The Toll-Gate Read online

  ‘When I die, Captain Staple, I shall leave behind me my name, my title, and my estates. My estates are encumbered; my title will embellish the snirp who is my grandson. A skirter like his father before him, and a damned loose screw! I shall be dead before he drags my name through whatever mire he’s wading in, but he’ll do it, as sure as check! I would remind you that it is also Nell’s name!’

  ‘I hope the case may not be as desperate as you fear,’ John said. ‘I am not acquainted with your grandson, but I have seen him, and I should judge him to be a weakling rather than a villain. May I say that one loose-screw can’t disgrace an honoured name?’ He smiled, and added: ‘By all accounts my grandfather was one, but we think our name a good one, in spite of him!’

  ‘Your grandfather! Ay, he was a rake and a gamester, but it was play or pay with him, and he rode straight at his fences! There was no bad blood in him, but in Henry there is more bad than good!’ He lifted his hand, and let it fall again, in an impotent gesture. ‘I knew that years ago, when I pulled him out of that first, damnable scrape – But Jermyn was alive then. It never occurred to me that Jermyn would be killed, or that I should become the helpless wreck I am – so helpless that I can neither protect my granddaughter from the gallantry of the vulgar rogue my heir has introduced into my house, nor fling the pair of them out of it!’

  ‘Don’t distress yourself, sir!’ John said. ‘With or without your leave I shall take care of Nell; and as for your grandson and his bacon-fed crony, you have only to say the word, and I shall be happy to throw them out of the house for you! Now, if you choose!’

  Sir Peter shook his head. He looked up at John under his brows, a smile twisting his lips. ‘No. No. Better not. There’s something afoot. That rogue has Henry under his thumb, and Henry’s afraid. While I live he has no right here, but when I die the place will be his – and I might die tomorrow.’

  ‘I hope not, sir, but I’m at one with you in thinking that we shall do better to keep these gentry where we can watch what they are about. I don’t fear for Nell. She at least is no weakling, and she has very faithful guardians in Rose and Joseph.’

  ‘She’s safe while I live,’ Sir Peter said. His hand worked on the arm of his chair. ‘I did my best!’ he said suddenly, as though in answer to a challenge. ‘Sent her up to her aunt for a season! A damned, insipid woman – nothing but pride and consequence, but she goes to all the ton parties! Sulky as a bear she was – but not too stiff-necked to pocket a handsome fee for her services! She had the infernal impudence to tell me my girl was a hoyden! Ha! Nell has too much force of mind for my lady’s taste! I could have dowered her then, but she didn’t take! No! And none of the town fribbles took her fancy! It was left for a libertine and a coxcomb – a Captain Sharp, if ever I saw one! – to tell me that he would be pleased to marry her! By God, if I could have my strength back for one minute – !’

  John interposed, his eyes watchful on Sir Peter’s face, but his deep voice very calm. ‘Do I indeed seem to you to be a libertine and a coxcomb, sir? But I’ll swear I’m not a Captain Sharp!’

  The fierce old eyes stared across at him. ‘Not you, fool! Coate!’

  ‘What, does he offer marriage? There must be better stuff in the fellow than I guessed. But why tease yourself, sir? To be sure, it is an impertinence, but persons of low breeding, you know, have such encroaching ways! I wish you will leave me to deal with Coate, and tell me I have your permission to marry Nell!’

  There was the glimmer of a smile in Sir Peter’s eyes. He said: ‘Does my permission count for so much with you?’

  ‘No,’ replied John frankly. ‘But with her it might! I should prefer, I must own, to address myself to her with your consent, but I won’t deceive you, sir! – With or without your consent I mean to marry your granddaughter!’

  The smile was growing. ‘Joe told me you were a fellow after my own heart, and for once in his life the rascal was right! I wish you well: you may be crazy, but you’re not a damned adventurer!’ His hand relaxed on the chair arm: his head sunk on to his breast again, but he lifted it, with an effort, when John rose to his feet, and said sharply: ‘Don’t go! Something else I have to say to you!’

  ‘I’m not going, sir.’ John waited until the head drooped again, and then walked quietly to the door which led into the dressing-room.

  Winkfield was dozing in a high-backed chair by the table, but he got up quickly, an anxious question in his face.

  ‘I think your master would be the better for his cordial,’ John said. ‘He is tired, but he will not permit me to leave him until he has told me something that seems to be on his mind. I think it will be best to let him have his way. Give me the cordial! I’ll see he drinks it.’

  The valet nodded, and turned to measure it into a wine glass. ‘If you could set his mind at rest, sir – !’

  ‘I can at least try to do so. Tell me this! Does that hang-gallows fellow below-stairs force himself upon Miss Nell’s notice?’

  ‘Once, sir – but I happened to be at hand. Since then, no. Not yet.’

  John nodded, taking the glass from him. ‘Send me word if he should become troublesome!’ he said, and went back into the bedchamber.

  Sir Peter’s eyes were closed, but he opened them as John came across the room, and said irritably: ‘I wasn’t asleep! What’s this?’

  ‘Your cordial, sir.’

  ‘I don’t want the stuff!’

  ‘Very well, sir. I’ll take my leave, then.’

  ‘Damned, managing fellow!’ snapped Sir Peter. ‘Sit down!’

  John put the glass into his groping hand, and guided it to his mouth. Sir Peter drank a little, and was silent for a few moments. Then he said, in a stronger voice: ‘Do as you’re bid! I’m not so feeble I have to be spoon-fed!’

  John obeyed him, drawing up the chair lately occupied by Nell, but he did not say anything. Sir Peter slowly drank the cordial. He made no demur when the empty glass was gently removed from his clasp; he appeared to be lost in thought, his eyes staring straight before him. Presently he turned them towards John, and said: ‘They think they can hoax me, but they can’t. All of them! – treating me as if I were a child, or an imbecile! I can’t get the truth from one of them – not even from Winkfield, though he’s served me for thirty years! Bacup is as bad! Thinks it would send me to roost if I knew what was going on in my house, I don’t doubt! Bottle-headed old woman! They’ve all gone, the men I knew and could trust. Birkin was the last of them, and he slipped his wind two years ago. It’s a bad thing to outlive your generation, my boy.’

  ‘Will you tell me what’s in your mind, sir? If I know the answer to whatever it is you wish to be told, I’ll give it you.’

  ‘I believe you will: you haven’t a cozening face. You’re a gentleman, too. I haven’t seen one for months – barring old Thorne, and he’s a parson, and not a man of my kidney. But you may believe I know when I’m being gulled, so don’t play off any cajolery! What brought my grandson and that Greeking fellow to Kellands?’

  John met the searching eyes squarely. ‘I can’t answer you, sir, for I don’t know.’

  ‘Henry didn’t come here out of affection for me, nor Coate to ruralize!’

  ‘Extremely unlikely, I fancy.’

  ‘They’re up to no good. It isn’t debt. No, not that. He’d have told me, if that was all. If there were a warrant out for his arrest, this is the first place where he’d be looked for. Are the pair of them using my house as a shield to cover some piece of filthy knavery?’

  ‘Gently, sir! This is nothing more than conjecture. The truth may prove to be less serious than you fear. Whatever it may be, only harm can come from your vexing yourself like this.’

  ‘Are you telling me you think that pair are here for any honest purpose?’ demanded Sir Peter.

  ‘No, I’m not. I think there’s something devilish smoky afoot, and that’s the truth!’ J