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Page 24
"Not yet. I--hope never."
"I wish they were in the fire."
"Perhaps some day you may put them there. You will have the right when I
am gone."
Then Steve silently kissed her, and went into the garden; and Ducie
watched him through the window, and whispered to herself, "It is a bit
hard, but it might be harder; and right always gets the over-hand at the
long end."
The first interview between the squire and Stephen after Barf Latrigg's
funeral was not a pleasanter one than this misunderstanding promised.
Sandal was walking on Sandal Scree-top one morning, and met Steve.
"Good-morning, Mr. Latrigg," he said; "you are a statesman now, and we
must give you your due respect." He did not say it unkindly; but Steve
somehow felt the difference between Mr. Latrigg and Squire Sandal as he
had never felt it when the greeting had only been, "Good-morning,
Steve. How do all at home do?"
Still, he was anxious to keep Sandal's good-will, and he hastened to ask
his opinion upon several matters relating to the estate which had just
come into his hands. Ordinarily this concession would have been a piece
of subtle flattery quite irresistible to the elder man, but just at that
time it was the most imprudent thing Steve could have done.
"I had an offer this morning from Squire Methley. He wants to rent the
Skelwith 'walk' from me. What do you think of him, sir?"
"As how?"
"As a tenant. I suppose he has money. There are about a thousand sheep
on it."
"He lives on the other side of the range, and I know him not; but our
sheep have mingled on the mountain for thirty years. I count not after
him, and he counts not after me;" and Sandal spoke coldly, like a man
defending his own order. "Are you going to rent your 'walks' so soon?
Eh? What?"
"As soon as I can advantageously."
"I bethink me. At the last shearing you were all for spinning and
weaving. The Coppice Woods were to make your bobbins; Silver Force was
to feed your engines; the little herd lads and lassies to mind your
spinning-frames. Well, well, Mr. Latrigg, such doings are not for me to
join in! I shall be sorry to see these lovely valleys turned into
weaving-shops; but you belong to a new generation, and the young know
every thing,--or they think they do."
"And you will soon join the new generation, squire. You were always
tolerant and wide awake. I never knew your prejudices beyond reasoning
with."
"Mr. Latrigg, leave my prejudices, as you call them, alone. To-day I am
not in the humor either to defend them or repent of them."
They talked for some time longer,--talked until the squire felt bored
with Steve's plans. The young man kept hoping every moment to say
something that would retrieve his previous blunders; but who can please
those who are determined not to be pleased? And yet Sandal was annoyed
at his own injustice, and then still more annoyed at Steve for causing
him to be unjust. Besides which, the young man's eagerness for change,
his enthusiasms and ambitions, offended him in a particular way that
morning; for he had had an unpleasant letter from his son Harry, who was
not eager and enthusiastic and ambitious, but lazy, extravagant, and
quite commonplace. Also Charlotte had not cared to come out with him,
and the immeasurable self-complacency of his nephew Julius had really
quite spoiled his breakfast; and then, below all, there was that
disagreeable feeling about the Latriggs.
So Stephen did not conciliate Sandal, and he was himself very much
grieved at the squire's evident refusal of his friendly advances. There
is no humiliation so bitter as that of a rejected offering. Was it not
the failure of Cain's attempted propitiation that kindled the flame of
hate and murder in his heart? Steve Latrigg went back to Up-Hill,
nursing a feeling of indignation against the man who had so suddenly
conceived a dislike to him, and who had dashed, with regrets and
doubtful speeches and faint praise, all the plans which at sunrise had
seemed so full of hope, and so worthy of success.
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