Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap's
bill was,
L.3946 14 6
Messrs Runningtons',
Mr Parkinson's,

1670 12 0

756 0

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

As soon as he had made the foregoing statement on a slip of paper early in the morning in his study, he averted his eye from it for a moment with a sort of cold shudder. Were he to devote every farthing of assets that he had, he still could not come within L.1310 odd of his mere attorneys' bills. What was he to do? The result of a long and anxious morning's calculation and scheming was to appropriate L.4000 of his assets thus-(if he could prevail upon his creditors to be for the present content with it :)—

To Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and
Snap,
L.2500

Messrs Runnington,
Mr Parkinson,

1000 500

[blocks in formation]

Heavy was his heart at beholding this result of even the most favourable mode of putting his case: but he placed the memoranda in his pocketbook, and repaired to his dressingroom; and having completed his toi let, appeared at breakfast with as cheerful a countenance as he could assume. Each of the three assembled, perceived, however, that the others were striving to appear gay and happy. Suffice it to say, that within a week's time, Messrs Runnington received the necessary security from Lord de la Zouch, who had thereby bound himself in the penal sum of L.20,000 that Mr Aubrey should, on or before the 24th day of January 18-, (that is, in eighteen months' time from the date

of the bond,) pay the principal sum of L. 10,000, with interest at 5 per cent; and this instrument, together with Mr Aubrey's two promissory-notes for L.5000 each, and also cash to the amount of L.2500 in part payment of their bill, having been delivered to Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snapwho, after a great deal of reluctance on the part of Mr Quirk, finally con. sented to allow the balance of L.1446, 14s. 6d. to stand over-they delivered to him, first a receipt for so much on account of their own bill; and secondly, an instrument by which Tittlebat Titmouse, for the considerations therein expressed, did remise, release, and for ever quit claim, unto Charles Aubrey, his heirs, executors, and administrators, all other demands whatsoever, [i. e. other than the said sum of L.20,000.] By this arrangement, Mr Aubrey was absolutely exonerated from the sum of L.40,000, in which he stood indubitably indebted to Mr Titmouse, and so far he had just cause for congratulation. But was not his situation still one calculated to depress and alarm him more and more every time that he contemplated it? Where was he to find the sum requisite to release Lord de la Zouch from any part of his dreadful liability? For with such a surety in their power as that great and opulent peer, was it likely that Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, would be otherwise than peremptory and inflexible when the day of payment arrived? And if so, with what feelings must Mr Aubrey see his noble and generous friend called upon to pay down nearly L.11,000 for him? And was he not liable at any moment upon his own two notes for L.5000 each? And were they not likely to insist speedily on the discharge of their own serious balance of L.1446 odds? How likely that persons such as they and their client were represented to be, would, as soon as they decently could, proceed to extremities with him, in the confidence that the sight and the sound of his agonies would call in powerful and affluent friends to his assistance?

[blocks in formation]
« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »