And a return to Mostyn to look after your affairs is equally good. If I were you, Ishould follow my inclinations. If you put your heart into anything, it is well done and enjoyed; if you do a thing because you think you ought to do it, failure and disappointment are often the results. So do as you want to do; it is the only advice I can offer you.""Thank you, sir. It is very acceptable. I may leave for Newport to-morrow. I shall call on the ladies in the morning.""I will tell them, but it is just possible that they, too, go to the country to-morrow, to look after a little cottage on the Hudson we occupy in the summer. Good-by, and I hope you will soon recover your usual health."Then the Judge lifted his hat, and with a courteous movement left the room. His face had the same suave urbanity of expression, but he could hardly restrain the passion in his heart. Placid as he looked when he entered his house, he threw off all pretenses as soon as he reached his room. The Yorkshire spirit which Ethel had declared found him out once in three hundred and sixty-four days and twenty-three hours was then in full pos-session. The American Judge had disappeared.
He looked as like his ancestors as anything outside of a painted picture could do. His flushed face, his flashing eyes, his passionate exclamations, the stamp of his foot, the blow of his hand, the threatening attitude of his whole figure was but a replica of his great-grandfather, Anthony Rawdon, giving Radicals at the hustings or careless keepers at the kennels "a bit of his mind.""`Mostyn, seems to be the natural owner of Rawdon! Rawdon Court lies at Mostyn's gate! Natural that the Mostyns should succeed the Rawdons! Bought the right by a dozen intermarriages!' Confound the impudent rascal! Does he think I will see Squire Rawdon rogued out of his home? Not if I can help it! Not if Ethel can help it!
Not if heaven and earth can help it! He's a downright rascal! A cool, unruffled, impudent rascal!" And these ejaculations were followed by a bitter, biting, blasting hailstorm of such epithets as could only be written with one letter and a dash.
But the passion of imprecation cooled and satisfied his anger in this its first impetuous outbreak, and he sat down, clasped the arms of his chair, and gave himself a peremptory order of control. In a short time he rose, bathed his head and face in cold water, and began to dress for dinner. And as he stood before the glass he smiled at the restored color and calm of his countenance.
"You are a prudent lawyer," he said sarcastically. "How many actionable words have you just uttered! If the devil and Fred Mostyn have been listening, they can, as mother says, `get the law on you'; but Ithink Ethel and I and the law will be a match even for the devil and Fred Mostyn." Then, as he slowly went downstairs, he repeated to himself, "Mostyn seems to be the natural owner of Rawdon. No, sir, neither natural nor legal owner. Rawdon Court lies at Mostyn gate. Not yet. Mostyn lies at Rawdon gate. Natural that the Mostyns should succeed the Rawdons. Power of God! Neither in this generation nor the next."And at the same moment Mostyn, having thought over his interview with Judge Rawdon, walked thoughtfully to a window and muttered to himself: "Whatever was the matter with the old man? Polite as a courtier, but something was wrong. The room felt as if there was an iceberg in it, and he kept his right hand in his pocket. I be-lieve he was afraid I would shake hands with him--it is Ethel, I suppose. Naturally he is disappointed. Wanted her at Rawdon. Well, it is a pity, but I really cannot! Oh, Dora!
Dora! My heart, my hungry and thirsty heart calls you! Burning with love, dying with longing, I am waiting for you!"The dinner passed pleasantly enough, but both Ethel and Ruth noticed the Judge was under strong but well-controlled feeling.
While servants were present it passed for high spirits, but as soon as the three were alone in the library, the excitement took at once a serious aspect.
"My dears," he said, standing up and facing them, "I have had a very painful interview with Fred Mostyn. He holds a mortgage over Rawdon Court, and is going to press it in September--that is, he proposes to sell the place in order to obtain his money --and the poor Squire!" He ceased speaking, walked across the room and back again, and appeared greatly disturbed.
"What of the Squire?" asked Ruth.
"God knows, Ruth. He has no other home."
"Why is this thing to be done? Is there no way to prevent it?""Mostyn wants the money, he says, to invest in American securities. He does not.
He wants to force a sale, so that he may buy the place for the mortgage, and then either keep it for his pride, or more likely resell it to the Tyrrel-Rawdons for double the money."Then with gradually increasing passion he repeated in a low, intense voice the remarks which Mostyn had made, and which had so infuriated the Judge. Before he had finished speaking the two women had caught his temper and spirit. Ethel's face was white with anger, her eyes flashing, her whole attitude full of fight. Ruth was troubled and sorrowful, and she looked anxiously at the Judge for some solution of the condition. It was Ethel who voiced the anxiety. "Father,"she asked, "what is to be done? What can you do?""Nothing, I am sorry to say, Ethel. My money is absolutely tied up--for this year, at any rate. I cannot touch it without wronging others as well as myself, nor yet without the most ruinous sacrifice.""If I could do anything, I would not care at what sacrifice.""You can do all that is necessary, Ethel, and you are the only person who can. You have at least eight hundred thousand dollars in cash and negotiable securities. Your mother's fortune is all yours, with its legitimate accruements, and it was left at your own disposal after your twenty-first birthday.
It has been at your own disposal WITH MY CONSENT since your nineteenth birthday."
