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Page 84
"In the mean time, Mr. Sandal, I have taken, as you will see, the proper
legal steps to prevent you wasting any more of the Sandal revenues.
Every shilling you touch now, you will be held responsible for. Also,"
and he laid another paper down, "you are hereby restrained from
removing, injuring, or in any way changing, or disposing of, the present
furniture of the Seat. The squire insists specially on this direction,
and he kindly allows you seven days to remove your private effects. A
very reasonable gentleman is Squire Sandal."
Without further courtesies they parted; and the deposed squire locked
the room-door, lifted the various documents, and read them with every
sense he had. Then he went to Sophia; and at that hour he was almost
angry with her, although he could not have told how, or why, such a
feeling existed. When he opened the door of the parlor, her first words
were a worry over the non-arrival, by mail, of some floss-silks,
needful in the bird's-nest she was working for a fire-screen.
"They have not come, Julius," she cried, with a face full of inquiry and
annoyance.
"They? Who?"
"The flosses for my bird's-nest. The eggs must be in white floss."
"The bird's nest can go to Jericho, or Calcutta, or into the fire. We
are ordered to leave Seat-Sandal in seven days."
"I would not be so absurd, Julius, so unfeeling, so ungentlemanly."
"Well, then, my soul," and he bowed with elaborate grace, "Stephen
Latrigg, squire of Sandal-Side, orders us to leave in seven days. Can
you be ready?"
She looked into the suave, mocking, inscrutable face, shrugged her
shoulders, and began to count her stitches. Julius had many varieties of
ill-humor. She regarded this statement only as a new phase of his
temper; but he soon undeceived her. With a pitiless exactness he went
over his position, and, in doing so, made the hopelessness of his case
as clear to himself as it was to others. And yet he was determined not
to yield without a struggle; though, apart from the income of Sandal,
which he could not reach, he had little money and no credit.
The story, with all its romance of attachment and its long trial of
faithful secrecy, touched the prejudices and the sympathies of every
squire and shepherd between Duddon and Esk and Windermere. Stephen came
to his own, and they received him with open arms. But for Julius, there
was not a "seat" in the Dales, nor a cottage on the fells, no, nor a
chair in any of the local inns, where he was welcome. He stood his
social excommunication longer than could have been expected; and, even
at the end, his surrender was forced from him by the want of money, and
the never-ceasing laments of Sophia. She was clever enough to understand
from the first, that fighting the case was simply "indulging Julius in
his temper;" and she did not see the wisdom of spending what little
money they had in such a gratification.
"You have been caught in your own trap, Julius," she said aggravatingly.
"Very clever people often are. It is folly to struggle. You had better
ask Stephen to pay you back the ten thousand pounds. I think he ought to
do that. It is only common honesty."
But Stephen had not the same idea of common honesty as Sophia had. He
referred Julius to Harry.
"Harry, indeed! Harry who is in New York making ducks and drakes of your
money, Julius,--trying to buy shares and things that he knows no more of
than he knows of Greek. It's a shame!" and Sophia burst into some
genuine tears over the reflection.
Still the idea, on a less extravagant basis, seemed possible to Steve.
He began to think that it would be better to compromise matters with the
Julius Sandals; better to lose a thousand pounds, or even two thousand
pounds, if, by doing so, he could at once restore Mrs. Sandal and
Charlotte to their home. And he was on the point of making a proposition
of this kind, when it was discovered that Julius and his wife had
silently taken their departure.
"It is a hopeless fight against destiny," said Julius. "When the purse
is empty, any cause is weak. I have barely money to take us to Calcutta,
Sophia. It is very disagreeable to go there, of course; but my father
advised this step, and I shall remind him of it. He ought, therefore, to
re-arrange my future. It is hard enough for me to have lost so much
time carrying out his plans. And I should write a letter to your mother
before you go, if I were you, Sophia. It is your duty. She ought to have
her cruel behavior to you pointed out to her."
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