Ferdy

“ I have told you how necessary it is, that Ferdy should have someone to guide him. While he is unmarried I must be his guide, but when Prudence becomes his wife, I have every hope that she will be able to keep him in order."
"Well, then, I wish you would marry the young scamp as soon as you can," said Ackworth, rather wounded. "It seems to me, Clarice, that you love him more than you do me."
"My dearest, the weakest always require the most love. You are strong, Anthony; you can walk alone. But poor weak Ferdy--"
"Selfish, greedy Ferdy," contradicted Ackworth. ”

“ Anthony was too disgusted for words. "Would you force the girl to marry him?"
"No. But he shall tell Prudence everything. The acceptance, or refusal, shall rest with her."
"You hear?" cried Ferdy, in triumph. "Other people are not so hard on me as you and Clarry are. Can I go to the Vicarage?"
"Yes," said Ackworth, seeing the hopelessness of bringing Ferdy to a sense of his sins. "Go, and, for heaven's sake, never let me see you again. You are worse than a villain, Ferdy--you are a fool," and he walked out, wondering how a girl like Clarice ever came to have such a blackguard for a brother. ”

“ One day I found little Ferdy alone, and singing merrily some pretty Spanish song. I told him I was rejoiced to find him in such good spirits, and asked him if he had not been having a jolly romp with the American carpenter's son, who lived in the Chinese house close by. My question seemed to afflict him with puzzled surprise;--he half smiled, as if not quite sure but I might be jesting.
"Oh, no, indeed! I have never played with him; I do not know him; I never play with any boys here. ”

“ He may not be in love with Butterfly at all."
"Why should he visit her, so--"
"He may have gone to see the mother, or to have a drink," said Anthony, vaguely. "Ferdy's an ass, but he's all right."
"But Dr. Jerce says he drinks and gambles, and--"
"I'll have to talk to Ferdy, and see if I can lead him in the right way," said Ackworth, with some impatience. "Don't trouble yourself over your brother, dearest. Every young man of that age is more or less of an ass. But it's only like a young colt kicking his heels in a flowery meadow." ”

“ Ordinarily she frowned on slang; but when Ferdinand's soul leaped into the arena she found slang a weapon strangely facile to her clutch.
“Coming down to brass tacks on this money thing, Ferdy,” said Mrs. Wimple, “you're not the downy peach you picture in the ads. I'll tell the world you're not! You kid yourself, Ferdy. Some of your bloom has been removed, Ferdy. Don't go so far upstage when you speak to me about the dross the world calls gold. The reason we can't afford a maid now is because you got swell-headed and kicked over that perfectly good magazine job you used to have. ”

“ Give me my income, and let me go out of your life."
"I'll do nothing of the sort," said Clarice, sternly. "You are not fit to look after your own life. If I gave you the two thousand a year--and remember I cannot do that until the two years are past--you would simply go headlong to ruin. No, Ferdy, you must marry Prudence, and she will look after you."
"How impossible you are, Clarry," cried Ferdy, greatly exasperated. "I tell you that I should like to marry Prudence, but she won't allow me to. Both herself and her father are against my becoming her husband. ”

“ Ferdy, leaning his elbows on the mantelpiece, admired his own handsome face in the round mirror, and furtively glanced at the reflection of his sister. The twins were wonderfully alike, and wonderfully good-looking, but Clarice, strange to say, was the more manly of the two. That is her manner was more masculine and decisive, her mouth was firmer, and she had the squarer chin. With his rosy oval face, his Grecian nose, his full lips, and soft brown hair, which lay in silky waves on his white forehead, Ferdinand was much too pretty for a man. ”

“ I can imitate Ferdy exactly. I shall have to, if I want to deceive Zara Dumps."
"The hussy" said Mrs. Rebson, vigorously; then, with a cracked scream, "Miss Clarice, what are you doing to your hair?"
"Cutting it off," said Clarice, snipping vigorously. "I can't expect to masquerade successfully with a woman's hair."
"Oh, Miss Clarry, Miss Clarry, your lovely hair," wept Mrs. Rebson, and but that Ferdy's life--as she thought--depended upon the assumption of Ferdy's personality, she would then and there have refused to join in, what seemed to her, to be a mad, fantastic scheme. ”

“ I'll say you will! You used to be a good sport about that sort of thing, Ferdy, but it looks to me as if you were getting spoiled rotten. You've had a rush of soul to the mouth, Ferdy. Those talcum-powder seances of yours have gone to your head. You take those orgies of refinement too seriously. You begin to look to me like you had a streak of yellow in you, Ferdy... and if I ever see it so plain I'm sure of it, I'll leave you flat. I'll quit you, Ferdy, twins and all.”
“Quit, then!” cried Mr. Wimple.
And then the harplike voice burst into song again, an offering rich with rage:
“Woman! ”

“ Ferdinand rose and flung his cigarette into the fire. "I won't have you talk like that to me," he declared, his voice thick with anger. "I am a man, and you are a woman."
"The reverse, I think," retorted Clarice, bitterly.
"You have got far too high an opinion of yourself," foamed Ferdy, kicking the logs angrily, "and when Uncle Henry dies, I'll show you who is to be master here."
Clarice ignored the latter part of this speech. "Why do you suggest that Uncle Henry may die?"
"He's ill--he can't last long," stammered Ferdy, evasively.
"How do you know? How does Dr. Jerce know? ”

“ Horran, or to Ferdy," said Clarice, turning from the window. "I'll see what I can do."
"Treat Master Ferdy tenderly," warned Mrs. Rebson.
"Oh, yes," replied Miss Baird, indifferently. "Things will come all right, Nanny. Ferdy, after all, is in love with Prudence."
"Another hussy," snapped the nurse.
"A very clever one, then. She would make Ferdy a good wife, and rule him with a rod of iron."
"He doesn't want that, Miss. You can lead him with a silken thread."
"I am quite sure Sarah Dumps can," said Clarice, emphatically. "Ferdy can always be led in the way he wishes to go. No, no!" ”

“ Rebson, wrathfully. "Oh, that Jerce man--I'll Jerce him if he dares to speak against Master Ferdy, who is an angel."
"There are two kinds of angels, Nanny, white and black."
"Master Ferdy's the kind of angel that plays a harp," said the old dame, with dignity, "and why shouldn't the poor boy amuse himself?"
"He'll get into trouble unless he's more careful. Drinking and gambling and sitting up all night with fast people." ”

“ But you must stop, Ferdy; really, you must."
"Never!" says Ferdy, gettin' a good grip on the cut glass exhibit.
"Such persistence!" says Ducky, shiftin' her searchlights from him to us and back again. "And he knows I have said I would not marry again. I mustn't. My managers don't like it. Why, every time I marry they raise a most dreadful row. But what can I do? Ferdy insists, you see; and if he keeps it up, I just know I shall have to take him. Please be good, Ferdy!"
Wouldn't that make you seasick? But the Bishop comes to the front like he'd heard a call to man the lifeboat. ”

“ Clarice looked down. "Anthony," she said, in a pained voice, "I have tried to fight against my doubts of Ferdy, but they will come. He is so weak, so tricky, so deceitful, and so carried away by his own selfish impulses, that he is capable of all things."
"Save murder. Ferdy is a fool, I grant you. But a murderer--no."
"I never accused him of murder," said the girl, faintly, "but he may be an accomplice."
"That's just as bad."
"Not when we know that Ferdy is so weak a man. Osip is strong-willed and may have coerced Ferdy into stamping Uncle Henry's forehead, after the death." ”

“ This, then, was the reason of Ferdy's visit to the Savoy Hotel. Sarah Dumps was in the field, and Ferdy was in her nets. Yet weak as the boy was, it seemed incredible that he should propose to one woman and immediately seek the company of another. Here, then, was another trouble for Clarice, and she did not know very well what to do. It was impossible to speak to Ferdy, as she had no proof that he loved Sarah Dumps, save from what Mrs. Rebson had said. A simple denial on the part of Ferdy would take the wind out of her sails, so to speak, and she would be helpless to do anything. ”

“ Clarice looked hard at him, and wondered if it would be wise for her to admit that she had seen Prudence, and knew the reason why the engagement had been broken off. A moment's reflection convinced her that, in dealing with so shifty a young man as he was, it would be better to deny all knowledge. Ferdy was playing some game, she was certain, and what the game might be, she wanted very much to learn. ”

“ But you are the prey of your own passions, Ferdy. You deny yourself nothing."
"Why should I?"
"Because it is by denial--by self-denial, that we make ourselves strong, Ferdy. Why, any woman could twist you round her finger."
"Any woman can twist any man, you mean. If you bring the sex question into the matter, Clarice, I admit that man is the weaker vessel. A woman can do what she likes with a man. Women rule the world, and why they should bother about this suffragette business, beats me."
"All men can't be twisted by women, Ferdy. Dr. Jerce, for instance." ”

“ Jerce made a gesture of annoyance, "Ferdy is so terribly weak."
"Don't be hard on him, doctor," she pleaded. "Ferdy never got on well with uncle Henry."
"He gets on with no one, my dear, save with those people who pander to his weaknesses." Clarice clasped her hands and looked anxious. "Doctor, there is nothing very wrong with Ferdy?" she asked, faltering. "No! no!" Jerce stopped in his walk to pat her shoulder. "I look after him as much as I can. Yet I must not disguise from you, Clarice, that Ferdy is--well, rather wild." ”

“ Jerce, but he is certainly a good man, and his example is one which Ferdy should follow. I wonder," she added, musingly, "if Ferdy ever saw Uncle Henry at the Shah's Rooms. That is just the sort of fast place which Ferdy would go to."
Anthony flicked the horse's ears with his whip, and laughed. "I have been there also," said he, coolly. "Perhaps I should not have confessed as much to you, my dear."
"Why not?" demanded Clarice, with perfect candour. "You must not think me a cotton-wool young woman. I quite understand that men are men." ”

“ Jerce. How much have you had?"
"That's my business."
"Mine also. Tell me, or I'll tell Uncle Henry."
"Only a few hundreds," snarled Ferdy, reluctantly.
"A few hundreds!" Clarice sank into her seat and looked at Ferdy with consternation. "And how on earth have you spent so much, in addition to your own income?"
"Money will go," lamented Ferdy. "Whenever I break a pound, I never have any left within the hour."
"You'll bring disgrace on us some day," said Clarice, with a pained look. ”

“ His grief for the guardian, who had been so kind to him, was apparently swallowed up by the reflection that he could soon be enjoying two thousand a year. His first glance round the drawing-room was in search of Barras.
"Where's that lawyer chap?" asked Ferdy, producing a cigarette.
"He has not arrived yet," replied Clarice, rather disgusted at this want of feeling. "How can you talk so, Ferdy, when poor Uncle Henry is just buried? Tell me about the funeral."
"There's nothing to tell," said Ferdy, flinging himself into the most comfortable armchair; "it was much the same as other funerals." ”

“ Do you see?"
"Oh, yes," said Clarice, cruelly. "I see that you love only one person, and that is yourself. What's the other woman's name?"
Ferdy started, and grew red. "The--the--the--other woman?"
"Yes. You talk about getting love in another quarter. In the Dumps quarter, I dare say."
"She's a lovely girl, and as good as they make them," said Ferdy, in a furious way; "don't you say a word against her, Clarry, for I won't stand it. You must respect her----"
"As my future sister-in-law?"
"Yes," said Ferdy, getting up to add dignity to his declaration. "Oh," remarked Miss Baird, coolly ”

“ In the face of this first failure to impose upon a clever man who wanted his own way, many a woman would have thrown up the sponge. But Clarice only stiffened her back in the face of the increasing difficulties. Come what may, she would masquerade as she intended, and learn the truth of Ferdy's hidden life. ”

“ As Ferdy shook his head, she explained further.
"I don't say that it isn't natural she should find you more--more--sympathetic than a man who is engrossed in business when he is not engrossed in dangling about a pair of blue eyes; but you ought not to do it. Think of her."
"I thought you objected to my thinking of her?" said Mr. Wickersham, lightly.
Mrs. Nailor tapped him with her fan to show her displeasure.
"You are so provoking. Why won't you be serious?"
"Serious? I never was more serious in my life. Suppose I tell you I think of her all the time?" ”

“ Ferdy announced to his father that the class-honor would be won if he would give him money enough, and the elder Wickersham, delighted, told him to draw on him for all the money he wanted. This Ferdy did promptly. He suddenly gave up running away from college, applied himself to cultivating the acquaintance of his fellow-students, spent his money lavishly in entertainments, and for a time it appeared that he might wrest the prize from Norman's grasp.
College boys, however, are a curious folk. The mind of youth is virtuous. It is later on in life that it becomes sordid. ”