Beechcroft at Rockstone

The poor woman was evidently more anxious to bespeak patronage for her first-born, the pride and darling of her heart, than for those who might be thought to need it more, but she became confused and agitated when she thought of Alexis, declaring that the poor boy might have been hasty, and have disgraced himself, but it was hard, very hard, if they swore away his liberty, and she never saw him more, and she broke into distressing sobs. Sir Jasper, in a decided voice, assured her that he expected with confidence that her son would be freed the next day, and able to come to see her.

‘It’s the blessing of a dying mother will be on you, Colonel dear! Oh! bring him back, that his mother’s eyes may rest on the boy that has always been dutiful. No—no, Dick, I tell you ‘tis no disgrace to wear the coat his father wore.’ Wandering was beginning, and she was in no condition for Kalliope to leave her. The communicative Maura, who went downstairs with him, said that Richard was so angry about Alexis that it had upset poor mamma sadly. And could Alexis come?’ she asked, ‘even when he is cleared?’

‘I will ask for furlough for him.’

‘Oh! thank you—that would do mamma more good than anything. She is so fond of Richard, he is her favourite, but Alexis is the real help and comfort.’

‘I can quite believe so. And now will you tell me where I shall find your brother who took the letter, Peter or Petros?’

‘Petros is his name, but the boys call him Peter. He is at school—the Bellevue National School—up that street.’

Repairing to that imposing building, Sir Jasper knocked at the door, and sent in his card by an astonished pupil-teacher with a request to the master that he might speak to Petros White, waiting in the porch till a handsome little fellow appeared, stouter, rosier, and more English looking than the others of his family, but very dusty, and rather scared.

‘You don’t remember me,’ said Sir Jasper, ‘but I was your father’s colonel, and I want to find some way of helping your brother. Your sister tells me she gave you a letter to carry to Mr. Stebbing.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Where did you take it?’

‘To his house, Carrara.’

‘Was it not directed to the Marble Works?’

‘Yes, but—’

‘But what? Speak out, my man.’

‘At the gate Blake, the porter, was very savage, and would not let us in. He said he would have no boys loafing about, we had done harm enough for one while, and he would set his dog at us.’

‘Then you did not give him the letter?’

‘No. I wouldn’t after the way he pitched into me. I didn’t know if he would give it. And he wouldn’t hear a word, so we went up to Rockstone to the house.’

‘Whom did you give it to there?’

‘I dropped it into the slit in the door.’

‘You only told your sister that you delivered it.’

‘Yes, sir. Theodore said I must not tell sister; it would only vex her more to hear how every one pitches into us, right and left,’ he said, with trembling lip.

‘Is Theodore your next brother?’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Was he with you?’

‘No; it was Sydney Grove.’

‘Is he here? Or—Did any one else see you leave the letter?’

‘Mr. Stebbing’s son—the young one, George, was in the drive and slanged us for not going to the back door.’

‘That is important. Thank you, my boy. Give my—my compliments to your master, and ask him to be kind enough to spare this Sydney Grove to me for a few moments.’

This proved to be an amphibious-looking boy, older and rougher than Petros, and evidently his friend and champion. He was much less shy, and spoke out boldly, saying how he had gone with little Peter, and the porter had rowed them downright shameful, but it was nothing to that there young Stebbing ordering them out of the grounds for a couple of beastly cads, after no good. He (Grove) had a good mind to ha’ give ‘un a good warming, only ‘twas school time, and they was late as it was. Everybody was down upon the Whites, and it was a shame when they hadn’t done nothing, and he didn’t see as they was stuck up, not he.

Sir Jasper made a note of Master Grove’s residence, and requested an interview with the master, from whom he obtained an excellent character of both the Whites, especially Theodore. The master lamented that this affair of their brother should have given a handle against them, for he wanted the services of the elder one as a monitor, eventually as a pupil-teacher, but did not know whether the choice would be advisable under the present circumstances. The boys’ superiority made them unpopular, and excited jealousy among a certain set, though they were perfectly inoffensive, and they had much to go through in consequence of the suspicion that had fallen on their brother. Petros and Sydney should have leave from school whenever their testimony was wanted.

As Sir Jasper walked down the street, his elder sister-in-law emerged from a tamarisk-flanked gateway. ‘This is our new abode, Jasper,’ she said. ‘Come in and see what you think of it! Well, have you had any success?’

He explained how the letter could be traced to Mr. Stebbing’s house, and then consulted her whether to let all come out at the examination before the magistrates, or to induce the Stebbings to drop the prosecution.

‘It would serve them right if it all came out in public,’ she said.

‘But would it be well?’

‘One must not be vindictive! And to drag poor Kalliope to Avoncester would be a dreadful business in her mother’s state. Besides, Frank Stebbing is young, and it may be fair to give them a chance of hushing it up. I ought to be satisfied with clearing Alexis.’

‘Then I will go to the house. When shall I be likely to find Mr. Stebbing!’

‘Just after luncheon, I should say.’

‘And shall I take the lawyer?’

‘I should say not. If they hope to keep the thing secret, they will be the more amenable, but you should have the two boys within reach. Let us ask for them to come up after their dinner to Beechcroft. No, it must not be to dinner. Petros must not be sent to the kitchen, and Ada would expire if the other came to us! Now, do you like to see your house? Here is Macrae dying to see you.’

The old soldier had changed his quarters too often to be keenly interested in any temporary abode, provided it would hold the requisite amount of children, and had a pleasant sitting-room for his Lily, but he inspected politely and gratefully, and had a warmly affectionate interview with Macrae, who had just arrived with a great convoy of needfuls from Silverfold, and who undertook to bring up and guard the two boys from any further impertinences that might excite Master Grove’s pugnacity.

It was a beautiful day, of the lamb-like entrance weather of March, and on the way home Miss Adeline was met taking advantage of the noontide sunshine to exchange her book at the library, ‘where,’ she said, ‘I found Mr. White reading the papers, so I asked him to meet Jasper at luncheon, thinking that may be useful.’

If Sir Jasper would rather have managed matters by himself, he forebore to say so, and he got on very well with Mr. White on subjects of interest, but, to the ladies’ vexation, he waited to be alone before he began, ‘I have come down to see what can be done for this poor young man, Mr. White, a connection of yours, I believe.

‘A bad business, Sir Jasper, a bad business.’

‘I am sorry to hear you say so. I have seen a great deal of service with his father, and esteemed him very highly—’

‘Ay, ay, very likely. I had a young man’s differences with my cousin, as lads will fall out, but there was the making of a fine fellow in him. But it was the wife, bringing in that Greek taint, worse even than the Italian, so that there’s no believing a word out of any of their mouths.’

‘Well, the schoolmaster has just given me a high character of the younger one, for truthfulness especially.’

‘All art, Sir Jasper, all art. They are deeper than your common English sort, and act it out better. I’ll just give you an instance or two. That eldest son has been with me just now, a smart young chap, who swears he has been keeping his mother all this time—he has written to me often enough for help to do so. On the other hand, the little sister tells me, “Mamma always wants money to send to poor Richard.” Then again, Miss Mohun assures me that the elder one vows that she never encouraged Frank Stebbing for a moment, and to his mother’s certain knowledge she is keeping up the correspondence.’

‘Indeed,’ said Sir Jasper. ‘And may I ask what is your opinion as to this charge? I never knew a young man enlist with fifteen pounds in his pocket.’

‘Spent it by the way, sir. Ran through it at billiards. Nothing more probable; it is the way with those sober-looking lads when something upsets them. Then when luck went against him, enlisted out of despair. Sister, like all women, ready to lie through thick and thin to save him, most likely even on oath.’

‘However,’ said Sir Jasper, ‘I can produce independent witness that the youngest boy set off with the letter for the office, and the porter not admitting him, carried it to the house.’

‘What became of it then?’

‘Mr. Stebbing will have to answer that. I propose to lay the evidence before him in his own house, so that he may make inquiry, and perhaps find it, and drop the prosecution. Will you come with me?’

‘Certainly, Sir Jasper. I should be very glad to think as you do. I came prepared to act kindly by these children, the only relations I have in the world; but I confess that what I have seen and heard has made me fear that they, at least the elder ones, are intriguing and undeserving. I should be glad of any proof to the contrary.’

Carrara was not far off, and they were just in time to catch Mr. Stebbing in his arm-chair, looking over his newspaper, before repairing to his office. Mrs. Stebbing stood up, half-flattered, half-fluttered, at the call of this stately gentleman, and was scarcely prepared to hear him say—

‘I have come down about this affair of young White’s. His father was my friend and brother-officer, and I am very anxious about him.’

‘I have been greatly disappointed in those young people, Sir Jasper,’ said Mr. Stebbing uneasily.

‘I understand that you are intending to prosecute Alexis White for the disappearance of the fifteen pounds he received on behalf of the firm.’

‘Exactly so, Sir Jasper. There’s no doubt that the carter, Field, handed it to him; he acknowledges as much, but he would have us believe that after running away with it, he returned it to his sister to send to me. Where is it? I ask.’

‘Yes,’ put in Mrs. Stebbing, ‘and the girl, the little one, changed a five-pound note at Glover’s.’

‘I can account for that,’ said Mr. White, with somewhat of an effort. ‘I gave her one for her sister, and charged them not to mention it.’

He certainly seemed ashamed to mention it before those who accounted it a weakness; and Sir Jasper broke the silence by proposing to produce his witnesses.

‘Really, Sir Jasper, this should be left for the court,’ said Mr. Stebbing.

‘It might be well to settle the matter in private, without dragging Miss White into Avoncester away from her dying mother.’

‘Those things are so exaggerated,’ said the lady.

‘I have seen her,’ said Sir Jasper gravely.

‘May I ask who these witnesses are?’ demanded Mr. Stebbing.

‘Two are waiting here—the messenger and his companion. Another is your porter at the marble works, and the fourth is your youngest son.’

This caused a sensation, and Mrs. Stebbing began—

‘I am sure I can’t tell what you mean, Sir Jasper.’

‘Is he in the house?’

‘Yes; he has a bad cold.’

Mrs. Stebbing opened the door and called ‘George,’ and on the boy’s appearance, Sir Jasper asked him—

‘Do you remember the morning of the 17th of last month—three days after the accident? I want to know whether you saw any one in the approach to the house.’

‘I don’t know what day it was,’ said the boy, somewhat sulkily.

‘You did see some one, and warned them off!’

‘I saw two little ca—two boys out of the town on the front door steps.’

‘Did you know them?’

‘No—that is to say, one was a fisherman’s boy.’

‘And the other?’

‘I thought he belonged to the lot of Whites.’

‘Should you know them again?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Will you excuse me, and I will call them into the hall?’ said Sir Jasper.

This was effected, and Master George had to identify the boys, after which Sir Jasper elicited that Petros had seen the dirty envelope come out of his brother’s letter, and that his sister had put it into another, which she addressed as he described, and gave into his charge to deliver. Then came the account of the way he had been refused admittance by the porter.

‘Why didn’t you give him the letter?’ demanded Mr. Stebbing.

‘Catch us,’ responded Sydney Grove, rejoiced at the opportunity, ‘when what we got was, “Get out, you young rascals!”’

Petros more discreetly added—

‘My sister wanted it to be given to Mr. Stebbing, so we went up to the house to wait for him, but it got late for school, and I saw the postman drop the letters into the slit in the door, so I thought that would be all right.’

‘Did you see him do so?’ asked Sir Jasper of the independent witness.

‘Yes, sir, and he there’—pointing to George—‘saw it too, and—’

‘Did you?’

‘Ay, and thought it like their impudence.’

‘That will do, my boys,’ said Sir Jasper. ‘Now run away.’

Mr. White put something into each paw as the door was opened and the pair made their exit.

If Sir Jasper acted as advocate, Mr. White seemed to take the position of judge.

‘There can be no doubt,’ he said, ‘that the letter containing the notes reached this house.’

‘No,’ said Mr. Stebbing hotly. ‘Why was I not told? Who cleared the letter-box?’

It was the page’s business, but to remember any particular letter on any particular day was quite beyond him, and he only stared wildly and said, ‘Dun no,’ on which he was dismissed to the lower regions.

‘The address was “Francis Stebbing, Esq.,”’ said Sir Jasper meditatively, perhaps like a spider pulling his cord. ‘Francis—your son’s name. Can he—’

‘Mr. White, I’ll thank you to take care what you say of my son!’ exclaimed Mrs. Stebbing; but there was a blank look of alarm on the father’s face.

‘Where is he?’ asked Mr. White.

‘He may be able to explain’—courtesy and pity made the General add.

‘No, no,’ burst out the mother. ‘He knows nothing of it. Mr. Stebbing, can’t you stand up for your own son?’

‘Perhaps,’ began the poor man, his tone faltering with a terrible anxiety, but his wife exclaimed hastily—

‘He never saw nor heard of it. I put it in the fire.’

There was a general hush, broken by Mr. Stebbing saying slowly—

‘You—put—it—in—the—fire.’

‘Yes; I saw those disreputable-looking boys put it into the box. I wasn’t going to have that bold girl sending billy-doos on the sly to my son.’

‘Under these circumstances,’ drily said Sir Jasper, ‘I presume that you will think it expedient to withdraw the prosecution.’

‘Certainly, certainly,’ said Mr. Stebbing, in the tone of one delivered from great alarm. ‘I will write at once to my solicitor at Avoncester.’ Then turning on his wife, ‘How was it that I never heard this before, and you let me go and make a fool of myself?’

‘How was I to know, Mr. Stebbing? You started off without a word to me, and all you told me when you came back was that the young man said he had posted the letter to his sister. I should like to know why he could not send it himself to the proper place!’

‘Well, Mrs. Stebbing,’ said her husband, ‘I hope it will be a lesson to you against making free with other people’s letters.’

She tossed her head, and was about to retire, when Sir Jasper said—

‘Before leaving us, madam, in justice to my old friend’s daughter, I should be much obliged if you would let me know your grounds for believing the letter to be what you say.’

‘Why—why, Sir Jasper, it has been going on this year or more! She has perfectly infatuated the poor boy.’

‘I am not asking about your son’s sentiments but can you adduce any proof of their being encouraged!’

‘Sir Jasper! a young man doesn’t go on in that way without encouragement.’

‘What encouragement can you prove?’

‘Didn’t I surprise a letter from her—?’

‘Well’—checked the tone of triumphant conviction.

‘A refusal, yes, but we all know what that means, and that there must have been something to lead to it’—and as there was an unconvinced silence—‘Besides—oh, why, every one knew of her arts. You did, Mr. Stebbing, and of poor Frank’s infatuation. It was the reason of her dismissal.’

‘I knew what you told me, Mrs. Stebbing,’ he answered grimly, not at all inclined to support her at this moment of anger. ‘I am sure I wish I had never listened to you. I never saw anything amiss in the girl’s behaviour, and they are all at sixes and sevens without her at the mosaic work—though she is only absent from her mother’s illness at present.’

‘You! of course she would not show her goings on before you, said the lady.

‘Is Master Frank in the house?’ put in Mr. White; ‘I should like to put the question before him.’

‘You can’t expect a young man to make mortifying admissions,’ exclaimed the mother, and as she saw smiles in answer she added, ‘Of course, the girl has played the modest and proper throughout! That was her art, to draw him on, till he did not know what he was about.’

‘Setting aside the supposed purpose,’ said Sir Jasper, ‘you admit, Mrs. Stebbing, that of your own knowledge, Miss White has never encouraged your son’s attentions.’

‘N—no; but we all know what those girls are.’

‘Fatherless and unprotected,’ said Sir Jasper, ‘dependent on their own character and exertion, and therefore in especial need of kind construction. Good morning, Mrs. Stebbing; I have learnt all that I wish to know.’

Overpowered, but not convinced, Mrs. Stebbing saw her visitors depart.

‘And I hope her husband will give it to her well,’ said Mr. White, as they left the house.

They looked in at Beechcroft Cottage with the tidings.

‘All safe, I see!’ cried Miss Jane. ‘Is the money found?’

‘No; Mrs. Stebbing burnt it, under the impression that it was a love-letter,’ drily said Sir Jasper.

Miss Mohun led the way in the hearty fit of laughter, to which the gentlemen gave way the more heartily for recent suppression; and Mr. White added—

‘I assure you, it was as good as a play to hear Sir Jasper worm it out. One would think he had been bred a lawyer.’

‘And now,’ said the General, ‘I must go and relieve that poor girl’s suspense.’

‘I will come with you,’ volunteered Mr. White. ‘I fully believe that she is a good girl, though this business and Master Richard’s applications staggered me; and this soldier fellow must be an ass if he is not a scamp.’

‘Scarcely that, I think,’ said Miss Adelaide, with her pleading smile.

‘Well, discipline will be as good for him as for his father,’ said Mr. White. ‘He has done for himself, but that was a nice little lad that you had up—too good for a common national school.’

Wherewith they departed, and found that Kalliope must have been on the watch, for she ran down to open the door to them, and the gladness which irradiated her face as Sir Jasper’s first ‘All right,’ lighted up her features, which were so unlike the shop-girl prettiness that Mr. White expected as quite to startle him.

Richard was in the parlour in a cloud of smoke, and began to do the honours.

‘Our acknowledgments are truly due to Sir Jasper. Mr. White, we are much honoured. Pray be seated, please to excuse—’

They paid little attention to him, while Sir Jasper told as much to his sister as could well be explained as to the fate of her envelope, and added—

‘You will not be wanted at Avoncester, as the case will not come on. I shall go and see all safe, then on to town, but I mean to see your brother’s commanding officer, and you may tell your mother that I have no doubt that he will be allowed a furlough.’

‘But, Sir Jasper’ broke in Richard, ‘I beg your pardon; but there is a family from Leeds at Bellevue, the Nortons, and imagine what it would be if they reported me as connected with a common private soldier, just out of prison too!’

‘Let him come to me then,’ exclaimed Mr. White.

In spite of appearances of disgust, Richard took the invitation to himself, and looked amiable and gratified.

‘Thank you, Mr. White, that will obviate the difficulty. When shall I move up?’

‘You, sir? Did you think I meant you?’ said Mr. White contemptuously. ‘No; I prefer a fool to a knave!’

‘Mr. White,’ interposed Sir Jasper, ‘whatever you may have to say to Richard White, consider his sister. Or had you not better report our success to your mother, my dear?’

‘One moment,’ said Mr. White. ‘Tell me, young lady, if you do not object, what assistance have you ever received from me.’

‘You have most kindly employed us, and paid for Maura’s education,’ said Kalliope.

‘Is that all? Has nothing been transmitted through this brother?’

‘I do not understand,’ said Kalliope, trembling, as Richard scowled at her.

‘Sir,’ said he, ‘I always intended, but unforeseen circumstances—’

‘That’s enough for the present, sir,’ said Mr. White. ‘I have heard all I wish, and more too.’

‘Sir,’ said Kalliope, still trembling, ‘indeed, Richard is a kind son and brother. My mother is much attached to him. I am generally out all day, and it is quite possible that she did not tell me all that passed between them, as she knew that I did not like you to be applied to.’

‘That will do, my dear,’ said Mr. White. ‘I don’t want to say any more about it. You shall have your brother to-morrow, if Sir Jasper can manage it. I will bring him back to Rockstone as my guest, so that his brother need not be molested with his company.’