READY-MONEY MOETIBOY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1636, 1 November 1873, Page 4

READY -MONEY MOETIBOY.

A MATTER-OF-FACT STORY.

Chapter XLlll— Continued

The river wound round the base of the hill on the top of which . the cross stood, and presently struck across Hunslope Park. Following the tow-path, Dick had not walked far before he saw the earl himself coming towards him. He' shook hands with him very cordially. "We are well met, Mr Mortiboy. How do you do ? I was thinking of calling upon you to-morrow at the bank. I want you to- "

"Ifit is about money matters, my lord, pray see Mr Ghrimes. I may mention that he is, or will be in a few days, my junior partner in the bank." "Indeed!" said his lordship, with surprise. "I was not aware that Mr Ghrimes had any fortune Mr Mortiboy. I have known him for many years, of course. Very happy to hear it. Very obliging, gentleman-like man." " Glad to hear your lordship say so." said Dick. "All our customers like George Ghrimes I think. Bat you are right about his having no fortune. The only capital that Mr Ghrimes will put into my concern is incorruptible honesty, untiring zeal, and high capacity for business — unless' I add to the credit account, my gratitude for fifteen years' faithful service of the firm of Mortiboy & Co." It was rather a high-flown speech for Dick to make, and he felt it; but there is something very invigorating in talking to a lord, until you get quite used to them. And he had only lately left a Republic behind him. His lordship's business with Dick ■was to tell him he wished to overdraw his account to a greater extent than it usually was. 1{ I shall have to write a great many cheques, Mr Mortiboy ; and my steward ■will not pay iv the bulk of the rents he has to receive for at least two months." Dick replied — "Of course, we shall do everything we can to fall in with your views." " Thank you very much, Mr Mortiboy. Pray is that your son I have seen you riding with ? I thought you were unmarried." "So I am. That is my ward." "We must marry you, Mr Mortiboy — marry you, and put you into the house. You ought to sit for Market Basing." " That's not my line, Lord Hunslope. I shall neither marry nor go into Parliament." " Property has duties, Mr Mortiboy. You have, if I am correctly informed, a very — very large stake in the country. In the interests of landed proprietors, we want men like yourself in the Lower House. Dangerous times like these demand the co-operation of all who have a stake in the country." "No," said Dick. "lam only waiting here for a while, and J shall go away again, with the boy— to the West, probably, somewhere or other. As for the property, in course of time it will go to my cousins, the Heathcotes, just as if I had never come home at all." Lord Hunslope stai-ed curiously at the strange man who thought so little of a great property. " You are a young man, Mr Mortiboy. You will perhaps change your mind, and marry." " I am not one of those who change their minds, Lord Hunslope. I shall never marry. ' A large part of my property, which my father made over to me, will go, I repeat, to my cousins. When they marry, they will have, as I intend to arrange before I go away, some portion ofitas their marriage dowries. My cousins are very goodgirls, Lord Hunslope ; and, so far as I can judge of young ladies, fit to take higher positions than that which farmer's daughters generally aim at. Not that I care about position. You see, I am more of an American than an Englishman. In the States, we don't ask many questions about a mar's family." " They are very— hum — very excellent young ladies. You know, Mr Mortiboy, that Mr Heathcote is a man for whom I have toe highest respect." " As your lordship is not a fool," said Dickj bluntly, " that goes without saying, as the French put it. You may add, if you like, that the Heathcotes are a veiy old family— had all this estate long before your ancestors got it." "That, also, I know. The Heathcotes are a representative race," said Lord Hunslope, a little taken aback by Dick's plain speaking. " Call at the Towers sometimes, Mr Mortiboy. The countess will be very glad to see you. Come, now, and take luncheon with us." Dick made an excise, and turned his steps homeward. The earl looked at him, striding along, great and strong, with eyes of envy.» He was young and rich. The peer was old and poor. " He is only a great boy, after all," thought the earl. "He knows nothing about our English life — and cares no- ! thing about it." Then he he bethought him about the Heathcote girls, and their prospects, *and went home. . " Have you remarked," he asVed the ! countess, " those two Heathcote girls?" "Grace and Lucy. Heathcote % • Oh, yes. I know them very well. Whatabout.them'J Their manners are quiet and simple, much above their station—very much above the manners of that very vulgar person, their mother." " I think so myself. Those girls, Alethea, will have a fortune of half a million sterling. That is, that large property will be divided between them." The countess looked up in amazement. !

1 " Half a million 1 You must be joking." ; " Not joking at all. I was never more in earnest. Young Mr Mortiboy, whom you saw at the children's sports the other day, told me himself, this morning, that he should not marry. He intends to go back to America, with a boy he carries about, and settle there. The two will have his money." "My dear, he is not five-and-thirty. He may live for ever. Above all, he is sure to marry." "He may live a long time, but he will keep his word. I have heard that young Ready-money, as they call him, always keep his word in the smallest particular. For the matter of that, his father always did the same. He told me this with the .most perfect seriousness. Now, think." The countess smiled. Mrs Heathcote is a horribly vulgar woman." " The father is not vulgar. John Heathcote is rough, but he is a gentleman in his way. There is no man I respect more than John Heatlicote. A [ good old family, too. They had Hun- 1 slope long before we were heard of." " Cadwallder founded our family," said her ladyship sweetly, who had only intermarried wifch the earls of Hunslope. " Certainly, with all that money, the girls would have a right to marry above their station, as things go." " Ronald is so shy," said Lord Hunslope. Yet this conversation was the beginning of Grace Heathcote's having a third wooer at her feet.

Chapter XLIV One more incident in the quiet life j of Grace Heathcote ; — an event which was not calculated to add anything to the sum total of her happiness, grateful as conquest is to beauty. The particularly fine evenings of that early autumn, coupled with the recol- j lection that croquet is a game net to be placed with comfort after the middle of October, did not tend to cause any diminution in the frequency of Lord Launton's visits to Parkside, He always had some little excuse for coming, and he did not want much pressing to take a mallet and join the little party on the lawn when he was there. It happened that, a very few days after Lord Huuslope's conversation with Dick Moitiboy, Mrs Heathcote had Lawyer Battiscombe, his wife, and daughters, from Market Basing, spending the afternoon with her. Mrs Heathcote — who was very fond of showing her town friends the beauties and conveniences of country life, heartily loving to hear them praise everything that appertained to Parkside, and secretly rejoicing over their envy — had strolled with her friend as far as the little cottage where the poultry-woman lived, and where her turkeys and chickens were kept. The two ladies, with the skirts of their silks well bunched up in front of them, had hardly struggled throngh the ramshackle wicket into the poultry-yard, when Mrs Battiscombe exclaimed — " Look, dear — there's a young gentleman coming to us. Why, isn't it Lord Launton V she added, letting down the train of her dress, quite in a flutter. Her friend was delighted. If there was one thing necessary to complete her triumph over the pretentious of the Battiscombe girls, it was to show off Lord Launton to their mother. She had been secretly hoping, ever since tea, that he would come. But she said calmly enough — " Oh, yes, it's only Lord Launton. I dare say he wants to see me or John about something." He came up, raised his hat to the ladies most politely, and began to stammer out his business to Mrs Heath cote. "I am a sort of deputation, Mrs Heathcote." " Yes, your lordship," said the lady, smiling very graciously. • ; "The boys' cricket-ground in the park is spoilt now — we have so many things in one part and in the other, the ground is not level ; and lam come to ask Mr Heathcote to be good enough to let them play in his home-field till the end of the season. It won't be long before it is over now." The young, man took a great deal of trouble to premote athletics among the Hunslope boys. " I dare say he will, if they don't do any mischief," said Mrs Heathcote \ " but boys are so mischievous." " You see, the field is close to the school ; and they must have a cricketground close at Band, if we can get them one. May Igo and look if the ground will do, if Mr Heathcote says we may have it ? I think the field is very level/ The home close was on the other side of the hedge. "It is so close to my poultry-yard," said Mrs Haathcote ; " they all run in the field. I'm afraid the boys will pelt the guinea fowls and hens. We have often had one killed, haven't we, Mrs Thompson?" With the honest bluntness of speech, .and stark insensibility to the claims of j the peerage to complaisant treatment, I which is characteristic of our peasantry when they happen to be somebody else's tenant's, Mrs Thompson replied — "That we have indeed, ma'am. There was the. white speckly hen only last week; and a parcel of young tearbeacons a-rommackin' all over the field, no poultry won't do no good — to say nothing of getting fat." "I'll be answerable for the good conduct of the 'teardeacons,'" said Lord Launton. " It is a good deal nearer my hen

coops than I like, your lordship ; but I've no doubt Mr Heathcote will give the boys leave." She meant to prevent him from doing it, though, all the same. There was a pause in the conversation, broken at last by Lord Launton ; who, feeling it a duty to say something, remarked, a little nervously — " What very fine turkeys you have, Mrs Heathcote." The woman who kept the poultry showed the visitors her collection of birds. " Take that water away from the coop with the ducks in," said her mistress. And then, turning to Lord Launton, she said— " They are two couples we're fattening, and I don't like to let 'em swill the barley-meal out as fast as they put it in." The young man smiled. "But, poor things, are they not thirsty this warm weather 1" " I don't know," replied the business- » like lady — "'they've got to get fat." ' Lord Launton moralized to himself on fhe miseries of the poultry-yard until they were joined by Mr Heathcote, who had come across his fields. He gave his promise about the cricketground, much to his wife's chagrin. They strolled back to the house together, and joined the little party on the croquet lawn. Sides were chosen afresh. John Heathcote, Grace, and Lord Launton played Lawyer Batoiscombe, his two daughters, and Lucy. Mrs Battiscombe was charmed ; but so was Mrs Heathcote. The two dowagers sat under a great elm, on the rising ground a* the top of the garden, ■ where they had a view of the road and the village. " Really, he's very affable," remarked Mrs Battiscombe. "He often comes over and plays at croquet. We like him very well." "I hope he won't run away with one of the girls' hearts, my dear," said the lawyer's lady — as it were, calling " check" to Lydia's king. She put her ring-bedizened hand affectionately on Mrs Heathcote's arm. " I never think of such things, Mary." They had been schoolfellows at Miss Prim's, and kept up the farce of Christian names, though neither had loved the other for ages. "He often comes to see us, and John likes him — that's all." i "Of course, we would never expect that he would be allowed — " Mrs Battiscombe began ; but her remark was 1 stopped by hearing the sound of wheels. " A carriage and pair ! Why it's Lord Huuslope and the countess," she cried, craning out her neck among the boughs. Now it was Lydia's turn to call "check." "Lords are as common as blackberries about Hunslope, my dear. I'm sure we never take any more notice of them than other folks." But she stood up, with her best cap just over the laurel hedge ; and when the countess bowed, and Lord Hunslope raised his hat, she gave a complacent, vulgar little nod. Their son saw the carriage, and turned rather red ; but when it stopped at John Heathcote's gate, and then came on slowly up the gravel drive, he became quite the colour of the poppies. The earl got out, and shook hands with the Heathcotes, and bowed to the Battiscombes. Lydia Heathcote took the visit as a matter of course. She left Mrs Battiscombe under the tree, and strolled up to the carriage. She had never shaken hands with Lady Hunslope before in her life, and only some half-dozen times with his lordship — generally on such occasions as when, riding round with his steward, he had called to solicit her husband's vote and interest for the Blues at the County election. But Mrs Heathcote did not see any good in letting the Battiscombes — and through them all Market Basing — know this, and she shaped her course accordingly. Lord Launton recollecting that it was getting rather late, drove away in his father's carriage. He expected to receive a sorrowing remonstrance from his mother — for the scion of the house founded by Callwallader had very clearly defined notions of the grades set out in the Table of Precedence — and sat, with his back to the horses, calmly awaiting it. It did not come. All his mother said on the subject was comprised in a very few words : that Grace and Lucy Heathcote were very amiable girls, and had very good blood in their veins. William de Heathcote, of Hunslope, was mentioned in Froissart. Now you see the effect of Dick Mortiboy's candid confession to the earl. He had been deeply moved by the intelligence that a man so rich — so extraordinarily rich — wasseriouslyprornisingnot only to leave his very great fortune to his cousins, but also to endow them with a portion when they should marry, fitting their future inheritance.

As for Mrs Battiscombe, she went home with her maternal bieast full of envy and uncharitable feeling, and spread the news all over Market Basing that Grace Heathcote had jilted poor Francis Melliship's son, as she always said she would, and was trying to catch Lord Launton, as if — &c. Mrs Heathcote, on the other hand, was in an ecstasy of delight. She got down " Burkes Landed Gentry" from the book-case, and read all about William de Heathcote, of Hunslope. She compared the Heathcote pedigree with the Smiths— only oity bankers, and like

her own family, the great Mortiboy stock, after all. Prom these authentic records she drew her own conclusions ; and every day she talked of Lord Launton, praised his personal appearance — the youth was by no means ill-looking, having a certain air of nobleness which comes of good breeding, and a miud kept steadily at a certain elevation — commended his manners, which had whatever merit belongs to shyness, and spoke in glowing terms of the happiness which would be the portion of that girl who might be come his wife. Now, all this fell upon the ears of Grace like the wind upon a fixed weathercock : it moved her not at all. She did not, to begin with, understand it. In the second place, she was to® full of her own cares to think much about them. Least of all did she fancy that the' heir of Hunslope Towers was about to propose to her. Meantime, Lord Launton, coming nearly every day on some excuse or other, out of very shyness, paid more court to Lucy than to Grace. " Really," said Grace, " I think, Lucy, dear, that Lord Launton has — now, don't blush, my child, because it's quite possible, and you are very pretty — has fallen — fallen — shall I go on ?" " Grace, dear," said Lucy, blushing more than ever, " don't — please don't." " Then T won't Lwcy." But the very rext day, Lord Launton proposed to herself. Proposed in the garden, just where Dick had made the same offer of his hand and heart : stammered and blushed — stammered till he could hardly speak : told her, in an infinite amount of reduplicated words and any number of consonants, how he loved her. Grace, this time, was neither pained nor touched. She only laughed. " Poor boy !" she said. "Do you know that I don't love you at all, and never could ? And do you know that you are the future Earl of Hunslope, and I only the daughter of a very plain gentleman?" " I know," said Lord Launton. "B — b — but I have my father's permission, and your father's p — p — " "Prohibition, I should hope," said Grace. "No, Lord Launton. No — no — no ! There, is that enough 1" Tte poor young fellow stooped his head to hide his tears. "Do I seem unkind ?" Grace asked. " See, Lord Launton, I do not mean to be unkind. I like you very much. I cannot understand how your father could give you permission to speak to me, or my father either. But you may know that I am already engaged — to Prank Melliship, your old schoolfellow." " I knew — that is, I ought to have known. G — G — G — Grace, is there no hope I—not1 — not the least hope V Once a-week."