Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite

SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF HUMBLETHWAITE

' /$. — I have been successful with my younger cousin. She is the bonniest, and the best, and the brightest girl that ever lived, and I am the happiest fellow. But I have not as yet seen the Baronet. I am to do so to-night, and will report progress to-morrow. I doubt I shan’t find him so bonny and so good and so bright. But, as you say, the young birds ought to be too strong for the old ones. — Yours most sincerely,

G. H.

This was written while he was dressing, and was put into the letter-box by himself as he came downstairs. It was presumed that the party had dined at the Falls; but there was “a tea” prepared for them on an extensive scale. Sir Harry, suspecting nothing, was happy and almost jovial with Mr. Fitzpatrick and the two young ladies. Emily said hardly a word. Lady Elizabeth, who had not as yet been told, but already suspected something, was very anxious. George was voluble, witty, and perhaps a little too loud. But as the lad who was going to Oxford, and who had drank a good deal of champagne and was now drinking sherry, was loud also, George’s manner was not specially observed. It was past ten before they got up from the table, and nearly eleven before George was able to whisper a word to the Baronet. He almost shirked it for that night, and would have done so had he not remembered how necessary it was that Emily should know that his pluck was good. Of course she would be asked to abandon him. Of course she would be told that it was her duty to give him up. Of course she would give him up unless he could get such a hold upon

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her heart as to make her doing so impossible to her. She would have to learn that he was an unprincipled spendthrift, — nay worse than that, as he hardly scrupled to tell himself. But he need not weight his own character with the further burden of cowardice. The Baronet could not eat him, and he would not be afraid of the Baronet. “Sir Harry,” he whispered, “could you give me a minute or two before we go to bed?” Sir Harry started as though he had been stung, and looked his cousin sharply in the face without answering him. George kept his countenance, and smiled.

“I won’t keep you long,” he said.

“You had better come to my room,” said Sir Harry, gruffly, and led the way into his own sanctum. When there, he sat down in his accustomed arm-chair without offering George a seat, but George soon found a seat for himself. “And now what is it?” said Sir Harry, with his blackest frown.

“I have asked my cousin to be my wife.” “What! Emily?”

“Yes, Emily; and she has consented. I now ask for your approval.” We must give Cousin George his due, and acknowledge that he made his little request exactly as he would have done had he been master of ten thousand a year of his own, quite unencumbered.

“What right had you, sir, to speak to her without coming to me first?”

“One always does, I think, go to the girl first,” said George. “You have disgraced yourself, sir, and outraged my hospi-

tality. You are no gentleman!”

“Sir Harry, that is strong language.”

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SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF HUMBLETHWAITE

“Strong! Of course it is strong. I mean it to be strong. I shall make it stronger yet if you attempt to say another word to her.” “Look here, Sir Harry, I am bound to bear a good deal from

you, but I have a right to explain.”

“You have a right, sir, to go away from this, and go away you shall.”

“Sir Harry, you have told me that I am not a gentleman.” “You have abused my kindness to you. What right have

you, who have not a shilling in the world, to speak to my daughter? I won’t have it, and let that be an end of it. I won’t have it. And I must desire that you will leave Humblethwaite to-morrow. I won’t have it.”

“It is quite true that I have not a shilling.”

“Then what business have you to speak to my daughter?” “Because I have that which is worth many shillings, and

which you value above all your property. I am the heir to your name and title. When you are gone, I must be the head of this family. I do not in the least quarrel with you for choosing to leave your property to your own child, but I have done the best I could to keep the property and the title together. I love my cousin.”

“I don’t believe in your love, sir.”

“If that is all, I do not doubt but that I can satisfy you.”

“It is not all; and it is not half all. And it isn’t because you are a pauper. You know it all as well as I do, without my telling you, but you drive me to tell you.”

“Know what, sir?”

“Though you hadn’t a shilling, you should have had her if you could win her, — had your life been even fairly decent.

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The title must go to you, — worse luck for the family. You can talk well enough, and what you say is true. I would wish that they should go together.”

“Of course it will be better.”

“But, sir, — “ then Sir Henry paused. “Well, Sir Harry?”

“You oblige me to speak out. You are such a one, that I do not dare to let you have my child. Your life is so bad, that I should not be justified in doing so for any family purpose. You would break her heart.”

“You wrong me there, altogether.” “You are a gambler.”

“I have been, Sir Harry.” “And a spendthrift?”

“Well — yes; as long as I had little or nothing to spend.” “I believe you are over head and ears in debt now, in spite of

the assistance you have had from me within twelve months.” Cousin George remembered the advice which had been

given him, that he should conceal nothing from his cousin. “I do owe some money certainly,” he said.

“And how do you mean to pay it?”

“Well — if I marry Emily, I suppose that — you will pay it.” “That’s cool, at any rate.”

“What can I say, Sir Harry?”

“I would pay it all, though it were to half the SURSHUW\ ³ “Less than a year’s income would clear off every shilling

I owe, Sir Harry.”

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SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF HUMBLETHWAITE

“Listen to me, sir. Though it were ten years’ income, I would pay it all, if I thought that the rest would be kept with the title, and that my girl would be happy.”

“I will make her happy.”

“But, sir, it is not only that you are a gambler and spendthrift, and an unprincipled debtor without even a thought of paying. You are worse than this. There; — I am not going to call you names. I know what you are, and you shall not have my daughter.”

George Hotspur found himself compelled to think for a few moments before he could answer a charge so vague, and yet, as he knew, so well founded. Nevertheless he felt that he was progressing. His debts would not stand in his way, if only he could make this rich father believe that in other matters his daughter would not be endangered by the marriage. “I don’t quite know what you mean, Sir Harry. I am not going to defend myself. I have done much of which I am ashamed. I was turned very young upon the world, and got to live with rich people when I was myself poor. I ought to have withstood the temptation, but I didn’t, and I got into bad hands. I don’t deny it. There is a horrid Jew has bills of mine now.”

“What have you done with that five thousand pounds?” “He had half of it; and I had to settle for the last Leger,

which went against me.” “It is all gone?”

“Pretty nearly. I don’t pretend but what I have been very reckless as to money; I am ready to tell you the truth about everything. I don’t say that I deserve her; but I do say this, — that I should not have thought of winning her, in my position,

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had it not been for the title. Having that in my favour I do not think that I was misbehaving to you in proposing to her. If you will trust me now, I will be as grateful and obedient a son as any man ever had.”

He had pleaded his cause well, and he knew it. Sir Harry also felt that his cousin had made a better case than he would have believed to be possible. He was quite sure that the man was a scamp, utterly untrustworthy, and yet the man’s pleading for himself had been efficacious. He sat silent for full five minutes before he spoke again, and then he gave judgment as follows: “You will go away without seeing her to-morrow.”

“If you wish it.”

“And you will not write to her.” “Only a line.”

“Not a word,” said Sir Harry, imperiously.

“Only a line, which I will give open to you. You can do with it as you please.”

“And as you have forced upon me the necessity, I shall make inquiries in London as to your past life. I have heard things which perhaps may be untrue.”

“What things, Sir Harry?”

“I shall not demean myself or injure you by repeating them, unless I find cause to believe they are true. I do believe that the result will be such as to make me feel that in justice to my girl I cannot allow you to become her husband. I tell you so fairly. Should the debts you owe be simple debts, not dishonourably contracted, I will pay them.”

“And then she shall be mine?”

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SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF HUMBLETHWAITE

“I will make no such promise. You had better go now. You can have the carriage to Penrith as early as you please in the morning; or to Carlisle if you choose to go north. I will make your excuses to Lady Elizabeth. Good night.”

Cousin George stood for a second in doubt, and then shook hands with the Baronet. He reached Penrith the next morning soon after ten, and breakfasted alone at the hotel.

There were but very few words spoken on the occasion between the father and daughter, but Emily did succeed in learning pretty nearly the truth of what had taken place. On the Monday her mother gave her the following QRWH

', — At your father’s bidding, I have gone suddenly. You will understand why I have done so. I shall try to do just as he would have me; but you will, I know, be quite sure that I should never give you up. — Yours for ever and ever,

G. H.

The father had thought much of it, and at last had determined that Emily should have the letter.

In the course of the week there came other guests to Humblethwaite, and it so chanced that there was a lady who knew the Altringhams, who had unfortunately met the Altringhams at Goodwood, and who, most unfortunately, stated in Emily’s hearing that she had seen George Hotspur at Goodwood.

“He was not there,” said Emily, quite boldly.

“Oh, yes; with the Altringhams, as usual. He is always with them at Goodwood.”

“He was not at the last meeting,” said Emily, smiling.

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cided to make? It would be very difficult for him to make any preparation that could lead to a good result; but if no preparation were made, the result would be very bad indeed. It might perhaps be possible to do something with Mr. Hart and Captain Stubber. He had no other immediate engagements. In October he was due to shoot pheasants with a distinguished party in Norfolk, but this business which he had now in hand was of so much importance that even the pheasant-shooting and the distinguished party were not of much moment to him.

He went to Penrith, and thence direct to London. It was the habit of his life to give up his London lodgings when he left town at the end of the season, and spare himself the expense of any home as long as he could find friends to entertain him. There are certain items of the cost of living for which the greatest proficient in the art of tick must pay, or he will come to a speedy end; — and a man’s lodging is one of them. If indeed the spendthrift adapts himself to the splendour of housekeeping, he may, provided his knowledge of his business be complete, and his courage adequate, house himself gloriously for a year or two with very small payment in ready money. He may even buy a mansion with an incredibly small outlay, and, when once in it, will not easily allow himself to be extruded. George Hotspur, however, not from any want of knowledge or of audacity, but from the nature of the life he chose to lead, had abstained from such investment of his credit, and had paid for his lodgings in St. James’ Street. He was consequently houseless at the moment, and on his arrival in London took himself to an hotel close behind the military club to which he belonged.

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