The American Boy

CHAPTER NINETEEN

IN MY ABSENCE, the schoolroom had filled with smoke. No one could remember the last time a fire had been lit in there. The flue of the chimney appeared to be partly blocked. The sweep was summoned for the following morning. In the meantime, Mrs Frant decided that Charlie and I should use the library on the ground floor for our lessons.

We sat at a table drawn near to the fire. I set Charlie to construe twelve lines of Ovid. He was willing enough but his mind could not stay on the task for long. I too found it hard to concentrate. Then the door opened, and the servant showed Mr Noak into the room. He wore evening dress, plain but respectable.

I sprang up, ready to withdraw with Charlie. The footman said sulkily that he had not realised that anyone was using the room.

‘Pray do not disturb yourself,’ Mr Noak said to me. ‘If I may, I shall sit here and turn the pages of a book until Mr Frant is at leisure.’

The servant withdrew. Mr Noak advanced towards the fire holding out his hands.

‘Good evening, sir,’ Charlie said. ‘We met at my father’s house a few weeks ago.’

‘Master Charles, is it not?’

They shook hands. Charlie was a well-bred little boy, and he now turned to me. ‘May I present my – my tutor, Mr Shield, sir?’

Noak held out his hand to me too. ‘I believe I saw you on the same occasion, Mr Shield. We were not introduced, and I’m glad to remedy the deficiency now.’

The words were gracious but Noak had a harsh, staccato way of delivery which made them sound almost insulting. I moved aside the table so he could warm himself at the fire. He looked down at the open book.

‘I do not approve of Ovid,’ he said in precisely the tone of voice he had used before. ‘He may have been a great poet but I am told he was licentious in his mode of life.’

Charlie stared wide-eyed at Mr Noak.

I said, ‘We choose passages which display his genius but do not dwell on his less agreeable qualities.’

‘Then again, one must ask oneself what is the utility of studying the languages of antiquity? We live in a world where commerce is king.’

‘Permit me to remind you, sir, that Latin is the language of natural science. Moreover, the study of the language and the literature of great civilisations cannot be wasted effort. If nothing else it must school the mind.’

‘Pagan civilisations, sir,’ Noak said. ‘Civilisations that passed their peak two thousand years ago or more. We have come on a little since then, I fancy.’

‘That we have been able to build so high is surely a tribute to the strength of the foundations.’

Mr Noak stared at me but said nothing. In my present position I could hardly afford to anger anybody. Yet he had talked such obvious nonsense that I felt it my duty to advance some counter arguments, if only for Charlie’s sake. At this moment the door opened and Henry Frant came in. The almost foppish elegance of his dress was in stark contrast to Mr Noak’s sober attire. Charlie caught his breath. I had the curious impression that he would have liked to shrink into himself.

‘My dear sir,’ Frant cried. ‘How glad I am to see you.’

As he advanced to shake hands, I gathered up our possessions and prepared to leave.

‘You have been renewing your acquaintance with Charles, I see, and with Mr Shield.’

Noak nodded. ‘I am afraid I have disturbed them at their studies.’

‘Not at all, sir,’ I said.

Mr Noak continued as if I had not spoken. ‘Mr Shield and I have been having a most interesting conversation concerning the place of the classical languages in the modern world.’

Frant shot me a quick glance but swerved away from this subject. ‘I have kept you waiting – I am so sorry. It was kind of you to meet me here.’

‘How does Mr Wavenhoe do?’

Frant spread out his hands. ‘As well as can be expected. I fear he may not be with us long.’

‘Perhaps you would prefer it –’ Noak began.

‘I would not on any account postpone our dinner,’ Frant said quickly. ‘Mr Wavenhoe is sleeping now, and I understand from his medical attendants that an immediate crisis is not to be expected. Nor is he expected to wake for some hours. They tell me the carriage is at the door.’

Noak lingered by the fire. ‘I had wondered whether I might see Mr Carswall here,’ he remarked. ‘He is Mr Wavenhoe’s cousin, is he not?’

‘He has indeed been here today, and may look in again,’ Frant said smoothly. ‘But I believe he is not in the way at present.’

‘I had the pleasure of meeting him and his daughter briefly the other evening. Though of course I knew him by reputation already.’

At the door, Noak paused, turned and said goodbye to Charlie and myself. At last the door closed and we were alone again. Charlie sat down in his chair and picked up his pen. All the colour and excitement of the afternoon had drained away from his face. He looked pinched and miserable. I told myself that a father must inspire awe in his children as well as affection. But Mr Frant always made it easier for Charlie to fear him than to love him.

‘We shall shut up our books for the day,’ I said. ‘Is that a backgammon board on the table there? If you like, I will give you a game.’

We sat opposite each other at the table by the fire and laid out the pieces. The familiar click of the counters and the rattle of the dice had a soothing effect. Charlie became engrossed in the game, which he won with ease. I waited for him to set out the counters again so I might have my revenge, but instead he toyed with them, moving them at random about the board.

‘Sir?’ Charlie said. ‘Sir, what is a by-blow?’

‘It is a child whose parents are not married to each other.’

‘A bastard?’

‘Just so. Sometimes people will use words like that when they have no basis in fact, simply with the intention of wounding. It is best to disregard them.’

Charlie shook his head. ‘It was not like that, sir. It was Mrs Kerridge. I overheard her talking to Loomis –’

‘One should not eavesdrop on servants’ tittle-tattle,’ I put in automatically.

‘No, sir, but I could hardly help overhearing, as they spoke loud and the door was open and I was in the kitchen with Cook. Kerridge said, ‘the poor mite, being a by-blow’, and afterwards when I asked her what it meant, she told me not to bother my head about it. They were talking about Uncle Wavenhoe dying.’

‘And she said you were a by-blow?’

‘Oh no, sir – not me. Cousin Flora.’

CHAPTER TWENTY

HENRY FRANT HAD miscalculated. While he was dining that evening at his club with Mr Noak, George Wavenhoe rallied. For a short time, the old man was lucid, though very weak. He demanded that his family be brought to him.

By then, the Carswalls had returned to the house and were dining with Mrs Frant. Charlie was in bed, and I was reading by the fire in a small sitting room at the back of the house. Mrs Kerridge asked me to wake Charlie and bring him down when he was dressed; she could not go herself because she was needed in the sickroom. A few minutes later, Charlie and I descended to the second floor, where we found Mrs Frant in whispered conversation with a doctor on the landing. She broke off when she saw Charlie.

‘My love, your uncle desires to see you. I – he wishes to say farewell.’

‘Yes, Mama.’

‘You understand my meaning, Charlie?’

The boy nodded.

‘It is not at all frightening,’ she said firmly. ‘He is very ill, however. One must remember that soon he will go to Heaven, where he will be made well again.’

‘Yes, Mama.’

She looked at me. Her face was very lovely in the soft light. ‘Mr Shield, would you be kind enough to wait here? I do not think my uncle will detain Charlie for long.’

I bowed.

She and Charlie went into the old man’s room. The doctor followed them. I was left alone with a footman. The man was in his evening livery, his wig a great crest of stiff white powder, his calves like twin tree-trunks encased in silk. He examined his reflection surreptitiously in a pier glass. I paced up and down the passage, pretending to look at the pictures which hung there, though I could not have told you their subjects a moment afterwards. Somewhere in the house I heard the rumble of Stephen Carswall’s voice, fluctuating yet constant, like the sound of the sea on a quiet summer night. The door of the room opened and the physician beckoned me towards him.

‘Pray come in for a moment,’ he murmured, waving me towards him.

He put his finger to his lips, lifted himself on to tiptoe and led me into the room. It was large and richly furnished in a style which must have been the rage thirty or forty years ago. The walls above the dado rail were covered with silk hangings of deep red. There was a huge chimney glass above the fire which made the room look even larger than it was. Candles on ornate stands burned at intervals around the walls. A large fire blazed in the burnished steel grate, filling the room with a flickering orange glow. What compelled attention, however, was the bedstead itself, a great four-poster with a massive carved wood cornice, hung with curtains of floral-patterned silk.

Amid all this outmoded magnificence, this Brobdingnagian grandeur, was a tiny old man, with no hair and no teeth, with skin the colour of an unlit wax candle, whose hands picked at the embroidery of the coverlet. My eyes were drawn to him, as though the bed were a stage and he the only player on it. This was strange, because in many ways he was the least significant person in the room. Besides the doctor and Mrs Kerridge, who kept back in the shadows, there were four people clustered round the dying man. Near the head of the bed sat Mr Carswall, his body spilling untidily out of a little carved wooden gilt bedroom chair. Standing at his shoulder was Miss Carswall, who looked up as I entered and gave me a swift smile. Facing them across the bed was Mrs Frant, seated in another chair, with Charlie resting on one of the chair’s arms and leaning against her.

‘Ah, Mr Shield.’ Carswall waved me forward. ‘My cousin wishes to add a codicil to his will. He would be obliged if you would witness his signature, along with the good doctor here.’

As I stepped forward into the light, I saw on the bed a sheet of paper covered in writing. A writing box lay open on the dressing table nearby.

‘The lawyer has been sent for,’ said Mrs Frant. ‘Should we not wait until he arrives?’

‘That would take time, madam,’ Carswall pointed out. ‘And time is the one thing we may not have. There can surely be no doubt about our cousin’s intentions. When Fishlake comes, we shall have him draw up another codicil if necessary. But in the meantime, let us make sure that this one is duly signed and witnessed. I am persuaded that Mr Wavenhoe would wish it, and that Mr Frant would see the wisdom of such a course.’

‘Very well, sir. We must do as my uncle desires. And thank you. You are very good.’

While this conversation was going on, the old man lay propped against a great mountain of embroidered pillows. He breathed slowly and noisily through his mouth, sounding like an old pump in need of grease. The eyes were almost closed.

Carswall picked up the sheet of paper from the coverlet. ‘Flora, the pen.’

She brought the pen and the inkpot to her father. He dipped the nib in the ink, lifted Wavenhoe’s right hand and inserted the pen between the fingers.

‘Come, George,’ he growled, ‘here is the codicil: all that is required to make things right is that you sign your name here.’

Carswall lifted the paper in his other hand. Wavenhoe’s eyelids fluttered. His breathing lost its regularity. Two drops of ink fell on the embroidered coverlet. Carswall guided Wavenhoe’s hand to the space below the writing. With a slowness that was painful to watch, Wavenhoe traced his name. Afterwards the pen dropped from his fingers and he let himself fall back against his pillows. The breathing resumed its regularity. The pen rolled down the paper, leaving a splatter of ink-spots, and came to rest on the coverlet.

‘And now, Mr Shield,’ Carswall said. ‘Pray oblige us by doing your part. Flora, hand him the pen. Sign there, sir, beside the writing box. No, stay, before you sign, write these words: “Mr Wavenhoe’s signature witnessed by me” – then write your name, sir, your full name – “on the 9th day of November, 1819.’’’

While he gave his instructions, he folded down the top of the sheet so I could not see the codicil itself, only Mr Wavenhoe’s signature. He handed the paper to Flora, who stood beside me, holding the candle so I could see what I was doing. I wrote what Mr Carswall required, and signed my name. Flora was standing very close to me, though without touching; but I fancied I sensed the warmth of her body.

‘When you are done, be so good as to pass the paper to the doctor,’ Carswall said.

I crossed the room and handed the codicil to him. Wavenhoe’s eyes were fully open now. He looked at me and frowned.

‘Who –?’ he whispered.

‘Mr Shield is Charlie’s tutor, sir,’ Flora said.

Wavenhoe’s eyes drifted away from me and he turned his head so he could see the Frants on the other side of the bed. He looked at Mrs Frant.

‘Anne?’ he said in a firmer voice. ‘I thought you were dead.’

She leaned towards him and took his hand. ‘No, Uncle, I am not Anne, I am her daughter Sophie. Mama has been dead these many years, but they say I am very like her.’

He responded to the touch, if not the words. ‘Anne,’ he said, and smiled. ‘I am rejoiced to see you.’