Beyond the City

Chapter 12

"Now, papa," said Clara that morning, wrinkling her

brows and putting her finger-tips together with the air

of an experienced person of business, "I want to have a

talk to you about money matters."

"Yes, my dear." He laid down his paper, and looked

a question.

"Kindly tell me again, papa, how much money I have in

my very own right. You have often told me before, but I

always forget figures."

"You have two hundred and fifty pounds a year of your

own, under your aunt's will.

"And Ida?"

"Ida has one hundred and fifty."

"Now, I think I can live very well on fifty pounds a

year, papa. I am not very extravagant, and I could

make my own dresses if I had a sewing-machine."

"Very likely, dear."

"In that case I have two hundred a year which I could

do without."

"If it were necessary."

"But it is necessary. Oh, do help me, like a good,

dear, kind papa, in this matter, for my whole heart is

set upon it. Harold is in sore need of money, and

through no fault of his own." With a woman's tact and

eloquence, she told the whole story. "Put yourself in my

place, papa. What is the money to me? I never think of

it from year's end to year's end. But now I know how

precious it is. I could not have thought that money

could be so valuable. See what I can do with it. It may

help to save him. I must have it by to-morrow. Oh, do,

do advise me as to what I should do, and how I should get

the money."

The Doctor smiled at her eagerness. "You are as

anxious to get rid of money as others are to gain it,"

said he. "In another case I might think it rash, but I

believe in your Harold, and I can see that he has had

villainous treatment. You will let me deal with the

matter."

"You, papa?"

"It can be done best between men. Your capital,

Clara, is some five thousand pounds, but it is out

on a mortgage, and you could not call it in."

"Oh, dear! oh, dear!"

"But we can still manage. I have as much at my bank.

I will advance it to the Denvers as coming from you, and

you can repay it to me, or the interest of it, when your

money becomes due."

"Oh, that is beautiful! How sweet and kind of you!"

"But there is one obstacle: I do not think that you

would ever induce Harold to take this money."

Clara's face fell. "Don't you think so, really?"

"I am sure that he would not."

"Then what are you to do? What horrid things money

matters are to arrange!"

"I shall see his father. We can manage it all

between us."

"Oh, do, do, papa! And you will do it soon?"

"There is no time like the present. I will go in at

once." He scribbled a cheque, put it in an envelope, put

on his broad straw hat, and strolled in through the

garden to pay his morning call.

It was a singular sight which met his eyes as he

entered the sitting-room of the Admiral. A great sea

chest stood open in the center, and allround upon

the carpet were little piles of jerseys, oil-skins,

books, sextant boxes, instruments, and sea-boots. The

old seaman sat gravely amidst this lumber, turning it

over, and examining it intently; while his wife, with the

tears running silently down her ruddy cheeks, sat upon

the sofa, her elbows upon her knees and her chin upon her

hands, rocking herself slowly backwards and forwards.

"Hullo, Doctor," said the Admiral, holding out his

hand, "there's foul weather set in upon us, as you may

have heard, but I have ridden out many a worse squall,

and, please God, we shall all three of us weather this

one also, though two of us are a little more cranky than

we were."

"My dear friends, I came in to tell you how deeply we

sympathize with you all. My girl has only just told me

about it."

"It has come so suddenly upon us, Doctor," sobbed

Mrs. Hay Denver. "I thought that I had John to myself

for the rest of our lives--Heaven knows that we have not

seen very much of each other--but now he talks of going

to sea again.

"Aye, aye, Walker, that's the only way out of it.

When I first heard of it I was thrown up in the wind with

all aback. I give you my word that I lost my bearings

more completely than ever since I strapped a middy's dirk

to my belt. You see, friend, I know something of

shipwreck or battle or whatever may come upon the waters,

but the shoals in the City of London on which my poor boy

has struck are clean beyond me. Pearson had been my

pilot there, and now I know him to be a rogue. But I've

taken my bearings now, and I see my course right before

me."

"What then, Admiral?"

"Oh, I have one or two little plans. I'll have some

news for the boy. Why, hang it, Walker man, I may be a

bit stiff in the joints, but you'll be my witness that I

can do my twelve miles under the three hours. What then?

My eyes are as good as ever except just for the

newspaper. My head is clear. I'm three-and-sixty, but

I'm as good a man as ever I was--too good a man to lie up

for another ten years. I'd be the better for a smack of

the salt water again, and a whiff of the breeze. Tut,

mother, it's not a four years' cruise this time. I'll be

back every month or two. It's no more than if I went for

a visit in the country." He was talking boisterously,

and heaping his sea-boots and sextants back into his

chest.

"And you really think, my dear friend, of hoisting

your pennant again?"

"My pennant, Walker? No, no. Her Majesty, God bless

her, has too many young men to need an old hulk like me.

I should be plain Mr. Hay Denver, of the merchant

service. I daresay that I might find some owner who

would give me a chance as second or third officer. It

will be strange to me to feel the rails of the bridge

under my fingers once more."

"Tut! tut! this will never do, this will never do,

Admiral!" The Doctor sat down by Mrs. Hay Denver and

patted her hand in token of friendly sympathy. "We must

wait until your son has had it out with all these people,

and then we shall know what damage is done, and how best

to set it right. It will be time enough then to begin to

muster our resources to meet it."

"Our resources!" The Admiral laughed. "There's the

pension. I'm afraid, Walker, that our resources won't

need much mustering."

"Oh, come, there are some which you may not have

thought of. For example, Admiral, I had always intended

that my girl should have five thousand from me when she

married. Of course your boy's trouble is her trouble,

and the money cannot be spent better than in helping to

set it right. She has a little of her own which she

wished to contribute, but I thought it best to work it

this way. Will you take the cheque, Mrs. Denver, and I

think it would be best if you said nothing to Harold

about it, and just used it as the occasion served?"

"God bless you, Walker, you are a true friend. I

won't forget this, Walker. "The Admiral sat down on his

sea chest and mopped his brow with his red handkerchief.

"What is it to me whether you have it now or then?

It may be more useful now. There's only one stipulation.

If things should come to the worst, and if the business

should prove so bad that nothing can set it right, then

hold back this cheque, for there is no use in pouring

water into a broken basin, and if the lad should fall, he

will want something to pick himself up again with."

"He shall not fall, Walker, and you shall not have

occasion to be ashamed of the family into which your

daughter is about to marry. I have my own plan. But we

shall hold your money, my friend, and it will strengthen

us to feel that it is there."

"Well, that is all right," said Doctor Walker,

rising. "And if a little more should be needed, we must

not let him go wrong for the want of a thousand or two.

And now, Admiral, I'm off for my morning walk. Won't you

come too?"

"No, I am going into town."

"Well, good-bye. I hope to have better news, and

that all will come right. Good-bye, Mrs. Denver. I

feel as if the boy were my own, and I shall not be easy

until all is right with him."