“Educate him,� answered Skelton, the indifference of his tone flatly contradicting the ineffably tender look of his eyes. “Bulstrode was made his guardian by one of those freaks of dying people. Pryor knew Bulstrode as well as I do, and he also knew that I would do a good part by the boy; but for some reason, or want of reason, he chose to leave the boy in Bulstrode’s power. However, as Bulstrode is in my power, it does not greatly matter. The boy has a little property, and I intend giving him advantages. His father was a university man, and Lewis shall be too.�
“I am afraid you will find the county dull after your life abroad,� said old Tom, abruptly quitting the subject of Lewis Pryor.
“Not at all. I have felt for some years the necessity of settling down to work, if I ever expect to do anything. Travelling is a passion which wears itself out, just as other passions do. I can’t understand a man’s expatriating himself forever. It is one of the benefits of a landed gentry that the soil grasps it. Nothing has such a hold on a man as land. It is one of the good points of our system. You see, I now admit that there is something good in our system, which I denied so vehemently before I was old enough to vote.�
“Yes,� answered Mr. Shapleigh. “Land, land, land! That’s the cry of the Anglo-Saxon all over the world. That’s why it is they are the dominant people; that’s why it is that they cannot exist on terms of equality with any other race whatever.�
“True,� said Skelton. “All races that come in contact with them are held in bondage of some sort. Rule or ruin is the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon everywhere.�
Skelton had not asked a single question about anybody in the county. This did not surprise old Tom, who was prepared to tell him a great deal had Skelton manifested the slightest curiosity. When he rose to go Skelton very civilly and gracefully thanked him for his care and guardianship, and made some slight, laughing apology for his own insubordination.
“No thanks at all—no thanks at all are due,� answered old Tom jovially. “I rather enjoyed managing such a property, and I flatter myself it did not decrease in my hands. As for managing you—ha! ha!—I admit that was a flat failure. So you brought back that black rascal, Bob Skinny?�
“Oh, yes; and I daresay some fine morning the other negroes will take him out and hang him to a tree outside my bedroom window. The fellow is perfectly intolerable—can find nothing good enough for him at Deerchase. He is a natural and incorrigible liar; and, worse still, he has learned to play on what he calls the ‘fluke,’ and between playing the ‘fluke,’ and telling unconscionable lies about his travels, he is a nuisance. The housekeeper told me, this morning, there would be a mutiny soon among the house servants if Bob wasn’t suppressed. But the dog knows his value to me, and presumes upon it, no doubt.�
Then came the invitation to dinner at Belfield, which Skelton accepted politely, but he would do himself the honour to call on Mrs. Shapleigh and his little friend Sylvia beforehand.
The call was made, but neither of the ladies was at home. A day or two after, old Tom Shapleigh had occasion to go on an errand about their joint water rights, to Deerchase, and Mrs. Shapleigh went with him. Then, too, as by a singular fate, Skelton was out riding about the plantation. But Bulstrode and Lewis happened to be in the hall, and Mrs. Shapleigh, who was dying with curiosity, alighted and went in on their invitation.