"Henry," said the Master, with a formidable quietness, and drawing at the same time somewhat back - "Henry, I had the honour to address you.""Let us be stepping homeward," says my lord to me, who was plucking at his sleeve; and with that he rose, stretched himself, settled his hat, and still without a syllable of response, began to walk steadily along the shore.
I hesitated awhile between the two brothers, so serious a climax did we seem to have reached. But the Master had resumed his occupation, his eyes lowered, his hand seemingly as deft as ever;and I decided to pursue my lord.
"Are you mad?" I cried, so soon as I had overtook him. "Would you cast away so fair an opportunity?""Is it possible you should still believe in him?" inquired my lord, almost with a sneer.
"I wish him forth of this town!" I cried. "I wish him anywhere and anyhow but as he is.""I have said my say," returned my lord, "and you have said yours.
There let it rest."
But I was bent on dislodging the Master. That sight of him patiently returning to his needlework was more than my imagination could digest. There was never a man made, and the Master the least of any, that could accept so long a series of insults. The air smelt blood to me. And I vowed there should be no neglect of mine if, through any chink of possibility, crime could be yet turned aside. That same day, therefore, I came to my lord in his business room, where he sat upon some trivial occupation.
"My lord," said I, "I have found a suitable investment for my small economies. But these are unhappily in Scotland; it will take some time to lift them, and the affair presses. Could your lordship see his way to advance me the amount against my note?"He read me awhile with keen eyes. "I have never inquired into the state of your affairs, Mackellar," says he. "Beyond the amount of your caution, you may not be worth a farthing, for what I know.""I have been a long while in your service, and never told a lie, nor yet asked a favour for myself," said I, "until to-day.""A favour for the Master," he returned, quietly. "Do you take me for a fool, Mackellar? Understand it once and for all, I treat this beast in my own way; fear nor favour shall not move me; and before I am hoodwinked, it will require a trickster less transparent than yourself. I ask service, loyal service; not that you should make and mar behind my back, and steal my own money to defeat me.""My lord," said I, "these are very unpardonable expressions.""Think once more, Mackellar," he replied; "and you will see they fit the fact. It is your own subterfuge that is unpardonable.
Deny (if you can) that you designed this money to evade my orders with, and I will ask your pardon freely. If you cannot, you must have the resolution to hear your conduct go by its own name.""If you think I had any design but to save you - " I began.
"Oh! my old friend," said he, "you know very well what I think!
Here is my hand to you with all my heart; but of money, not one rap."Defeated upon this side, I went straight to my room, wrote a letter, ran with it to the harbour, for I knew a ship was on the point of sailing; and came to the Master's door a little before dusk. Entering without the form of any knock, I found him sitting with his Indian at a simple meal of maize porridge with some milk.
The house within was clean and poor; only a few books upon a shelf distinguished it, and (in one corner) Secundra's little bench.
"Mr. Bally," said I, "I have near five hundred pounds laid by in Scotland, the economies of a hard life. A letter goes by yon ship to have it lifted. Have so much patience till the return ship comes in, and it is all yours, upon the same condition you offered to my lord this morning."He rose from the table, came forward, took me by the shoulders, and looked me in the face, smiling.
"And yet you are very fond of money!" said he. "And yet you love money beyond all things else, except my brother!""I fear old age and poverty," said I, "which is another matter.""I will never quarrel for a name. Call it so," he replied. "Ah!
Mackellar, Mackellar, if this were done from any love to me, how gladly would I close upon your offer!""And yet," I eagerly answered - "I say it to my shame, but I cannot see you in this poor place without compunction. It is not my single thought, nor my first; and yet it's there! I would gladly see you delivered. I do not offer it in love, and far from that;but, as God judges me - and I wonder at it too! - quite without enmity.""Ah!" says he, still holding my shoulders, and now gently shaking me, "you think of me more than you suppose. 'And I wonder at it too,'" he added, repeating my expression and, I suppose, something of my voice. "You are an honest man, and for that cause I spare you.""Spare me?" I cried.
"Spare you," he repeated, letting me go and turning away. And then, fronting me once more. "You little know what I would do with it, Mackellar! Did you think I had swallowed my defeat indeed?
