JENKINS & CO.; OR, THE EGOTIST. A NOVEL BY E. WERNER. Author of "Students Manuel of Gorman Literature," "Chronological Guido to English Literature," &c, CHAPTER VII,

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 73, 25 October 1884, Page 4

JENKINS & CO.; OR, THE EGOTIST. A NOVEL BY E. WERNER. Author of "Students Manuel of Gorman Literature," "Chronological Guido to English Literature," &c,

CHAPTER VII,

A COMPLEX WOOING. Jessie sat sketching in the garden, and Gustav Sandow sat in the arbour near her. He had returned from the town, where he had been doing and undertaking every imaginable duty except, unfortunately, what the future head of the firm of Clifford was expected to do. For instance, he had not set foot in the office, but there were so many other things to do. First, Gustav called on a friend of his brother's, a rich banker, in order at his desire to give his opinion on a valuable picture lately imported from Europe. As critic and connoiseur were alike zealous, the inspection extended itself to the whole picture gallery of the banker, a moderately valuable one, and took several hours. Then both gentlemen went to a great meeting on the affairs of the town, which was held that day, and at which Mr Sandow, jun. had been an interested and enthusiastic listener. Lastly he had gone to a small private meeting of gentlemen of the press, who received him as a former member. The common interests of Germany and America were here so thoroughly discussed, and it had grown so late, that when they separated Gustav thought there was no use in going to his brother's office. He preferred going straight to the villa and joining the ladies. After such a useful day's work, he thought he was quite justified in enjoying himself to his heart's content, which could only be when he had had at least one quarrel a day with Miss Clifford. With this view he had sought for and found her with as little delay as possible. Jessie had visibly altered during the la^t fey weeks. Some secret sorrow, possibly unconfesscd to herself, had overshadowed her lovely face, which Mas graver and paler than before, and the lines round her mouth expressed a half scornful pain that had not been there formerly. The presence of her guest was evidently not conducive to her happiness, for «he avoided looking at him, and vent on sketching busily, returning only the .shorted and mos-t evasive an^weis to his remarks. Gustav, however, was not so easily got rid of. As his efforts at con\er»ation did not succeed, he rose and bent over the halffinished sketch, studying it critically. " A very pretty subject. It promises well, but you must alter the perspective, Miss Clifford ; it is altogether wrong." This had the desii ed effect. Jessie raised her head, and looked indignantly at her adviser. "You do not draw yoursolf, Mr Sandow ?" "No, but I criticise." "So I perceive. But you will allow me to consider my perspective correct until a real artist convinces me to the contrary." Gustav calmly resumed his seat. "As you please. I only claim that Frieda shall be our umpire. She has an uncommon talent for drawing, and has been thoroughly well taught." "Frieda !" exclaimed Jessie, letting the pencil rest. "I wanted to speak to you about her, though. She seems not far from success, for my guardian seems to grow more fond of her every day. To me it is very puzzling, when I think of the indifference with which he received her at first ; but Frieda must have known how to find the right side of his character, for she has suddenly awakened a deeper interest in him than I thought his cold, calculating nature was capable of. He cannot do without her now. He is unmistakeably annoyed when any mention of her possible going away is made, and this morning, without any encouragement from me, he proposed that our young guest should remain here as my companion." "Has he really done that?" exclaimed Gustav. "That is a great deal; much more than I dared to hope for. Then we are not far from our object." "That is what I think, and that is why I think it is high time to release the poor child from her painful and humiliating position. She passes for an entire stranger here, while she really stands in the most intimate relations to you, and is obliged continually to act a falsehood. Very often I see how some innocent question of my uncle's which she is obliged to crave brings the blush to her cheeks, and how anxious and embarassed she is in the role you have given her to play. lam afraid she is not str ng enough to endure it much longer." " She must endure it," cried Gustav. "I know she finds it difficult, and rebels sometimes ; but I know how to keep her obstinacy in order." Between Miss Clifford's finely pencilled eyebrows appeared a frown of displeasuie. "I confess, Mr Sandow, that I dislike the tone in which you speak of Frieda, and the way in which you treat her, extremely. You treat her completely as a child, who must defer entirely to your superior judgment, and quite forget the position she must some day take at your side." "She must be educated up to it," said Gustav carelessly. "She is now hardly sixteen, and I am nearly thirty ; so naturally I am a person to be respected by such a child." "So it appears. But I should require rather more from my future husband than that he should be merely a person I am bound to respect." " You would, of course, Miss Clifford ; that is quite another thing. No man would take such a tone with you." " Probably not, becauso my fortune would have greater claims on his regard. But to this poor dependent orphan, whom men raise in marrying, such a tone is allowable." The tone in which this remark was made sounded so bitter that it attracted Gustav's attention, and made him direct an inquiring look at the young lady. "Do you think Frieda is one of those who allow themselves to be raised ?" " No; on the contrary, I think she is very proud, and much more energetic than her age warrants. All the less can I understand her present unwilling submission to you." "Yes, but there is something due to education," replied Gustav. " But with reference to your proposal about telling the truth now, Ido not agree with you. You do not know my brother ; his opposition is by no means overcome yet ; and will be redoubled if he discovers what looks like a trick. The moment he finds out that I have purposely brought Frieda to see him with a definite object in view, his wrath will be brought down on us, and ho will soon Bhip us Back across the ocean." " That would be sad ; then you would lose the object of the whole intrigue." Jessie must indeed have been indignant to use the hateful word * intrigue,' but it passed harmlessly over Gustav.

" Jessie, that is what I am afraid of, and I do not theroforo wish to risk that object by any carelessness. My all depends on my remaining here." There was an odd sparkle in his oyes as ho said these last words. Jessie did not see it ; she had bent her head over her book again, and was drawing with renewed zeal ; but the pencil shook in her hand, and her strokes became more and more uncertain. Gustav watched her for a whilo, then suddenly roso again. " No, Miss Clifford, that will really not d» ; you must not treat the perspective so. Allow me a moment," Therewith he took the drawing and the pencil from her, and began to alter it. Jessie would have protested indignantly, but she saw in a minute that a practisod hand hold the pencil, and that a few powerful strokes had set right her mistakes. "You preten iled you could not draw!' she exclaimed, divided between anger and astonishment. "0, it is only dilettante knowledge that I dare not call talent. It is just enough to found my criticism on. Here, Miss Clifford." He passed here the book. Jessie looked silently at it, and then at him. "lean only admire" your accomplishments, of which this is a new proof. You are everything possiblo, Mr Sandow—politician, journalist, artist " " And merchant," added Gustav ; " you forget the most important— the ono 1 excel in most. Yes, I am a sort of universal genius ; but I faro the fate of all such, I fear — that of being unrecognised by my world." His half-satirical bow to the young lady showed that for the time he regarded her as his world. Jessie let the remark pass unnoticed, and began to pack up her drawing materials. "It is growing cooler ; I had better go in. Please do not trouble yourself ; I will send a servant to fetch my things, " and rejecting his aid with a slight movement of her hand, sir i--'i --'- * u - drawing only from the table, and left the arbour. Gustav shook his head as he watched her go. "I seem really to have fallen under her displeasure. She has not been the same for some weeks. I would rather hear her worst outbreaks at my egoism and want of conscience than this cool, measured sarcasm. I am afraid that it is high time that I brought out the truth, but I daro not risk Frieda's future. A catastrophe too soon would spoil everything." A carriage drove up to the gate of tho villa. It was Sandow returning, and he came into the garden. "So you arc hero already?" he said, noddintr to his brother. " Whore- arc the ladies ?" " Mi-* Clifford lm- just left mo." "And Miss Palm?" "She is probably down by the shore. I have not seen her hdpc I returned." Sandow V eye- wandered restlessly to tho lower part of tho gulden. Ho seemed to miss something, as Frieda had not come to meet him as usual. " I have not seen you since thismorning," ho said discontentedly. "You excused yourself on the plea of an important engagement, but I took if for granted that you would come to the office after an hour or two, What has kept you the whole day ?" "First I was at Henderson, tho banker's." "Oh, about the new loan that is being negotiated for M . lam glad you have spoken to him about it yourself." "Of course about the loan," replied Gustav, who had no conscience about deceiving his brother on tho score of his commercial enthusiasm, though in those wanderings through the banker's galleries no syllable had been spoken of the loan. As he had no desire to be examined as to tho other occupations of his day, he addod quickly : "And then we talked about a private affair. Mrs Henderson saw our young countrywoman last time she called here, and was quite fascinated with her. It is odd that this shy, quiet child should make conquests everywhere. From the first minute she saw her, Miss Clifford was one of her warmest friends." " The child is not so &hy and quiet as you think," replied Sandow, whose eyes still wandered to the shore. " Beneath her reserve she hides deep, passionate feeling, and an extraordinary character. I only discovered it by chance." "Since which you, too, are conquered. Truly, Frank, I hardly know you now. You treat this young stranger with an amount of consideration, and even affection, which you never deigned to show your most excellent only brother." Sandow had seated himself, and rested his head on his hand. "There is something so fresh and unspoilt in this young creature. She involuntarily recalls your own youth to your mind. She clings so to her enthusiastic ideas, her dreams of future happiness, and cannot understand that the world is in reality so different. Her ideas are foolish and childish, and will fall away when life teaches her otherwise; but when you hear her talk, by degrees all that you have once been lives again, all that you have had— and lost. " He again spoke in that subdued tone which those who knew him in those days had never heard him use, and which sounded like an echo from those far-off days gone by. Frieda must indeed have known how to find a side of his chaiacter no I one else knew of. What in Jessie was con- ! demned as exaggerated enthusiasm had in her found the way through this man's cold reserve. Gustav felt this inconsistency, and replied jestingly : — "All that should not be new to you. You have lived in the Clifford's house long enough, and Jessie has grown up under your own eyes." "Jessie was always idolised by his parents," answered Sandow coldly. "She was quite spoilt with love and happiness, and if anyone did not treat her with affection and flattery, she was afraid of them, and avoided them as she did me. I never was attracted by that blonde, soft, pitied child, and since she has grown up we are still farther from friendship. But Frieda, with her self-controlled reserve that has to be overcome before you learn her real character, has no weakness or indecision about her. When you have broken through her outer shell, you find only fresh life and power. I love such natures, perhaps because I feel akin to them ; and I am often startled to hear from this girl's lips opinions and sentiments which were mine at her age." Gustav did not reply, but ho watched his brother's face attentively. The latter noticed it, and as if ashamed of the warmth with which he had been led into speaking, broke off, and fell back again into his usual businesslike tone and ways. "You might have come to the office for an hour or two. There are some important matters to be attended to, and another letter from Jenkins. He is pressing for the fulfilment of your promise concerning the C Gazette, and it is time you did fulfil it. You must have had it ready long ago." "I did not know there was any harry about it," returned Gustav. "You havej not said a word about it for weeks." "There was a good deal to be done and said about the thing first. I have had a long correspondence with New York about it." "Which you have not handed over to me, as you did the earlier correspondence"

" Then I wanted to explain things to you. Now, however, it concerns disagreeablo differences which I must deal with myself." " I know— you wished to get out of it." Sandow turned on his brother with the same look of spoechloss astonishment with whioh ho had heard of his independent journey to the property. 41 1? Who told you that?" "No one. I thought so from what I saw, and now I see I was right in my guess." Sandow looked angrily at his brother, who seemed quite indifferent to his anger as ho stood before him. "Your powers of obsen-ation are quite dangerous ! A man should keep himself strictly undor control in your presence, or his most secret thoughts will not be safe. Well— l wished to withdraw. On further consideration I did not think that the speculation would bring us half the profit wo had promised oursolves. I tried to cancel our former agreement, and substitute some other partner, but found it impossible to do so. Jenkins insists on the fulfilment of our contract, and I am fast on all sides. So we must keep to the original programme." He explained all this in a short, angry tone, playing nervously with his note-book which he had drawn' out. His manner showed the force of the anger he with difficulty suppressed. Gustav apparently did not notica it, but answered with quiet decision : " But means can and will most certainly be found to set anyone free from such a contract." "No, because the money which I have already invested in the undertaking ties my hands. It will bo risked if I withdraw. Jenkins is just the man to hold me fast to the letter of the contract, and use it agains-t me, if I do not go on with him hand in hand. So the affair must take its course." " Ah, Mi>s Frieda, you have come at last !" These last words, which sounded like a sigh, were addressed to the young girl who then entered the arbour. Frieda, too, had altered during the last fow weeks, but the impression they had left on her was not the same they had left on Jessie The childish face, formerly so pale, had now a rosy Hush, and her dark eyes, though they were still grave, had lost their troubled shadow. They sparkled with pleased surprise when the young girl saw tho master of the house, whom" she approached with frank confidence. "Mr Sftiidow, you have come back alI ready ! I did not know, or else Uhould have come long ago; but,"— and, seeing the grave faces of the two gentlemen, she moved as though hhe would have left them, i " I ahi interrupting you '!" "Oh no,' 1 btiid S.mdow quickly. "We were having a dispute about business mat- ] tors, but, lam gl.id to end it. Stay here.' Ho threw I* f — m.ti-houk on tho table, a-id held out hi-> hand. This man, whose coldness and severity never seemed to melt in the family circle, indeed seemed to bo quite anothor creature. The fow weeks must have much altered him. Gustav greetod their young guest in the i polite but formal manner ho always used when his brother was present. "I have a message and an invitation for ! you. Miss Palm," he said. " Mrs Henderson is expecting you in a day or two to arrange the affair she spoke about to Jessie." '•What affair is that?" asked Sandow, becoming interested. Frieda for a moment looked at Gustav as if startled and perplexed, and now answered hesitatingly, "Mrs Henderson has dismissed hor companion, and has offered me the position. I should " " You Mill not accept it," interrupted Sandow decisively, and with perceptible annoyance. "What hurry is there? You will easily find other and better situations." " The Banker's house is one of the best in the town," remarked Gustav. " And Mrs Henderson is one of the most unbearable women in the town. She bothers the whole neighbourhood with her nerves and her whims, and her oomoanion is her first victim. No, Miss Frieda, you must give up all thoughts of it, I should never let you take such a situation a3 that." An almost imperceptible but triumphant ■mile passed over Gustav's lips. Frieda stood silently looking at the ground; her old reserve seemed to return with this treatment. Sandow misunderstood her silence ; he looked inquiringly at her, and added : " That is to say, I do not wish to oblige you to anything. If you wish to leave us "Oh no !" cried Frieda with such passionate earnestness that it drew a warning sign from Gustav to recall her to herself. She quickly recovered herself, and continued in a sinking voice, "I am only so afraid of being a burden to Miss Clifford." u That is a foolish fear for you to raise," said Sandow in a reproving tone. "A burden on us? My niece will soon convince you to the contiary. She will make you a better offer than Mrs Herderson's. Jessie is too much alone, and needs a companion ; it is not good for a girl of hor age to be a\ ithout a female companion. Will you be that companion, Frieda? Will you remain with us altogether?" The young girl raised her eyes to his ; they were dimmed with tears, and expressed something like a mute prayer for forgiveness. c ' If you agree to it, Mr Sandow, I will gratefully and willingly accept Miss Clifford's kindness — but only if you tell me to remain." A smile passed over Sandow's countenance ; it was short and fleeting, but it lit up his grave features like a sunbeam. uAm I such a dreaded authority in the house ? So Jessie has already spoken to you about it, ard you were afraid of my decision. Ho, child, I leave my niece full freedom to do it, and will go and speak to her about it immediately, to settle the affair altogether. Mra Henderson will hear to-morrow that she must look for another companion."