CHAPTER XII.
"Nella strada della Licatia vi è una chiesetta mal fornita, ove suole annidarsi uno dei romiti girovagi, ed anni sono vi abitava uno di barba e pelo rosso, che si procacciava il vitto colle spontanee limosine de' passaggieri, conforme a tutti i suoi antecessori. Teneva egli un cane addestrato in maniera che ad un cenno quasi indiscernibile investiva con gran furia i passaggieri, e ad un altro cenno faceva mille ossequiosi atteggiamenti e giuocarelli."
So said our worthy old friend, the Canon Joseph Recupero, and therein he afforded an excellent allegory, representing in faint colours the passions of a violent and irritable man, which, at the lightest sign, imperceptible in fact to any but his own eyes and to the feelings that he acts upon, now rise into unprovoked aggression, now sink into fondling and uncalled-for affection.
Ere Charles Tyrrell had been much more than a month at Oxford, he received a letter from his father, commanding him imperatively to return to Harbury Park, without assigning the slightest reason or motive whatever for the conduct he thus pursued. On first reading the letter, Charles was inclined--and what young mind is not so inclined?--to give way to hope; to imagine that the purpose of his father was, as Mr. Driesen had prognosticated, to propose to him that union which he desired more than any other thing on earth, to offer to him voluntarily all that he thought necessary to render him as happy as he conceived it possible for a human being to be.
But when he came again to examine his father's letter, to weigh the words and examine the expressions with accuracy, he found that there was an acerbity, a bitterness, a mysteriousness about the whole composition, which made him judge that the cloud would bear storm and tempest rather than genial and refreshing showers.
Some difficulties, of course, arose in regard to his leaving Oxford so soon after the commencement of the term; but these were speedily obviated; and merely announcing his obedience beforehand, he set out for Harbury Park.
We must notice, however, before we touch upon the events which took place after his return, the circumstances which now surrounded the society which he had left behind him. Lady Tyrrell had been more unhappy than ever, and had had more cause for unhappiness; for Sir Francis Tyrrell not having wished his son to go, and irritated at his going, had vented a great part of that irritation, which he had not thought fit to display towards Charles himself, upon those who were nearest to him during his son's absence.
Lady Tyrrell was, of course, the first that suffered. She herself, however, could retire to her own bedroom and let the storm blow by. But the very absence of the person on whom Sir Francis thought that his anger might be most justly expended, increased his irritation in a high degree, and kept him in the state of an avalanche ready to descend, but stayed by some trifling impediment, which only rendered the accumulation greater.
It unfortunately so happened, also, that no one would give him any cause for offence; that the servants ran like lightning to obey his orders; that the horses themselves seemed to be more tractable and easy under the consciousness of an impending catastrophe; and that Mr. Driesen, with extraordinary skill and forethought, avoided the slightest occasion of offence, though he did not fail to launch the little biting sarcasms which, by showing him constantly prepared to assail others, tended not a little to guard him from assault.
Through a long life, as we have said, Sir Francis and Mr. Driesen had never quarrelled; and Sir Francis had generated in himself a sort of affectionate regard towards Driesen, which, without respect or esteem, or any of those qualities that seemed requisite to render regard permanent, had outlived many trials, and rather increased than diminished. It is true that Mr. Driesen was under some pecuniary obligations to Sir Francis Tyrrell, and Sir Francis was too generous in regard to such transactions not to feel that such a circumstance ought to act as a check and control upon him. This was, indeed, the only kind of restraint he knew, and it is but justice to point it out, and to say that, on many occasions, it acted as a barrier, when, had it not been for that, his wrath might have poured forth upon his friend as well as upon his wife or son. As very rarely happens, indeed, the existence of pecuniary obligations had given permanence to the friendship of two men of very dissimilar characters and of no very steadfast religious principles.