John Kirkwood Leys

“ After a time the conversation changed again, for Alec began to talk to Cameron about their old College friends, and Blake walked on in silence. He was comparing, in his own mind, his lot in life with that of the two young men beside him. His advantages had been so much greater than theirs, and his performances had been so trifling! He had seen, and admired, and copied: they had struggled and acted. He was already feeling wearied of life, while Cameron was beginning what promised to be a successful career of great usefulness, and Alec was bravely setting out to battle with the world. ”

“ As to my uncle’s intentions I know nothing.’
‘Do you think, sir, that I, knowing my friend’s intentions, would have heard a will contrary to those intentions read out to him before signature, without saying a word of protest, or asking any explanation?’ cried the minister.
‘And do you think I would have said nothing if such a monstrous bequest had been in the will?’ retorted Semple.
‘Come, come, gentlemen,’ said Mr. Hatchett, who had been listening carefully to all that had passed. ‘Mr. Alexander Lindsay doubtless read what was in the will; and the will is here to speak for itself. ”

“ Alec flushed up, opened his lips, and closed them again without speaking. He could not tell his father that the insinuation conveyed by his words was untrue.
‘Ah, Alec!’ pursued the old man, in a softer tone, ‘think what an opportunity you are throwing away! An opportunity that will never come again. What life could be higher or nobler than that spent in saving souls?’ To this Alec made no reply. ‘What are all the honours and wealth of the world compared to being the instrument of saving one soul?’ asked Mr. Lindsay. ”

“ Afterwards Alec came to know London well, for he was never tired of wandering about the streets. He came to know that Cheapside and the Strand were not ‘London,’ nor even Westminster or Piccadilly. He lost himself, over and over again, in labyrinths of small, grimy streets, each twenty feet of which made a separate home. He found that in the East End there were miles and miles of land covered with manufactories, warehouses, and houses of repulsive ugliness filled with hardworking people. He came to the conclusion at last that the one thing in which London was unique was its unsearchableness. ”

“ It happened that that very evening Alec Lindsay called at his uncle’s, and as soon as the old man was aware that his nephew was in the house, he sent for him.
‘Alec,’ he said, ‘sit down. I have something to say to you.’
Alec obeyed, wondering what was coming.
‘I am decidedly of opinion,’ said Mr. Lindsay, in his old pragmatical way, ‘that it is not a good thing for a young man to be made suddenly rich. If he has enough to give him a start in life, that is all he needs. Wealth is often the occasion of a young man’s ruin. ”

“ How many men, able men, well-educated men, do you think there are in London, grinding away at law, or writing books, or painting pictures, or designing buildings till their hair is gray? Who ever hears of them, or thinks of them? They will never reach even the first rung of the ladder. Never.’
‘How, then, do men get on?’
Beattie lifted his eyebrows.
‘Some, a few, have exceptional gifts, and when they do get a chance they let it be seen. But, as a rule, those who come to the front don’t push their way through the crowd; they climb over other men’s heads. ”

“ And Alec looked as if he meant to have his way, whether it pleased Mr. William Beattie or not.
Beattie was half inclined to laugh in the other’s face, and yet he was impressed in spite of himself. In one moment he had mentally run over the circumstances again. It was one of his maxims never to make an enemy if he could help it. Was it worth while making an enemy of young Lindsay? True, he saw no way in which Lindsay could injure him—things were rather the other way. But he might be a rich and influential man some day. ”

“ She was on the point of telling her friend that she had had Alec at her feet; but she refrained.
‘They are both in love with you,’ said Alice tranquilly. ‘Which do you mean to take?’
‘I’m afraid it must be the other one,’ said Laura, turning away with a little sigh.
‘Why?’
‘Oh, Alec has so little sense. He might have been his uncle’s heir, I believe; and he has simply neglected his interests. He will always be a poor man.’ And the girl sighed again.
‘And this Mr. Semple?’
‘Oh, he is pretty sure to be rich.’
‘Don’t decide too hastily, Laura, my dear,’ said the elder girl. ”

“ Beattie burst into a hoarse laugh.
‘My dear fellow, you have the simplest notions. Never mind; you’ll know better in time. Learning! Now, look here. Take our own profession. That little drunken beggar in our office, MacGowan, knows more law than most men with wigs on their heads I have come across—more than many a Q.C. I dare say he told you as much himself.’
‘He did,’ said Alec, with a laugh.
‘And he gets eighty or ninety pounds a year. Take my own case. I know as much, and am as good a man of business (though I say it myself) as any of my governors. ”

“ Presently Sophy reappeared, bearing a tray on which was a pile of letters and newspapers. Hubert sprang up to relieve her of it.
‘I had no idea there could be so many, or I wouldn’t have troubled you,’ he said, looking at the heap with an air of disgust.
Then he lit a cigar, and sat down again.
‘Aren’t you going to open your letters, Hubert?’ said his uncle, after a pause.
‘No; there’s such a heap of them, and some are sure to be annoying. It will do quite as well to-morrow.’
‘Some of them may be important,’ rejoined the old man, after another pause. ”

“ Lindsay,’ said the girl, with a little laugh.
‘I don’t want to be educated!’ said Alec stoutly. ‘I think half the things here are coarse, stupid daubs, and half the rest are pretty, but senseless. They have no meaning. They don’t help you to love beauty or nature more—not one bit.’
‘Pray, sir,’ said a caustic voice behind Alec, ‘did you ever try to paint a picture?’
An old man, with keen black eyes, deep-set under bushy gray eyebrows, was the speaker. ”

“ If he had been his own master, he would not have gone back to London at all. He would have set off at once for another long, aimless tour. But he felt that something was due to his uncle, and shortly after he left the Castle Farm, he made his appearance without warning at Grove House.
‘Why didn’t you write and say you were coming?’ asked old Mr. Blake, in his usual peevish tone.
‘Really, sir, I didn’t think of it. I didn’t suppose it mattered.’
‘One always likes to know when anything is going to happen,’ said the old man, half offended at his nephew’s want of courtesy. ”

“ Nothing does matter very much, does it?’
‘Not if one lives for one’s self,’ said Sophy.
She feared she had said too much, but her companion did not seem to notice it.
‘By the way,’ he said after a pause, ‘that young cousin you’ve heard me speak of, Alec Lindsay, has just come up to town. I ought to be civil to him. He’s not a bad sort of fellow—a little countrified, that’s all. He gives one the feeling of there being a good deal in him, that will come out some day. Do you mind my asking my uncle if I may invite him to come here and dine some evening?’
‘Of course I don’t mind. ”

“ A man whom she did not recognise joined Semple. They seemed to have been travelling by the same train without knowing it. The two men passed her, walking slowly on account of the crowd, and conversing together as they went.
‘And Alec Lindsay is ill?’ she heard Semple say to his companion.
‘Yes; a bad cold, he says. I hope he won’t be able to leave the house for a week,’ was the reply.
‘Why?’
‘Ah! you don’t understand. You think we are in sight of land. Not yet. In fact——’
Laura could hear no more, for Semple and Beattie (who was his companion) had passed her. But her curiosity was excited. ”

“ On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays they read, or potter about their gardens, or gossip with the neighbours.’
‘They visit the sick,’ put in Margaret.
‘One afternoon a week is enough for that.’
‘And they visit all their people regularly.’
‘Yes; and some of them simply pay calls, and the zealous ones give away tracts and ask how your soul is. A piece of impertinence!’
‘Ah, Alec, you are sadly changed,’ said Margaret, withdrawing her arm from her brother’s shoulder.
‘At any rate, I admit I am not fit to be a minister.’
‘It will grieve father very much. ”

“ Alec was getting a little tired of his friend’s cynicism, so he rose to go.
‘I don’t believe it,’ said he to himself, as he made his way home. ‘There are plenty of fellows, fellows who have got on too, who wouldn’t do a dirty thing to save their lives. If it is impossible—well, so be it.’
William Beattie was soured by disappointment. He would not allow for the natural advantages which those before him in the race derived from wealth and business connections. He hated his employers, because they showed no disposition to ‘give him his articles,’ and make him a member of the firm. ”

“ They hang on to what men they do know, and flatter or bother them into giving them the opportunity they want. Then, when they have got it, they make the most of it. They never lose a chance of advertising themselves. Better, they say, be spoken of as a cad or a fool, than not be spoken of at all. They never lose an opportunity of sticking a spoke in a rival’s wheel; and they will half ruin a man one minute, and meet him with a “Well, old man,” the next, as if they were the greatest friends in the world.’
Alec’s face wore an expression of deep disgust. ”

“ It was small, dusty, and, what was even worse, dark, as a tall building opposite the only window obscured the light. There was no carpet on the floor. In one corner stood an old bookcase with cupboards underneath for papers; and in another there was a dilapidated fireplace.
‘Sorry to put you into such a poor place, but perhaps we’ll be able to get you a better room by-and-by,’ said Beattie with a smile; and Alec assured him that he wanted nothing better.
‘What sort of work would you like to begin with?’ asked the managing clerk, with another smile. ‘Conveyancing? or common law? ”

“ Adamson’s expenses as well as his own to the trust, if it should turn out to be five thousand pounds only, as he might unquestionably have done if the legacy had been one of half a million? And if not, seeing that he had asked Dr. Adamson to take what was really an unnecessary journey to London, and considering that his colleague’s family was twice as large as his own, would it not be incumbent upon him in equity to pay those expenses out of his, Dr. Mackenzie’s, own pocket? An Englishman would probably not have raised either point in the tribunal of his conscience. ”

“ She listened for the postman’s ring, and, crossing the hall apparently by chance, said to the servant who had answered the door-bell:
‘Is that letter for Mr. Lindsay?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then you may give it to me. I am going to his room now.’
On reaching the old man’s bedroom, she closed the door softly behind her, and going up to him with swift, noiseless steps, she said:
‘Dr. Mackenzie and James have gone out, uncle; and Miss Lindsay is asleep; so I have come to you for company. Do you mind my sitting here half an hour, while nurse goes to supper? ”

“ As the evening proceeded, however, and the wine in the bottles diminished, matters improved; and by the time the two young men had lit their cigars, Beattie was giving his views on the state of society and the general scheme of things with considerable freedom.
‘There’s no place in the world,’ said he, with much emphasis, ‘where there’s so many beggars on horseback, as there are in and about this city of London. Go out on the streets, or go to any of the fashionable suburbs, and see the kind of people who roll past in their carriages. ”

“ They might be swept off the face of the earth to-morrow, and London would never miss them.’
It occurred to Alec that the same thing might be said of a good many other social institutions in London, but he held his tongue.
‘Wealth is the great power, after all,’ resumed Beattie, ‘even in politics. Name ten famous men in the country who are not rich, or at least rich enough to live as wealthy people do. ”

“ Margaret kissed her brother’s cheek and left him. She had a feeling that he and she were far apart in religious matters, and she was right in her belief. Alec Lindsay had read modern philosophy; he had been taught at College that ‘free-thought’ was a man’s inalienable inheritance, and that it was a species of intellectual suicide to stifle a doubt. ”

“ You do not need to stay long, but to spend a day or two at the farm will hurt no one, and you may be of service to Alec.’
Thus spoke his heart while his judgment condemned; and Sophy, glancing at him, guessed something of what was going on in his mind. She had not failed to notice how her cousin (as she called him) had found his way down to Scotland again and again; and when she saw among his letters one bearing the Muirburn post-mark, she told herself that if he went to the north shortly after coming home she would know that her guess had been a right one. ”

“ But Alec could not help thinking that he could do better with himself than spend the next few years of his life as a clerk in his uncle’s oil-works. He was determined to try to climb the ladder of Fortune, even if he should be thrown down and crushed under the feet of the crowd. ”

“ How can you decide on a point that must lie between each man and his Maker?’
‘Because I have asked them,’ answered Alec. ‘Each chooses his own road. Some differ from the orthodox Presbyterian belief on one point, some on another, but none hold it in its entirety.’
‘There are many non-essential points,’ began the minister; but he was not sorry that at this point the door opened, and Miss Lindsay, followed by Laura, entered the room.
Presently luncheon was announced, and Semple, who was just then paying one of his frequent visits from Glasgow, joined the others on their way to the dining-room. ”