Читать книгу Gathered In - Catherine Helen Spence - Страница 14

Table of Contents

In the midst of this talk Mick put in his head. "Av you plaze, Ma'am, the master has heard of Mr. Kenneth's being afther taking his tay alongside of yer, and nothing will put him past the notion that he must see him at wanst."

"Why did you tell him, Mick? You know it's much better he should not be disturbed. It's his own orders before he goes in for such bouts that he should see no strangers."

"True for ye, Ma'am, but ye see he don't count his nephy as a stranger."

"And he cannot bear the sight of me or of Mr. Jim, either."

"When he comes acquainted with Mr. Kenneth, it's like enough he'll serve him with the same sauce, but in the meantime he's raging like a wild bull for the sight of him."

"And how was he to know he was here if he had not been told?"

"He was after blowing me up sky-high for laving him for my own divarsion, and I let out that it was to Castlehurst I had to go, and he put two and two together, and swore that I had brought home his nephy, and was after hiding him as if we was ashamed of him. So to pacificate his mind, I said I'd step in and fetch him at wanst."

"I'm very sorry, Kenneth, that Mick has been so foolish as to disobey Mr. Oswald's orders. He'll suffer for it himself by-and-by."

"Then you think I should not go," said Kenneth, turning to his aunt.

"Faith, Mr. Kenneth, you must go, or he'll come out himself and fetch you, and that'ud be worse."

Mrs. Oswald only shook her head helplessly, and allowed her nephew to follow Mick along the passage to a room which opened from the verandah.

"I'm bound to after laving you, Mr. Kenneth, for the master can only stand one at one time, and often not as much as that;" so he opened the door of the room softly, and Kenneth entered. There in an easy chair sat his uncle, with his feet in slippers, a smoking-cap set on one side of his head. An old flowered dressing-gown buttoned very much awry enveloped his person; neither shirt nor gown was buttoned at the wrist, and he was with shaking hand filling himself out a fresh tumbler of brandy and water. A box of cigars lay at his left hand, and on the right was the brandy bottle and a large monkey (or porous stone jar) of cold water. His' face was swollen, his eyes were bloodshot, his mouth hung loosely, so that it was difficult for him to command his voice to greet his nephew in the manner he evidently wished to do. The room was in general use as a smoking-room, but on occasions such as this it was fitted up as the master's bedroom, with a stretcher for Mick at the far corner. He knew Mr. Oswald's ways, and humoured him with discretion, and could tell the exact moment when the bout was over, and when the "matarials", as he called them, might be removed with safety.

Kenneth advanced to the place where his uncle sat, and stretched forth his hand. George Oswald made the very poorest attempt at rising from his chair, and sank down again, but shook hands with such pertinacity that it seemed as if it would never be over.

"Glad to see you, Kenneth, my boy. Welcome to Tingalpa. Have a glass of something? Where's Mick? Bid the rascal bring a clean tumbler, here--quick."

"No, thank you, uncle. I've just had tea."

"Tea," said George Oswald with a voice of scorn; "poor stuff, only fit for heathen Chinese, especially as Mrs. Oswald makes it. Na, ye maun hae a glass of brandy."

"You know you laid me under an interdict about drinking, and I have obeyed it," said Kenneth.

"Glad to hear it! Glad to hear ye mind what I say. I maun drink your health on the strength of it. Here's t'ye. Have you seen Jim?"

"He is not at home, Mrs. Oswald says."

"That's a pity. He aye slopes off when I'm out of gear. His mother has nae control to keep him at home. She's little gude, little ill, like a spale (chip) amang parritch. But you maun get acquent wi' Jim. He's a sly dog, Jim. Mair in Jim than you'd think to look at him."

Kenneth could not help thinking there must be more in his uncle than present appearances promised. A man to have been so successful--to carry on such large operations--must in ordinary conditions be very different from this poor, trembling, inarticulate George Oswald, who had sat there nearly day and night for more than a week with a single tumbler and successive bottles of brandy before him.

"Ye were owre quick in the passage, Kenneth. You caught me napping, as I may say, though it's just the reverse, for I canna get a wink o' sleep. There's something on my mind that starts up to drive sleep away. Kenneth"--and his voice lowered to a confidential whisper--"get me pen, ink, and paper. That villain Mick, will not give them to me. I want to write a letter; only to write a letter. Hard that a man in his own house cannot get leave to write a letter to a friend. You think because my hand shakes that I canna write, but I'll let you see different. It would steady my hand to write that letter."

"Could not I write for you, Sir? Tell me what you want said."

"No, it maun be done by my very self," said his uncle. "It's to the Diroms I want to write. Get the paper, and the pen, and the ink, and dinna forget an envelope--some of your ain; that Mick need never hear tell of it."

It seemed to Kenneth very hard that a man who wanted to write should be prevented; the letter need not be dispatched after it was written, if it was a foolish one. So he went softly to his own room, and brought his writing case.

The shaking hand applied itself to the paper, but it did not appear to be a letter that Mr. Oswald penned. It was evidently a promissory-note that was drawn out, and that for an enormous sum; but it appeared to be correctly done.

"An envelope quick, man, an envelope or Mick will be in here, and burn it. He deserves the sack, that chap, and he'll get it this time. Now put it into the post without delay, for it maun gang. Oh! Kenneth, now I see I have got a real friend. Here's t'ye again," and he took another great draught of brandy and water.

"And ye'll no taste, just to our better acquaintance. You look like a gentleman, Kenneth, and all my making. Maybe ye'll keep that look longer if ye keep clear o' the drink, and it's likely ye have na the head to stand it. That's what I aye say to Jim, but he'll take no telling. D'ye ken how muckle I can put past, and as ye see, as clear as a clock when all's done? Look at the dead men there!" and he pointed to an array of empty bottles. "All brandy, ten degrees over proof; good spirits though, or it might have upset me. I give the best price, and I can depend of the best article. And as ye see, I'm as right as the Bank. Oh! Lord, I'm rich, I'm rich. Where's my cheque-book--Mick has it hid somewhere, but you'll find it. Ye'll need siller. Tell me out of hand how muckle you want."

"I need nothing, uncle. I have quite as much as I want."

"Never knew a man who had as muckle as that in all the course of my experience. Na, Kenneth, ye maun hae siller, you need not spare it. Oh! Lord, I'm rich--seventy thoosand sheep, a thoosand head o' beasts, three hundred and fifty horses, twenty thoosand acres of land, and mair to be had--and John and Robert Dirom--but that'll be put right, and you'll see if William Gray will turn up his nose at me then. There's mair to be made of Tingalpa than of Wilta itself, and thae sons of his, that he is so proud of, are scattering. I've got a son, too, and a nephew, my brother Jamie's son, mind that's what you are, and a gentleman--not a word about your mother, though ye are like her, laddie--that's what my money was invested in; how muckle per cent. will it pay, think ye? On the one side o' the ledger a thoosand pounds--mair--thoosands o' pounds; on the other side, a gentleman! How do you think the spekilation will answer?"

"I cannot tell," said Kenneth sadly.

"Can't ye--well I can; every spekilation I went into paid me, and this will be the best I ever tried. Now, any other man would have been as drunk as a fiddler with all thae dead men that he had made an end of; but I am not drunk; not mad, most noble Festus; but speak the words of truth and soberness. Ye see I can quote Scripture. Your granny wanted you brought up for the Kirk, but we know of something better than that, Kenneth. What do you think of this head station of Tingalpa; the house and the grounds, and the furniture and the plate? Is that not better than any manse you ever saw, whether Established, Free, or U.P.? A beggarly lot they are. I could buy up the whole lot of them. Oh! Lord, seventy thoosand sheep, and every mother's son of them seven pounds of greasy. Oh! Lord! I'm rich. And the beasts, and the horses, and the land, Kenneth, the land, if we could be sure of the selectors keeping off, damn them! They may pick out William Gray's een an welcome, but I canna hae Tingalpa meddled with. But you maun hae a cheque for a hundred pounds, just to show that you have got a good man at your back. And if I drew a cheque for ten thousand the Bank would make it good. Oh! Lord, seventy thoosand sheep! Do have a glass. My throat's as dry as a whustle, for all I can do to slocken my drouth. But I have an excuse to drink for two when you're ben; let's have two bottles of brandy, I'll ring for Mick."

The handbell was touched, and Mick appeared. He scowled at the writing materials.

"Another bottle of brandy, Mick. Don't you see there's another gentleman."

"It's time you knocked off. You're two bottles ahead already of what you say you should stop at, Sir."

"You count double, you rascal; you're drunk; you're very drunk."

"It's like enough, Sir; for it's you that has been setting me a mighty bad example."

"But you've no head to stand it, Mick; you'll be breaking heads and getting into trouble. That's what I say to Master Jim, and what I say to Master Kenneth. There's few heads like mine--clear as a clock yet, and fit for another week of it."

"If you're clear as a clock you should be minding that it's time of night to be after going to bed, and not for another bottle of brandy. And there's Mr. Kenneth dying for his bed after his long journey this day."

"But I canna sleep, and you know it, you villain. I can drink, drink, drink, but the sleep is the devil."

"I'd advise you to try, Sir. You've no patience. Now, you'll just let me ondress you, and tuck you in, and you'd be amazed how comfortable you'll feel after this joyful meeting with your nephy, who's the pleasant young gentleman to get alongside of in a buggy, and who'll be after admiring all the improvements when you show them to him. I'll stop in the room with you, and you'll get a beauty sleep and get up in the morning as fresh as a daisy, and Mr. Kenneth, too, and then you'll go round the place, the two of you, and find out it there's a screw loose anywhere. We must turn you out, Mr. Kenneth, the missis is after wanting you for the cards."

Kenneth said good night. Quick as thought Mike followed him to the door. "Whatever he has written, you must burn, or he'd never forgive you when he's in his sober senses. He gives me extra pay for never minding his orders at such saysons as this. But when he's wild for pen and ink, I know he's got to the worst, and I can hould him in."