On his return he found Sir Francis in his dressing-gown, with his sharp features sharpened by excitement, and his long, overhanging black eyebrows looking blacker and more like a ragged thatch than ever.
"I am sorry to find, sir," said Charles, "from what the servant says, that you have met with some business which is likely to detain me from Oxford. My place is taken by the coach, and I have a good many things which I wish to settle and arrange at the University before the actual commencement of the term."
"You are vastly eager to return, Charles," said his father; "lam almost inclined to fear that there may be some particular attraction there. But I should think that your father having occasion for you here, might seem a sufficient motive for your stay. It is not for my own pleasure, depend upon it, that I require you to remain. I can always spare your society willingly, for as long a period as you like; I am neither very much edified, very much instructed, nor very much amused by your pleasant and agreeable conversation, so do not suppose, my good sir, that my motives for detaining you are selfish: I have had some consideration for you in this matter, and I therefore had a right to trust that you would obey my directions willingly."
Charles Tyrrell bore this little spurt of parental tenderness in perfect silence. He knew that reply was vain; that whatever he might say to justify himself would but drive his father to show that he was farther in the wrong, and perhaps end by producing some of those more violent ebullitions which he was most anxious on every account to avoid. When the alarum had run down, however, he paused a moment, and then said, "May I ask what the matter is?"
"To consider, I suppose," replied Sir Francis Tyrrell, "whether it is your will and pleasure to remain or not?"
"No, my dear sir, no," replied Charles, somewhat impatiently; "I am perfectly prepared to remain, obeying your commands without any consideration, merely asked as a matter of curiosity."
"Well, sir, do not put yourself in a passion," replied Sir Francis; "you should learn, Charles, to be less captious and irritable, especially when speaking to your father. However, it is not necessary to enter into the subject for which I wish you to remain at present. Information has just been sworn before me, upon oath, in regard to some transactions which will be brought before me, I trust, by eleven or twelve o'clock to-day. Some of the persons implicated, I understand you take a very great interest in, and, therefore, I wished that you should be present yourself, in order that you might feel sure--as I know most young men are inclined to doubt their father's judgment--that nothing harsh or unpleasant has been done."
To the allegation against young men in general, Charles Tyrrell did not think fit to make any reply; and as he saw that Sir Francis chose to be mysterious as well as dogmatical, he asked no farther questions, leaving the matter to elucidate itself.
In order, however, to say something, and to make that subject agreeable upon the only topic that was left him, he answered, "I am very much obliged to you, sir, for your consideration; for though I have every confidence in your judgment, and my presence can, of course, alter in no degree what is to take place, yet I shall be glad, of course, to be present, if there is anything to be brought forward against people I take an interest in, merely in order to hear the facts."
There seemed so little to take hold of in this reply that he trusted his father would let it pass unquestioned; but Sir Francis was by no means in a mood to suffer anything to escape him, and, in consequence, he pounced upon his son's expression of a belief that his presence could not alter at all what was likely to take place, and, of course, he was the more angry upon the subject, as there was nothing to be angry about. He showed clearly and distinctly that the very idea was insulting to him, that he should have detained his son from Oxford to be present at an examination in which he could take no part, and to witness proceedings which he could in no degree alter. The thing was too absurd, he said, to be put forward except for the express purpose of annoying him, and on this copious theme he went on for nearly half an hour, proceeding slowly in his toilet while he did so, and interrupting constantly the act of dressing for the purpose of showing his son how much he was in error.