Harding gazed upon his master in horror and astonishment; for the newly-proposed arrangement did not at all coincide with his views and purposes. But Burrel, having given his orders in a tone that left no room for reply, walked on into the little parlor: and it was several minutes before his worthy valet could so far recover the shock as to find an excuse for evading the execution of his commands. He soon, however, summoned sufficient obstacles to his aid; and, having proceeded to order his master's horse, he returned and entered the parlor uncalled.
"I have ordered the groom to bring up Martindale, sir," he said, "because the bay needs shoeing. But I am afraid, sir, I can not get all the things ready for the coach. There is every thing to pack, sir, and all the bills to be paid, and not above three-quarters of an hour to do it in."
Burrel had been gazing forth from the window, seeing nothing upon earth; but his habitual command over himself was too powerful to suffer him to get deaf as well as blind, under any disappointment; and he turned immediately that the servant spoke. "I forgot," he said, taking out his pocket-book--"you must go up to-morrow morning. There is money to pay the bills;" and he noted down as carefully as usual the sum he gave, adding, "I shall sleep to-night at Dr. Wilton's, and shall be in town on Saturday. Have the traveling chariot taken to Holditch, to be put in order, as soon as you arrive. Call in all my bills in London; and get things arranged to set off for the continent in the course of next week."
The man bowed low, with his usual silent gravity; in a few minutes more the horse was at the door, and Burrel, riding slowly out of the town, took the road toward the house of his former tutor.
CHAPTER XVI.
"Hush, Master William! hush!" cried the old housekeeper, who, having lived from ancient and better days in the family at Emberton, could never forget that William Delaware had been once a boy, nor ever remember that he was now a man. "Hush, Master William! Miss Blanche is not well, poor dear--not well at all; and, indeed, I think--but there he goes!" and as she spoke, Captain Delaware, who had been calling loudly to his sister to come down and make breakfast for him, as he was in haste, hurried into the breakfast-parlor to perform that office for himself. It was not, indeed, that William Delaware was in the least indifferent to his sister's health or happiness, but he possessed that sort of constitution which hardly permits one to understand what sickness is; and although, had he known that Blanche was suffering under aught that he could assuage, or even sympathize with, he would have hastened in offer comfort and consolation, with every feeling of fraternal affection; he now only muttered to himself, "Oh, she has got one of those cursed headaches!" and proceeded to spoon the tea into the tea-pot, as if he had been baling a leaky boat. "Blanche has got a headache, and is not coming down," he added, as Sir Sidney Delaware entered; "and I have made tea, because I wish to reach Ryebury, and speak with the old miser before he goes out. The fellow must be shuffling."
Sir Sidney expressed his anxiety at the continuance of Blanche's headache, more strongly than his son had done. His eyes had been less quick than those of captain Delaware, in seeing the growing love between Burrel and his daughter, for such feelings had long before passed away from his own bosom; but his personal experience of sickness had taught him to sympathize with it far more than his son could do, and he was about to visit Blanche's chamber immediately, had not the business of Mr. Tims first attracted him for a moment, and then detained him till breakfast was over, and his son was about to depart.
With manifold directions to express surprise at the miser's want of punctuality, Captain Delaware was dismissed by his father, and took the way direct to Ryebury, fully determined to enforce Sir Sidney's rebuke, with many more indignant expressions. "Here," he thought, "my father might have been pressed severely by this time--insulted--nay, even arrested--because this scoundrel has not thought fit to produce the money--doubtless, keeping it to get the additional interest of a single day. If it were not for creating new obstacles, I would horsewhip him for his pains!"
William Delaware was naturally quite sufficiently hasty in his disposition; but people who are so, have not unfrequently a way of lashing themselves up into anger before there is any necessity for it, by conjuring up a thousand imaginary injuries or insults in the future, as soon as they have begun to suspect that Mr. A, B, C, or D, intends to offend or wrong them. Thus, it must be confessed, did William Delaware, as he walked along toward the house of the miser. First, he thought that Mr. Tims might strive still to delay the payment he had promised, in order to increase his gains by a day or two more interest; next, he imagined that he might wish to prolong the matter, in order to augment Sir Sidney Delaware's difficulties, and exact a higher commission; and then, again, it struck him that the miser, whose repute for double-dealing was rather high in the neighborhood, might have in view so to entangle the affairs of the family, as to get possession of the estate itself. Notwithstanding all this, it is true that William Delaware was not of a suspicious nature. All these phantoms were conjured up by anger at the foregone disappointment. A very slight circumstance--the delay of the payment--had raised them; and a less--even a few fair speeches--would have dispelled them. The distinction is necessary to the appreciation of his character. He was hasty in all his conclusions--rapid in his expectations of good or evil, as soon as his mind was set upon either track--but not suspicious; and, consequently, easily turned from one road into the the other.
It so happened, however--unfortunately enough--that while in the very height of his indignation at Mr. Tims, with that personage's evil deeds and qualities--real and imaginary--past present, or future--all red-hot and hissing in his mind, who should he encounter but the miser himself, with his sharp, red nose turned toward Emberton, and his hands behind his back. Mr. Tims saw him instantly; and as there were various questions which he was anxious to have settled and resolved before he entered into any discussion with either Sir Sidney or his son, he thought that he might escape by a side-path, which opportunely lay just at his left hand; and, consequently, making a rotatory movement on his right heel, he was turning in among the bushes, when he was arrested by the voice of the young officer, addressing him in not the most placable tones in the world. As Mr. Tims was well aware that among the _stadiodromoi_ he could not compete with so young an opponent as Captain Delaware, he instantly turned and met that gentleman, whose previous wrath was not a little heightened by this evident attempt at evasion.