"Indeed," continued Lord Cashel, "I did not even intend to have gone myself, but the unexpected death of Harry Wyndham renders it necessary.

I must put f.a.n.n.y's affairs in a right train. Poor Harry!--did you see much of him during his illness?"

"Why, no--I can't say I did. I'm not a very good hand at doctoring or nursing. I saw him once since he got his commission, glittering with his gold lace like a new weather-c.o.c.k on a Town Hall. He hadn't time to polish the shine off."

"His death will make a great difference, as far as f.a.n.n.y is concerned--eh?"

"Indeed it will: her fortune now is considerable;--a deuced pretty thing, remembering that it's all ready money, and that she can touch it the moment she's of age. She's entirely off with Ballindine, isn't she?"

"Oh, entirely," said the earl, with considerable self-complacency; "that affair is entirely over."

"I've stated so everywhere publicly; but I dare say, she'll give him her money, nevertheless. She's not the girl to give over a man, if she's really fond of him."

"But, my dear Kilcullen, she has authorised me to give him a final answer, and I have done so. After that, you know, it would be quite impossible for her to--to--"

"You'll see;--she'll marry Lord Ballindine. Had Harry lived, it might have been different; but now she's got all her brother's money, she'll think it a point of honour to marry her poor lover. Besides, her staying this year in the country will be in his favour: she'll see no one here--and she'll want something to think of. I understand he has altogether thrown himself into Blake's hands--the keenest fellow in Ireland, with as much mercy as a foxhound. He's a positive fool, is Ballindine."

"I'm afraid he is--I'm afraid he is. And you may be sure I'm too fond of f.a.n.n.y--that is, I have too much regard for the trust reposed in me, to allow her to throw herself away upon him."

"That's all very well; but what can you do?"

"Why, not allow him to see her; and I've another plan in my head for her."

"Ah!--but the thing is to put the plan into _her_ head. I'd be sorry to hear of a fine girl like f.a.n.n.y Wyndham breaking her heart in a half-ruined barrack in Connaught, without money to pay a schoolmaster to teach her children to spell. But I've too many troubles of my own to think of just at present, to care much about hers;" and the son and heir got up, and stood with his back to the fire, and put his arms under his coat-laps. "Upon my soul, my lord, I never was so hard up in my life!"

Lord Cashel now prepared himself for action. The first shot was fired, and he must go on with the battle.

"So I hear, Kilcullen; and yet, during the last four years, you've had nearly double your allowance; and, before that, I paid every farthing you owed. Within the last five years, you've had nearly forty thousand pounds! Supposing you'd had younger brothers, Lord Kilcullen--supposing that I had had six or eight sons instead of only one; what would you have done? How then would you have paid your debts?"

"Fate having exempted me and your lordship from so severe a curse, I have never turned my mind to reflect what I might have done under such an infliction."

"Or, supposing I had chosen, myself, to indulge in those expensive habits, which would have absorbed my income, and left me unable to do more for you, than many other n.o.blemen in my position do for their sons--do you ever reflect how impossible it would then have been for me to have helped you out of your difficulties?"

"I feel as truly grateful for your self-denial in this respect, as I do in that of my non-begotten brethren."

Lord Cashel saw that he was laughed at, and he looked angry; but he did not want to quarrel with his son, so he continued:

"Jervis writes me word that it is absolutely necessary that thirty thousand pounds should be paid for you at once; or, that your remaining in London--or, in fact, in the country at all, is quite out of the question."

"Indeed, my lord, I'm afraid Jervis is right."

"Thirty thousand pounds! Are you aware what your income is?"

"Why, hardly. I know Jervis takes care that I never see much of it."

"Do you mean that you don't receive it?"

"Oh, I do not at all doubt its accurate payment. I mean to say, that I don't often have the satisfaction of seeing much of it at the right side of my banker's book."

"Thirty thousand pounds! And will that sum set you completely free in the world?"

"I am sorry to say it will not--nor nearly."

"Then, Lord Kilcullen," said the earl, with most severe, but still most courteous dignity, "may I trouble you to be good enough to tell me what, at the present moment, you do owe?"

"I'm afraid I could not do so with any accuracy; but it is more than double the sum you have named."

"Do you mean, that you have no schedule of your debts?--no means of acquainting me with the amount? How can you expect that I can a.s.sist you, when you think it too much trouble to make yourself thoroughly acquainted with the state of your own affairs?"

"A list could certainly be made out, if I had any prospect of being able to settle the amount. If your lordship can undertake to do so at once, I will undertake to hand you a correct list of the sums due, before I leave Grey Abbey. I presume you would not require to know exactly to whom all the items were owing."

This effrontery was too much, and Lord Cashel was very near to losing his temper.

"Upon my honour, Kilcullen, you're cool, very cool. You come upon me to pay, Heaven knows how many thousands--more money, I know, than I'm able to raise; and you condescendingly tell me that you will trouble yourself so far as to let me know how much money I am to give you--but that I am not to know what is done with it! No; if I am to pay your debts again, I will do it through Jervis."

"Pray remember," replied Lord Kilcullen, not at all disturbed from his equanimity, "that I have not proposed that you should pay my debts without knowing where the money went; and also that I have not yet asked you to pay them at all."

"Who, then, do you expect will pay them? I can a.s.sure you I should be glad to be relieved from the honour."

"I merely said that I had not yet made any proposition respecting them.

Of course, I expect your a.s.sistance. Failing you, I have no resource but the Jews. I should regret to put the property into their hands; especially as, hitherto, I have not raised money on post obits [24]."

[FOOTNOTE 24: post obit--a loan that need not be repaid until the death of a specified individual, usually someone from whom the borrower expected to inherit enough to repay the loan]

"At any rate, I'm glad of that," said the father, willing to admit any excuse for returning to his good humour. "That would be ruin; and I hope that anything short of that may be--may be--may be done something with."

The expression was not dignified, and it pained the earl to make it; but it was expressive, and he didn't wish at once to say that he had a proposal for paying off his son's debts. "But now, Kilcullen, tell me fairly, in round figures, what do you think you owe?--as near as you can guess, without going to pen and paper, you know?"

"Well, my lord, if you will allow me, I will make a proposition to you.

If you will hand over to Mr Jervis fifty thousand pounds, for him to pay such claims as have already been made upon him as your agent, and such other debts as I may have sent in to him: and if you will give myself thirty thousand, to pay such debts as I do not choose to have paid by an agent, I will undertake to have everything settled."

"Eighty thousand pounds in four years! Why, Kilcullen, what have you done with it?--where has it gone? You have five thousand a-year, no house to keep up, no property to support, no tenants to satisfy, no rates to pay--five thousand a-year for your own personal expenses--and, in four years, you have got eighty thousand in debt! The property never can stand that, you know. It never can stand at that rate. Why, Kilcullen, what have you done with it?"

"Mr Crockford has a portion of it, and John Scott has some of it. A great deal of it is scattered rather widely--so widely that it would be difficult now to trace it. But, my lord, it has gone. I won't deny that the greater portion of it has been lost at play, or on the turf. I trust I may, in future, be more fortunate and more cautious."

"I trust so. I trust so, indeed. Eighty thousand pounds! And do you think I can raise such a sum as that at a week's warning?"

"Indeed, I have no doubt as to your being able to do so: it may be another question whether you are willing."

"I am not--I am not able," said the libelled father. "As you know well enough, the inc.u.mbrances on the property take more than a quarter of my income."

"There can, nevertheless, be no doubt of your being able to have the money, and that at once, if you chose to go into the market for it. I have no doubt but that Mr Jervis could get it for you at once at five per cent."

"Four thousand a-year gone for ever from the property!--and what security am I to have that the same sacrifice will not be again incurred, after another lapse of four years?"

"You can have no security, my lord, against my being in debt. You can, however, have every security that you will not again pay my debts, in your own resolution. I trust, however, that I have some experience to prevent my again falling into so disagreeable a predicament. I think I have heard your Lordship say that you incurred some unnecessary expenses yourself in London, before your marriage!"

"I wish, Kilcullen, that you had never exceeded your income more than I did mine. But it is no use talking any further on this subject. I cannot, and I will not--I cannot in justice either to myself or to you, borrow this money for you; nor, if I could, should I think it right to do so."