LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2113, 1 December 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE MYSTERY or LORD BRAOKENBURY: A NOVEL. BY AMELIA B. EDWABDP, Author of "Barbara’s History," "Debeiibarn’s Vow,” &c. {.Continued. Chapter XI. A CABINET COUNCIL. ‘lf yon please, sir, my lord would be glad to speak to you for a few minutes before you go out.’ Mr Braokenbury laid down the hat which he was just about to put on, and obeyed the paternal summons. This was in the hall—a large square hall in the Italian style, with a fine central staircase leading to a gallery, from which the upper rooms opened. The walls above and below were hung with paintings, chiefly family portraits. Pour good modern copies in marble of four famous statues—the Apollo Balvidere, the Antinous of the Capitol, the Diana of the Louvre, and the Diadumenos of the British Museum—occupied the four corners of the ground-floor. The library and dining room doors opened to the left, the morning-room and drawing-room doors to the right, while the ball-room faced the main entrance, and was approached by two doors, one at each side of the staircase. Mr Braokenbury turned to the left, opened the library door, and went in. It was a pleasant, well-proportioned room, lined with bookcases, and lit at the farther end by a large bay window. The books were for the most part richly bound ; and on the tops of the bookcases were busts and bronzes, and majolica jars bright with blue and yellow arabesques and mediaeval coats of arms. "Cuthbert,” said Lord Braokenbury, standing up spare and straight, with his feet on the tiger-skin rug, and his back to the fire; "Cuthbert, I want a little talk with you—a little serious talk, if you can spare me a few minutes. Sit down.” -V The young man looked took a chair, and said : “ Certainly, sir, lam all attention.”- “ It is now more than a year since you left Oxford." " Fifteen months, on Monday next.” “Just so—fifteen months. And you have I hope, spent the time pleasantly ?” "Very pleasantly, sir.” Lord Braokenbury paused, He never found it particularly easy to sustain a conversation with his elder son; and to-day it seemed more than usually difficult. “I know how fond you are of yachting.” he said; and paused again. _“ I ought to be fond of it, sir. You have given me a charming yacht.” "And of Italy.” “ It is my native country.” A flash of quick displeasure rose to Lord Brackenbury’s face. "An Englishman’s native country is England,” he said hastily; "no matter on what soil he may chance to have been born." There was another silence, during which each waited' for the other to speak again. Then Lord Braokenbury changed his tactics. He abandoned his position on the hearthrug, dropped into an easy chair, and assumed a more confidential tone. *To return to the point from which we started,’ he said. ‘Life has its duties as well as its pleasures, and there are things more important in this world, my dear fellow, than yachting. ‘ Undoubtedly, sir.’ ‘ You are twenty-three years of age.’ ‘Not quite. I shall be twenty-thres in January, and we are still in December." Lord Braokenbury laughed. It was a pleasant laugh, though perhaps a little forced ‘You are a precisian,’ he said. ‘I had not learned to measure my words and speak by the book when I was of your age. We will say, however, that you are twenty-two years, eleven months, and twelve days old ; and at twenty-two years, eleven months, and twelve days it is time, according to my oldfashioned notions, that a man should begin to make something like serious use of his life.’

* Wbat is the particular use you wish me to make of mice, sir ?’ ‘Well—there are two particular uses I should be glad to see you make of it, Onthberc.’ ‘And those are—’ ‘To marry young, and go into Parliament.’ Mr Brackenbury looked grave, and the lines about his mouth grew set and hard. ‘ I have faith in early marriages,’ pursued Lord Brackenbury, watching his son’s face somewhat anxiously ; ‘ especially when one has a position to fill and a large future stake in the country. A young man can hardly be said to have struck root in his native soil till he marries. Now I want yon to strike root, my dear fellow; and to strike root quickly—not to go on floating about the world like a thistledown.’ Still Mr Brackenbury was silent. ‘ Well.’ said his father, ‘ have yon nothing to reply V * Not much, sir ; except that matrimony in the abstract has no attraction for me. I am not a marrying man.’ ‘■Sou think that, because it is a subject to which you have probably given no consideration, But you would see it in a different light if you felt that by marrying any one particular person you were doing what was just and right—what your father would wish, and the world and your own conscience would approve. ’ ‘ Do 1 understand, sir, that you are advocating a marriage, not of inclination, but of duty ?’ Lord Braokenburyl was momentarily embarrassed by the directness of the question. ‘ To a well-trained mind, Cuthbert, duty and inclination aro one,’ he replied, somewhat evasively. Mr Brackenbury smiled. ‘Pray come to the point, sir,”he said, with the slightest possible inflection of irony in the tone. ‘ Who is the lady 7 And why is it my duty to marry her 7 Lord Brackenbury felt that when these questions were asked, the worst was practically over. To answer them was easy. His cause was generous, and he was himself iso much in earnest that to plead it with effect was not difficult. Besides, he was too practised a diplomat not to be aware that, where matrimony was in question, a young

man of nnimpassionate temperament would be less difficult than one more ardent and' romatic. So he said what he had to say, and said it well, warming with his eubj set as he went on—showing how the old Squire had unwittingly sold hia son’s birthright for a mess of pottage—how hard it was for the Langtreys to lose so great a fortune by so mere an accident—how doubly hard it was for two helpless women now left in poverty and alone—finally,, how good and equitable, how chivalrous an act of restitution it was In his son’s power to perform by marrying the penniless heiress of The Grange. Mr Brackenbnry heard his father to the end, and said : * Do you mean the little girl whom I see in church with old Miss Langtrey on Sundays ?’ ‘ Mias Langtray is not old, my dear fellow,’ said Lord Braokenbury. ‘She is perhaps fonr or five years my senior, end I am not much over fifty,’ Well, sir, I may be unjust to the aunt, but one can hardly be mistaken as to the niece. My bride elect ia abont twelve years of aeo.' ‘ Upon my honor, no; she ia fifteen, or nearly so. Her mother married at twentyeight, and would be forty-four now if she were alive. This child was I think, born in the second year of her marriage. She looks very young, but she is no more twelve than 1 am.’

‘ Even supposing the young lady to be fifteen, don’t yon think, air, that yon are forecasting her future somewhat prematurely ?’ ‘My dear Cuthbert, ’ said I ord Brackenbnry impatiently, * I am not asking you to go at once to The Grange and propose to Miss Savage. I only seek to -to induce yon to be willing to marry her by and by—say three or fonr years hence—if the affair can be arranged meanwhile between the two families. ’ 1 1 hreo or fonr years hence ! Nay, sir ; who shall guess the possible inclinations of a little girl of fifteen some three or four years hence.’ ‘My idea is to have that little girl, as yon call her, brought up to look npon you as her future husband. Girls, yon must remember, if well-trained, have really no inclinations of their own, A judicious parent or teacher forms their inclinations in finishing their education, jnst as a skilful cook adds this or that flavor before sending a dish to table.'

‘ But suppose the cook—meaning, I presume, Miss Langtrey—declines to add the desired flavoring ? I have always understood that Mias Langtrey was her brother’s hero ; and that if the late Squire was a good hater, his sister was still a better one. ’ lord Braokenhnry laughed softly. * Leave Miss Lantrey to me, Cuthbert,’ he replied ‘I will undertake to manage her ’ ‘Having managed King Bomba so long, sir, I should think you could manage anybody,’ said Mr Braokenbury, Lord Brackenbnry winced. The King of the Two Sicilies was in his eyes a legitimate sovereign of the first water; and the popular nickname grated disagreeably upon his ear. But he was too politic to notice it.’ ‘Then, my dear Cnthbert,’ he said, ‘we are agreed?’ Mr Brackenbnry hesitated. ‘lf I marry at all,’ he said, speaking very slowly, and looking all the while into the fire—' if I marry at all, I would as soon marry Miss Savage as any other young lady —provided she be good-tempered, well brought up, and so forth; but, as a fact, I would prefer to remain single.’ ‘ln your position, Cnthbert ?’ ' I beg your pardon, sir; pray hear me to the end. I would prefer, I say to remain single ; but in deference to your wish, and in consideration of the circumstances of the case, 1 consent—provided that Miss Langtry is friendly and the young lady, when of due age, not averse. So mnch f r your matrimonial project. With regard, however, to yonr political project, I regret to say that I cannot entertain it.' Lord Brackenbnry’s brow darkened. ‘ you mean that you decline to go into Parliament ?’ ‘ I do, sir.’ ‘Absurd! Why, with a close borough here ready to your hand, and all my influence at your back, you would be a Cabinet Minister by the time you were five-and-thirty!’ ‘I am very sorry, sir,’ said Mr Brackenbnry ; ‘ but if there !a one career more distasteful to me than another, it is that of a politician. Besides * ‘ Besides what ?’ ‘There is yet another objection—an insuperable one, I think, in your eyes ’ ‘The objections are on your side, Cuthbert. There can be no possible objection on mine. That yon should represent Brackenbnry is almost the dearest wish of my heart.’ ‘That I should represent it you mean, according to the family tradition,’ said Mr Brackenbnry; ‘but I could not represent it according to the family tradition.’ ‘ln the devil’s name, Cnthbert, what do yon mean?’ exclaimed Lord Brackenbnry, forgetting, in the warmth of the moment, all his diplomatic sanvity. ‘ I moan, sir, that if I have any political leanings or views whatever, I am a Liberal.’ ‘A WHAT?’ ‘A Liberal, sir.’ *A Liberal! Gracious heavens!’ Lord Brackenbnry’s hair all but stood on end. If his son had proclaimed himself a Carbonarist, at Fourierist, a regicide, he could hardly have been more utterly aghast. Up to this hour, the Brackenbnrys had prided themselves from generation to generation upon being the very flower of Conservatism. Kever had their fair political frame suffered the faintest stain of Liberalism. What had Lord Bracbenbury done that this horror ahonld befall in his time ? He stared at his son in silence. He almost wondered that the library floor did not yawn beneath that young man’s feet and swallow him.

‘I am sorry to offend yonr prejudices, air,’ said Cnthbert Brackenbnry. Lord Brackenbnry made as If be was about to speak, checked himself—got np—walked the length of the room and back again— resumed his seat—and not only looked bat felt as if the end of all things was at hand. ‘We will not talk of prej ndioes, if yon please, ’he said at last, with a sort of gasp. * I have convictions —sacred convictions ; but no prejudices.’ ‘ I beg your pardon, sir.’ ‘ Not for the word, if yon please, Cnthbert —not for the word ; for the fact. It is impossible for me to express how deeply I am pained—and disappointed.’ Mr Brackenbnry was silent. ‘Of course, under these - these most unforseen circumstances, I am thankful that you do not care to go into Parliament. l—upon my soul— I think I should expire with vexation and shame, if a son of mine . . . But, there —I will not trust myself to speak about it. Let it pass—let it drop—let ns never mention it again.’ ‘The subject will not be re-opened by me, sir,’ said Mr Brackenbnry. • And—and Lancelot, perhaps ... God grant that the boy’s mind ho not tainted! Ton must promise me, upon your honor, not to inoculate him with these pernicious views.’ ‘Be assured, sir, I never have spoken, and never will speak, to Lancelot on matters of politics or party.’ «Thank yon. I must look to him now to represent the borough. He will have his mother’s fortune. It is not much ; but I will do what I can to add to it from my income. Ha must be brought up to take the borough.’ «I shall be only too glad, sir, to join with you in making any provision for Lancelot,’ said Mr Brackenbnry, warmly. * Thank you’ Just so. Wo will talk of it some other time.’ Mr Brackenbnry rose. ‘I am sony,’ ha said, ‘truly sorry, sir, to have disappointed you. But X cannot help my convictions.’ Lord Brackenbnry shook his head. He could not trust himsslf to say another word upon the subject. ‘Asregarcs Lancelot,’ said Mr Brakenbnry. with his hand on the door, ‘I am delighted that he should be brought up to take the borough. And I should ba still more delighted if he were brought up to take the young lady also.’ Baying which, he went out and closed the door. Lord Braokenhnry sank back in his chair, and covered his face with his hands. *A Liberal!’ he murmured despairingly, ‘Heavens and earth!—a Liberal I’ {To ie continued^