Part 47 (1/2)
”I never said you ought to have been more talkative. It's not my business.”
”The position you take makes it appear that I am in a false position.
Give me time to get about again. I ought at least to be more frank with my personal friends. Wait till I have opportunity to speak myself--that is all I ask of you. After that do what you will; but I think it only right to tell you that if you set up shop here, or near here, I should resign my place in this college.”
”I'm not going to stay here. I told you I see that won't work.”
”Don't be hasty. As I said, it's hard lines if this must separate us. I can keep the church. They can't be particular about my status there, because they can't pay me.”
”It's mad to think of such a thing; it would be worse for the college than for you.”
”If I knew it would be the worse for the college it might not be right to do it” (he spoke as if this had cost him thought), ”but there are plenty who can manage a concern like this, now it is fairly established, even if they could not have worked it up as I have.”
”I'd like to see them get another man like you!”--loudly--”H'n, if they accepted your resignation they'd find themselves on the wrong side of the hedge! They wouldn't do it, either; it isn't as if you were not known now for what you are. They can't be such fools as to think that where I am, or what I do, can alter you.”
”It is not with the more sensible men who are responsible for the college that the choice would ultimately lie, but with the boys'
parents. If the numbers drop off--”
”Then the parents are the greatest idiots--”
There was a world of wrath in the words, but the princ.i.p.al of the New College, who felt his position so insecure, laughed.
”Yes, you may fairly count on that. A clever woman, who kept a girls'
school, told me once that if she had to draw up rules for efficient school-keeping they would begin:--'1st. Drown all the parents!'--My own experience has led me to think she was not far wrong.”
Alec stood looking out of the open window with a thunderous face. For several reasons, some of which he hardly understood, he did not want to leave Ch.e.l.laston; but he had no intention of ruining his brother. It annoyed him that Robert should seriously propose to retire, and more, that he should let jokes and laughter fall on the heels of such a proposal. He did not know that there are hours to some men, coming not in the heat of party conflict, but in the quiet of daily life, when martyrdom would be easy, and any sacrifice short of martyrdom is mere play. And because he did not know this, he did not believe in it, just as the average man does not. His cogitation, however, was not on such abstruse matters, nor was it long, but its result was not insignificant.
”Put your money into it,” he said, ”and fight it out! Put part of my money into it, if you like, and let us fight it out together.”
Perhaps the sentiment that actuated the suggestion, even as concerned part of his own inheritance, was nothing more than pugilistic; the idea, however, came to Robert Trenholme as entirely a new one. The proceeds of his father's successful trade lay temporarily invested, awaiting Alec's decision, and his own share would probably be ample to tide the college over any such shock to its income as might be feared from the circ.u.mstances they had been contemplating, and until public confidence might be laboriously regained. The plan was not one that would have occurred to his own mind--first, because the suggestions of his mind were always prudent; secondly, because such a fight was shocking to that part of his nature which was usually uppermost. It would be far more agreeable to him to turn away from the averted eyes of correct taste than to stand brazenly till he was again tolerated. Still, this very thing he disliked most might be the thing that he was meant to do, and also there is nothing more contagious than the pa.s.sion for war.
Alec's bellicose att.i.tude aroused party spirit in him. He knew the power of money; he knew the power of the prestige he had; he began to realise that he could do this thing if he chose.
”You are a piece of consummate conceit,” he mocked. ”Do you imagine that with a little money, and a very few personal graces, we two can brow-beat the good judgment of the public?”
”The fun of the fight would be worth the money _almost_,” observed Alec parenthetically. Then he jeered: ”Brace up, and put on more style; put your groom in livery; get a page to open your front door; agitate till you get some honorary degrees from American colleges! And as for me, I'll send out my bills on parchment paper, with a monogram and a crest.”
”Do you so despise your fellow men?” asked Robert sadly.
CHAPTER VII.
For a day or two previous to the conversation of the brothers about Alec's decision, Alec had been debating in his own mind what, after all, that decision had better be. Never had he come so near doubting the principle to which he adhered as at this time. A few days went a long way in Ch.e.l.laston towards making a stranger, especially if he was a young man with good introduction, feel at home there, and the open friendliness of Ch.e.l.laston society, acting like the sun in aesop's fable, had almost made this traveller take off his coat. Had Robert been a person who had formerly agreed with him, it is probable that when the subject was opened, he would have confessed the dubious condition of his heart, and they would together have very carefully considered the advisability of change of plan. Whether the upshot in that case would have been different or not, it is impossible to say, for Robert had not formerly agreed with him, and could not now be a.s.sumed to do so, and therefore for Alec, as a part of militant humanity, there was no resource but to stand to his guns, forgetting for the time the weakness in his own camp, because he had no thought of betraying it to the enemy.
He who considers such incidents (they are the common sands of life), and yet looks upon the natural heart of man as a very n.o.ble thing, would appear to be an optimist.
However that may be, the conversation ended, Alec's heart stood no longer in the doubtful att.i.tude. There are those who look upon confessions and vows as of little importance; but even in the lower affairs of life, when a healthy man has said out what he means, he commonly means it more intensely. When Alec Trenholme had told his brother that he still intended to be a butcher, the thing for him was practically done, and that, not because he would have been ashamed to retract, but because he had no further wish to retract.
”And the mair fules ye are baith,” said Bates, having recourse to broad Scotch to express his indignation when told what had pa.s.sed.