It was not without a struggle on either side that they met on that morning, and as Darcy grasped his son's hand in both his own, his lip trembled, and his strong frame shook with agitation. Lionel's ruddy cheek and clear blue eye seemed to reassure the old man's courage; and after gazing on him steadfastly with a look where fatherly love and pride were blended, he said, “I see, my boy, the old blood of a Darcy has not degenerated—you are well to-day?”
“Never was better in my life,” said Lionel, boldly; “and if I could only think that you, my mother, and Helen had no cause for sorrow, I 'd almost say I never felt my spirits higher.”
“My own brave-hearted boy,” said Darcy, throwing his arms around the youth's neck, while the tears gushed from his eyes and a choking stopped his utterance.
“I see your letters have come,” said Lionel, gently disengaging himself, and affecting a degree of calmness his heart was very far from feeling. “Do they bring us any news?”
“Nothing to hope from,” said Darcy, sorrowfully. “Daly has seen Hickman's solicitors, and the matter is as I expected: Gleeson did not pay the bond debt; his journey to Kildare was, probably, undertaken to gain time until the moment of the American ship's sailing. He must have meditated this step for a considerable time, for it now appears that his losses in South America occurred several years back, though carefully screened from public knowledge. The man was a cold, calculating scoundrel, who practised peculation systematically and slowly; his resolve to escape was not a sudden notion,—these are Bagenal Daly's impressions at least, and I begin to feel their force myself.”
“Does Daly offer any suggestion for our guidance, or say how we should act?” said Lionel, far more eager to meet the present than speculate on either the past or the future.
“Yes; he gives us a choice of counsels, honestly confessing that his own advice meets little support or sympathy with the lawyers. It is to hold forcible possession of the abbey, to leave Hickman to his remedy by law, and to defy him when he has even got a verdict; he enumerates very circumstantially all our means of defence, and exhibits a very hopeful array of lawless probabilities in our favor. But this is a counsel I would never follow; it would not become one who has in a long life endeavored to set the example among the people of obedience and observance to law, to obliterate by one act of rashness and folly the whole force of his teaching. No, Lionel, we are cleanhanded on this score, and if the lesson, be a heavy one for ourselves, let it not be profitless for our poor neighbors. This is your own feeling too, my boy, I'm certain.”
Lionel bit his lip, and his cheek grew scarlet; when, after a pause, he said, “And the other plan, what is that?”
“The renewed offer of his cottage on the northern coast, a lonely and secluded spot, where we can remain at least until we determine on something better.”
“Perhaps that may be a wiser course,” muttered the youth, half aloud; “my mother and Helen are to be thought of first. And yet, father, I. cannot help thinking Daly's first counsel has something in it.”