Captain Halliard.
CAPTAIN Halliard was as grim as an ogre, and evidently intended to make me pay the thousand dollars I owed my Aunt Rachel. Of course he did not care half so much about the money as he did to bring me to a realizing sense of the peril of living too fast. He had worked hard for me, and used his influence in obtaining the situation I then held. He was fond of power and influence, and a failure to consult him in regard to any important movement was a mortal insult.
His views of life and living were different from mine, and I found it necessary to steer clear of him. I do not say that this was not a mistake on my part—it was. If I had followed his prudent counsels, I should have kept out of trouble. I had sinned against my uncle, and was no more worthy to be called a protégé of his. I had married, I had taken a house, I had furnished it, I had given a party, without consulting him, and even without inviting him to any of the later festive occasions. I knew that they were not to his taste, and it was almost a cause of offence to ask him to attend a merry-making of any kind.
He had lent me three hundred dollars for my bridal tour, though he did not know what it was for—if he had he would not have loaned it to me. He made me pay him when it was the least convenient for me to do so. Now he crossed my path again in the same disagreeable manner. Aunt Rachel was very sick. Probably Captain Halliard had deemed it his duty to look over her papers while she lay insensible on her bed. Notes or interest might fall due. Perhaps it was proper enough that he should do so, but it was deused unfortunate for me.
It was equally unfortunate that I had written this note “On demand, with interest.” I had done so because I did not wish to fix a time when Aunt Rachel would feel compelled to ask me for the money. In avoiding a dun in this direction, I had courted one in an other. As sharp people are apt to do, I had overreached myself.
The captain was in bad humor. I had once been his favorite. If I was so now, I was under a shadow. But the case was a very simple one. I had been acting without his advice, and contrary to his well known opinions, which was perhaps very imprudent in me. He was a man of the world, with no fine feelings to interfere with what he regarded as his duty. Of course I could not think of such a thing as paying him. He looked ugly, and my pride was touched by the attitude in which he placed himself.
“Paley, you are going too fast!” said my uncle, sternly.
“I don’t think so, sir.”
“I think so!” he added, in a tone which was intended to indicate that he regarded the question as settled, and that it would be useless for me to attempt to argue the matter with him.
“I don’t know what you mean by too fast,” I replied.