LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 311, 11 June 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

GOOD FOR EVIL. ( Continved, ) “ MrMagrath will pardon me,”said the Earl, whose harsh, strident voice lent no softness to a somewhat hard speech, “ Though I have every respect for his brother’s opinion, his eminence in his profession is not quite that of Mr Jones, or such as to warrant me in acting on his unsupported opinion in a matter of such consequence. Mr Jones is, in England, universally admitted to stand at the head of his profession, and his mere opinion in this matter cost me a considerable sum, but the advice was cheap if it prevents us from committing an act of folly. At the same time I wish to do full justice to Mr Magrath—it is quite natural he should favour a project that would bring a good deal of employment to different persons in the town,’ Again the same curious gleam shot from under the Earl’s shaggy eye-brows. The deputation grew uncomfortable, and might perhaps have withdrawn in confusion but for Mr Clampit, who asked, with some violence in his manner, — ‘ Are we, then, to understand that your lordship declines to discuss the matter further ?’ ‘ Certainly not. If there is anything you wish to say To me, I am quite ready to listen.’ Maps were then produced, and an animated discussion ensued, in the course of which one of the deputation contrived to overturn and break a vase of Dresden china. The Earl worsted his opponents at every point, though he spoke very little, and the deputation was at last fain to desist from an attempt that had plainly been hopeless from the first. ‘ I am sorry your lordship is not able to arrive at a different decision,’ said the Mayor, heated and flushed from the vehemence with which he had argued, aud showing his annoyance pretty plainly on his face. ‘ It is so seldom that all creeds and parties can be unanimous in recommending a line of action,’ said the mildest man of the party, a Quaker. ‘Yes,’ added the Mayor, ‘for I beg to assure your lordship that we are actuated by no religious motives whatever.’ ‘That I can quite believe, Mr Mayor,’ said the Earl; and for the third time Mr Clampit noticed the sarcastic expression of Lord Killcullen’s eyes. ‘ Before you go, gentlemen,’ said the Earl, ‘ I should like to say something to you about a project that I cannot help thinking of far greater importance than that upon which you have again consulted me in vain. If I have destroyed your activity in one direction, allow me to point out another field in which it will find ample scope. You all know the Inches ? They are a constant source of disease to the town. The unfortunate poor, who live beside them, are annually decimated by fever—and some of your own dwellings, gentlemen, are not one yard too distant from the source of infection. Your house, Mr Clampit, if I remember right, is very near those Inches, and I would be understood to warn you especially of their danger. Another matter which I beg you to consider, is the water supply.’ We need not follow the Earl in his long address; suffice it to say, he spoke disagreeably and sensibly as usual, and, as usual, produced no other effect on his hearers than to make them impatient aud angry. He wound up with a proposal to provide funds for the undertaking, the principal to be repaid in instalments of 4 per cent., in thirtj - five years. This he said to test their enterprise, and desire for the well-being of the town. With a few ambiguous words of thanks, the deputation withdrew; and as Mr Clampit passed out of the house he ground his teeth, and muttered to the Mayor, ‘ How nicely he told us we were jobbing!—but I’ll pay him off in the paper.’ A special meeting was soon held to consider the Earl of Killcullen’s offer, and though it sounded fair enough to some, the general feeling was against it, and so many difficulties were raised, and the word debt used with such alarming frequency and significance, that distrust of the scheme seized the assembly, and the very men who had talked cheerfully of great loans from Government, and of gigantic engineering schemes, shrank timidly from the far smaller outlay suggested by the Earl. Lord Killcullen’s proposal was finally rejected by nine to two. When the Earl heard the result of the meeting, he said very little, but, like a few silent men, he thought the more. He had been a curious man, in one respect, all his life, shrinking from the idea of laying himself under an obligation to any one. Certainly it could not have been because he cared for the poor, it must have been from sheer obstinacy of disposition that, at this crisis, he departed from the inflexible custom of a lifetime, and went to each of the men who had been at the meeting, and implored him, as a personal favour, to accept his terms. His self-humiliation, however, was all in vain. The town was very much obliged to his lordship, but they could not ‘ see their way’ to accepting his generous offer. They liked to ‘ see their way’ before embarking in any enterprise, and snubbed him to his face. Behind his back they ridiculed and sneered at his ungainly efforts to be condescending and persuasive. Small minds sometimes feel themselves exalted by the mere fact of haying been rude to a person above them in position, and so it was with the corporation of Killcullen on this occasion. They had snubbed and thwarted a lord, and felt immensely proud of themselves in consequence. When the Earl returned from his canvass, he felt more crestfallen than he had ever done since the last time, as a little boy, he had been whipped at school. Never before in his life had he so humbled himself—perhaps, also, he had never been less disagreeable ; certainly-,he had never been so snubbed. If he had been trying to pick the pockets of those to whom he had spoken, they could not have received him more suspiciously, and it had cost him grievous pains to keep his temper under control. But he had not failed in his resolve, he had not betrayed by word or deed how he had suffered; why, as he drove home rapidly from his weary round of calls, the very recollection of the mortification he had endured bathed his forehead with moisture, and made him clench his hands together, while over his haughty features there passed a spasm of exquisite torture. The Earl could not bear to ask a favour—but to ask one and be refused ! In spite of this failure, Lord Killcullen continued to do his duty as before, without any particular regard for the feeling* of those

about him. Twice every week too, the Moderator scourged him mercilessly. Not only his character but his family, came in. for scurrilous abuse, till every limit of what was endurable seemed to have been passed; but stlil he showed no outward signs of annoyance. He continued to pay a double subscription to the Moderator , and on Wednesday and Saturday mornings it was laid regularly on the breakfast room table, with the other journals of the day. - About two months after the affair of the deputation, Mr Clampit devised a new mode of attack, and made his paper the means of spreading innumerable ialse reports about the Earl. One exasperating rumour he worked in the following way. Lord Wurstesser was expected at Knocknabarron for a few days on leave. He was a quiet, sleepy young man, and an utter contrast to his father in every respect. He had apparently none of the family pride, and would talk and laugh with any one who cared to talk and laugh with him. On his way home, at the station next before Killcullen, despite the efforts of the guard to prevent him, Mr Clampit entered the carriage, and seated himself opposite the young lord, who did not know him, Eton, Cambridge, and his military service, left Lord Wurstesser unacquainted with the countenances of the inhabitants of Killcullen. Just as the train began to move, Mr Clampit began to talk, and after a few moments’ gossip on the news of the day, the editor remarked—- * You have, no doubt, my lord, heard of the Earl’s generous offer as to the water supply and drainage works for the town?’ ‘ Yes,’ assented Lord Wurstesser, a little surprised at finding himself recognised. ‘Some hitch, I believe—thing couldn’t be got to work.’ ‘ And can you tell me, my lord, is there any truth in the report that, in consequence of the impracticability of the scheme, Lord Killcullen, not to allow himself to be deprived of the pleasure of doing a generous act, is going to forgive all the tenants on the property their arrears, and lower all their rents. ’ * I’m sure I don’t know,’ drawled the the young man. ‘Dare say it’s very likely—shouldn’t wonder at all if he did. He’s wonderfully good about paying my debts, I know.’ Next day the following paragraph appeared in the Moderator : “We are informed, on the best authority, that the Earl of Killcullen, not to be deprived of doing a generous act, has determined to forgive all the tenants on his property their arrears, and materially to reduce their rents. His lordship arrived at this noble determination on the failure of negotiations between himself and the corporation relative to certain benefits he proposed conferring on the town of Killcullen. If it has sometimes been our painful duty in this journal to pass severe censure on public acts of his lordship’s, we are glad to seize this opportunity of expressing our admiration of his conduct on the present occasion, and to show that we are only anxious to do him justice. Such a graceful act of generosity as that to which we call attention is well worthy of the imitation of landlords throughout the country.” Perhaps no surer way of incensing Lord Killcullen could have been devised, for the announcement appeared just a week before he had determined to appear in the light of a public benefactor, by undertaking the drainage and waterworks at his own expense. He had only proposed a loan to test the sincerity of the corporation, and, in a few days’ time, he had resolved to make his generous intentions public. But just at this crisis the vile paragraph appeared in the Moderator, and took the wind out of his sails. With rare bitterness of wrath in his heart, he sent for Mr Spiler. ‘ This is intolerable, Spiler,’ he said to his man of business. ‘ Can I do nothing to punish the scoundrel who treats me like this ? I can bear it as long as they only throw mud at me and my acts, but a notice like this will unsettle the mind of every tenant on my estate. ’ ‘Yes, my lord,’ growled Spiler. ‘Undoubtedly, my lord, and a very great deal of trouble it will give me, too, my lord. Ever since the morning, my office has been beseiged. I think the whole barony of Monatrim has been in already. But I don’t sup - pose your lordship would get much by taking|an action against Clampit. He’d apologize, of course, my lord, and contradict the notice. ’

‘ And insult me afresh in doing so, ’ muttered the Earl, frowning. ‘Do you think I could buy up the ruffian, Spiler ? I would pay anything to be free of him. ’ ‘ Of course he might he got rid of, my lord,’ said Mr Spiler, meditatively. ‘ I wish to heaven I were rid of him,’ said the Earl. As Henry ll.’s rash wish to be rid of Thomas-a-Becket produced evil consequences, so Lord Killcullen’s lamentations and aspirations after freedom from Clampit’s persecution brought about a disaster, for they gave his angry subordinate an excuse for carrying out a piece of spite he had long meditated. There was to be a ceremonial in the town of Killcullen on the Friday following, and the Earl was to lay the foundation-stone of a new and enlarged institute for the blind. One of the greatest worries of the inhabitants of Killcullen was that, on all important public occasions, the Earl’s position and rights could not be ignored. On the Saturday morning following the ceremonial, there would, of course, be a full account of the proceedings in the local papers, and the Moderator was expected to come out strong, and give something racy. On the day of the ceremonial, Lord Killcullen appeared on the ground at the appointed time, received an address, read his reply, and, with the usual silver trowel, performed his trilling masonic duty. The blind children of the old institute were ranged in front of him, and among the ladies who were busy marshalling them, the Earl’s keen eyes, not much given to looking in women’s faces, espied a countenance that, somehow or other, reminded him of one whom, in a time long past and gone, he had loved and admired. The poor Earl might have been a more popular man if the face of the girl standing among the blind children brought back so vividly to his recollection, had not faded so soon out of his life. For the short time that he was under the softening influence of his Countess, his inflexible justice and rigid adherence to his own ideas had appeared with less of the disagreeable alloy of his harsh and obstinate manner. To he continued.