GEORGE HERN 
 
 A flood. 
 
 r.\ 
 
 HENRY GLEMHA M. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 goidum: 
 
 SAMUEL TINSLEY & CO., 
 io, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND. 
 
 1878. 
 
 IAU Rights Reserved. J

 
 
 GEORGE HERN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 One afternoon in early May, a few years ago, 
 a post-carriage, under the guidance of Ostler 
 Hicklewade, of the Hanging Sword hotel, 
 Heathhammock, might have been seen on 
 the skirts of that pleasant little Suffolk sea- 
 
 N 
 
 ^ port, crossing the breezy bridge over Sam- 
 phire Creek, an effluent of the Ant, the 
 
 % 
 
 harbour river. 
 
 o 
 
 Passing briskly the one-storied cottage 
 o 
 tf that was once the toll-house, and still took 
 
 an official air from the board of " Caution to 
 
 Vagrants " nailed upon it, the new red gas- 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 2 George Hern. 
 
 works, the antique, ivied Lug-sail Inn (fit back- 
 ground for a group of Morland's rustics), the 
 roadway branching southward to the great 
 flat common, and the white mill, with sunny- 
 window out-glowing any golden grain within, 
 it entered Cliff Street, the broad and level 
 main-street of the town. 
 
 Winding round the south side of the 
 market-place, past the Hanging Sword, 
 whereat the horses, with back-turned ears, 
 seemed on the alert for instructions to stop, 
 the carriage clattered down South Cliff Street 
 to Battery Green. 
 
 In a few moments it had grated along the 
 drive of Castle House, and drew up at the 
 front-door, with a graceful slope of lawn and 
 myrtle-bed between it and the ancient guns 
 that fringed the public path upon the cliff- 
 edge. 
 
 A stout, glossy-haired, smiling butler 
 ushered from the carriage a young man of
 
 George Hern. 3 
 
 about twenty-five years of age, who carried a 
 red-lined rug of guanaco-skin, and was fol- 
 lowed by a white bull-terrier. ^ 
 
 " Ha! quaint, patchwork, but not unimpos- 
 ing pile of my fathers !" he exclaimed, glancing 
 with a smile of good-humoured satisfaction at 
 the house before him, with its battlements 
 and stone facings, its peristyle colonnade, and 
 two small multangular towers. " As some- 
 body said in the play, ' I am with you once 
 
 J?? 
 again. 
 
 His gun-case and other luggage having 
 been stacked in the hall, and Hicklewade (in 
 Heathhammock fashion) regaled with gin 
 and beer, that ostler drove away cursing in 
 his soul the smiling butler for half-filling his 
 mug with froth, but agreeably conscious of 
 his own connection with an arrival of inte- 
 rest. For though seaside visitors would, in 
 fine weather, begin to come to the town 
 about this time, he had set down no mere 
 
 1 — 2
 
 4 George Hern. 
 
 visitor at Castle House, but Mr. Storker 
 Ashbocking, the son of Mr. Kidd Ashbock- 
 ing, the Heathhammock banker ; and was it 
 not matter of town-talk that this Storker, , 
 after his American tour (a refreshment neces- 
 sitated by legal examinations), was to settle 
 down in partnership with his father's cousin, 
 Mr. Oscar Norman Ashbocking, the Town- 
 clerk of Heathhammock, and the owner of a 
 business spreading far into the county ? 
 
 Storker again smiled with pleasure as he 
 recognised familiar objects in the hall : the 
 great alabaster vases on each side of the 
 door, the table of mahogany, mounted with 
 black marble and ormolu, on which stood the 
 chalice of pearl he had sometimes worn as a 
 helmet, the kerosene lamps and the candle- 
 sticks of Japanese porcelain. 
 
 " I've had a jolly time, but I'm glad to see 
 the old place again, Bilge," he said, as the 
 butler took his hat, rug, and dust-coat.
 
 George Hern. 5 
 
 " Not more glad than all here to see you, 
 Mr. Storker, sir, and that's the truth," said 
 Bilge, shifting a little farther from the bull- 
 terrier, who seemed to take suspicious note of 
 the transfer of his master's property. 
 
 " Come here, my dear Storker \" cried the 
 comfortable voice of Mrs. Kidd Ashbocking 
 from the drawing-room, the door of which 
 stood partly open. " I mustn't risk the 
 draughts of the hall. Come here." 
 
 So Storker went to his mother, who was 
 reclining on a couch of rosewood and Utrecht 
 velvet, with a green shawl of Japanese silk 
 wrapped round her. She rose to a sitting 
 posture as he entered. 
 
 u I'm prodigiously glad to see you, mother," 
 he said, releasing himself rather abruptly from 
 her embraces. " Let me introduce my dog 
 Moloch, from Canada. He is as quiet as a sick 
 Quaker, and won't hurt Ariel. How is Ariel ? 
 And how are my father and grandfather ?"
 
 6 George Hern. 
 
 "All well. You are altered — yet the 
 same," said Mrs. Kidd Ashbocking. " Draw- 
 that curtain a little farther, that I may see you 
 better." 
 
 Storker shifted the purple satin-damask 
 curtain, well in keeping with the handsome 
 furniture all around, and stood revealed more 
 plainly. 
 
 He was a stalwart, boisterous fellow, with 
 a solid square face, whereon the rich tints of 
 sound health had been in a measure quelled 
 by late hours, cigars, pungent drinks, and 
 multiplicity of rich meats. His nose was 
 small and his mouth large, but both were 
 well-formed ; and his merry grey eyes were 
 sagacious and pleasant to look upon. There 
 were signs of some effort at grace in his up- 
 right bearing, in his well-cut clothes, and the 
 scent of white-rose- essence pervading them, 
 in the swing of his arm, and in the lifting of 
 his hand to finger his large chin or strip of
 
 George Hern. 7 
 
 brown whisker ; but it was easy to see that 
 affectation and self-consciousness were no very 
 strong. ingredients in his composition. 
 
 Mrs. Kidd Ashbocking, nicknamed " Ga- 
 lopper," in playful allusion to her sloth and 
 awkwardness of motion, might be not inaptly 
 styled u a lumbering woman." She was un- 
 usually tall, broad, big-boned, and fat, with 
 little of the majesty and portentousness which 
 sometimes dignify a large frame. She had 
 rosy cheeks, a full, good-humoured mouth, a 
 double chin, wide eyes, with scarcely percep- 
 tible eyebrows, which seemed to have a ten- 
 dency to rise, and a beaming expression of 
 kindliness and contentment. 
 
 Despite the richness of her dress, there 
 was a complacent untidiness about it, and 
 even the lace and ribbons in her cap, though 
 of the best kind, seemed carelessly muddled 
 together. Moreover, there was a lack of 
 congruity in the colours of her attire — bright
 
 8 George Hern. 
 
 and various, in consistency with her love of 
 cheerfulness. Yet she devoted much time to 
 her appearance, and often occupied more of 
 the attention of Miss Craggy than was pleas- 
 ing to that milliner, or to be borne without 
 bitter comment by other ladies waiting for an 
 interview. 
 
 There was a simplicity in her manner and 
 conversation that some would call childish- 
 ness ; and, indeed, she was not much wiser, 
 as cheating tramps and begging-letter-writers 
 knew, and certainly not much more book- 
 learned than she had been in her girlhood, 
 though then she haunted with unambitious 
 
 constancy the lower classes at her schools. 
 
 i 
 " To be sure you look more of a man than 
 
 when you left," said the lady, taking her son's 
 
 hand, as he again came to her side; "and 
 
 yet it doesn't seem long ago when you were a 
 
 tiny boy, and I fitted on to your soft little 
 
 head the white cashmere hat embroidered in
 
 George Hem. 9 
 
 blue silk. And how proud you were of that 
 little Scotch tweed walking-jacket, and the 
 beautiful black gros-grain tunic for the very 
 grand occasions !" 
 
 " They've all been shot into the dirt-bin 
 long ago, I expect," said Storker. ° But how 
 are you, my rosy mother ? Unwell, as usual, of 
 course ; but is there any specific complaint ?" 
 
 u General indisposition, my dear Storker." 
 
 "Well, the indefiniteness gives me heart 
 and hope. You look very well, notwithstand- 
 ing that green shawl. Your eyebrows go up, 
 I notice, in the old form, as if you still find 
 much cause for astonishment in the world ; 
 but you have the old smile, as if, in spite of 
 all, you feel fairly satisfied with life." 
 
 " Oh yes, and I'm so pleased to have you 
 home. By-the-bye, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar are 
 coming to dine with you here to-night. You 
 should feel honoured. And now for your 
 news, Storker !"
 
 io George Hern, 
 
 " Oh, mother, I've been used to hear 
 myself addressed as * Ashbocking/ and 
 * Storker ' sounds rather unpleasant to me. 
 Why the deuce should people be called by 
 such names as ' Storker ' and ' Kidd ?' One 
 might as well be ' Evil-Merodach ' at once ! 
 What's in a name ? Something, I think. 
 One might relish a charcoal biscuit, if one 
 didn't hear its title. Is Clara coming with 
 her mother to-night ?" 
 
 " No ; she is engaged somewhere." 
 
 " Is she well ?" 
 
 " Yes. Now hers is a nice name, Storker ; 
 but only think of our cousin Oscar once say- 
 ing he thought of naming her ' Erinna ! ' — 
 but he's a funny man — e Erinna !' " 
 
 " After Sappho's friend, you know, he told 
 us. He might have done worse. I'm not 
 sure I don't agree with him, that the match- 
 less charm of classical names should justify 
 their use in modern times. As he once said
 
 George Hern, 1 i 
 
 to me, ' How unspeakably more musical is 
 the name of " Sophocles " than that of 
 ,l Thomas Johnson," his illustrator !' ,: 
 
 " Yes. And now sit down and tell me 
 your news !" 
 
 " The convolutions of your ears, then, are 
 as eagerly open to any available news as 
 heretofore. I must tell you my adventures 
 by degrees ; for a journey from England to 
 Philadelphia by sea, and thence to San Fran- 
 cisco by land, ought to furnish a good lot of 
 material for talk to a man who looks about 
 him a little more than a blinkered horse. But 
 my narratives won't interest you so much as 
 a local marriage or death, or a pungent bit of 
 Heathhammock scandal." 
 
 " Well, I don't care to hear about savages. 
 God forgive me ! I never could care for them, 
 nor for vulgar, rough men who look surly 
 and never touch their hats — no, not so much 
 as for Ariel. And don't tell me about preci-
 
 12 George Hem. 
 
 pices and wild beasts, for the very mention of 
 them makes my flesh crawl !" 
 
 " In the first place, I've brought you and 
 my grandfather, the Admiral, a few presents, 
 and my father an item or two to add to his 
 collection of curiosities " 
 
 " That's very kind of you," said Mr. Kidd 
 Ashbocking, who entered the room at this 
 moment. " Give me your hand, Storker ; I 
 appreciate your thoughtfulness. I've added 
 somewhat to my curiosities since you left. 
 There's a tobacco-pot of Chinese soap-stone, 
 a horn-book and Breeches Bible, both in capi- 
 tal condition, a Southsea Islander's shell- 
 headed javelin, an old watch in a rock-crystal 
 case, a quaint muniment chest, seven intaglios, 
 and some good specimens of the Jarva caxa ! 
 I keep my eyes open !" 
 
 " Bravo !" cried Storker cordially. " It does 
 me good to look again on that old pate, bald 
 as the Tarpeian rock, and that beard with a
 
 George Hern. 13 
 
 straw adhering to it. And how are you ? 
 As in the past, I see, more indifferent to the 
 poor fit and inelegance of your garments 
 than a puppy to the mud upon his legs !" 
 
 Truly there was a greasiness about the 
 lapels, back, and elbows of the tobacco- 
 scented coat upon Mr. Kidd Ashbocking, 
 and an uncourtly air in all his apparel down 
 to the large and clumsy boots. Moreover, so 
 tanned, nay, cinnamon-hued, was what little 
 could be seen of his face, clothed, as it was, 
 with grizzly hair, and so rough and brown 
 were his hands, that despite his high, intel- 
 lectual forehead, made more striking by his 
 baldness, the result of typhus fever, one might 
 be apt to think him an uncultured handi- 
 craftsman. His liking for fishing, carpentry, 
 and gardening were accountable for the state 
 of his hands, and probably the scratches 
 and tenderness caused by much manual 
 work had given* him a dislike of soap and
 
 14 George Hern. 
 
 scrubbing. The natural duskiness of his 
 complexion had been deepened by constant 
 out-door occupation. 
 
 His face wore a shifting, uncertain ex- 
 pression — benevolence, self-sufficiency, and a 
 haunting discontent were written there. 
 Thought was impressed there, too ; but the 
 eyes were wanting in glow and freshness, 
 justifying the silver spectacles he wore. 
 
 Like his wife, he could not be congratulated 
 on his grace of gait. His cousin Oscar said 
 that his limbs in movement reminded him of 
 Milton's description of Samson's prison-pos- 
 ture " at random carelessly diffused," and his 
 shuffling, crooked walk, with outward-pointed 
 toes, had gained him the nickname of " Crab." 
 
 Turning from him to his mother, Storker 
 marvelled more than ever at the mysterious 
 power of Nature, as shown in its privileging 
 so uncomely a pair to fashion so smart a 
 fellow as himself. " But I inherit some of
 
 George Hern. ] 5. 
 
 the qualities of my grandfather the Admiral," 
 thought he. 
 
 " I didn't expect you so soon, my boy," 
 said Mr. Kidd Ashbocking, " or I should 
 have been at the door to welcome you." 
 
 " You've been better engaged, no doubt, 
 father," said Storker. " You come from the 
 bank, I take it, where you've been wrist-deep 
 in golden coins or peering into some poor 
 beggar's crumenal mysteries." 
 
 " Well, not exactly just now," said his 
 father, smiling. " I was in the bank a few 
 minutes ago, but, since, I have been in my 
 vinery (which looks admirably), where you 
 would have found me on my knees before the 
 stove adjusting bits of wood between the 
 bars with my right hand, while my left 
 grasped a handful of cinders." 
 
 " Mother," said Storker, " do you allow him 
 to play truant thus in business-hours ? Why 
 don't you take a leaf out of Mrs. Oscar's book ?"
 
 \6 George Hern, 
 
 " Oh, I never interfere," said Mrs. Kidd. 
 41 Your father's a busy man, that's all I know, 
 going early and late." 
 
 " Like the town-pump ! And how's the 
 banking business, father ?" 
 
 " Pretty good, lad, pretty good," said Mr. 
 Kidd, rather hurriedly. " I am very busy. 
 Just now, too, I am especially interested in 
 the question of agricultural improvements, and 
 am trying to institute a local Chamber of Agri- 
 culture. I am also engaged on an exhaustive 
 wages-calculator, based on ideas of my own !" 
 
 " Confound the agriculturists ! You have 
 enough head-work in your own business, I 
 should have thought, without having others 
 for ever sucking your brains. I think you 
 look like one bothered and wearied ; as if for 
 a long time you had been hard at work all 
 day and sitting up half the night over 
 Malthus or Ricardo, or that ragged pencilled 
 old Joyce's Arithmetic of yours. I thank
 
 George Hern. iy 
 
 my stars that I shall never kill myself by a 
 Pythagorean fondness for figures and hiero- 
 glyphics. I don't like your looks. How is 
 it my mother hasn't put you under the 
 doctor's care ? She used to be fond enough 
 of physic." 
 
 " Your father hasn't yet had the bad days 
 and wearisome nights that I have had with 
 illness," said Mrs. Kidd, shaking her head; 
 " and he isn't a good man about physics." 
 
 " Not wholly and fully," said her husband, 
 "for I've not much faith in them." 
 
 " Nor I," said Storker, " not a single atom 
 of faith — not the least morsel of a fragment ! 
 By George ! I believe they do as much 
 damage in the world as the great guns that 
 can pound a granite mountain into indiges- 
 tible powders. But I've yet to learn that 
 my mother mortifies herself by taking much 
 physic, for all her praise of it. The disci- 
 pline would militate too gravely against her 
 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 1 8 George Hern. 
 
 love of pastry. Talking of pastry, where's 
 my good grandfather, the Admiral ?" 
 
 "The truth is," said Mrs. Kidd, "we 
 arranged to dine an hour earlier than usual 
 to-night, thinking you might be glad of your 
 dinner at five, and he has taken a walk with 
 Ariel to the harbour for the benefit of his 
 appetite." 
 
 " It w r as not wont to need much stimulus," 
 said Storker. " There was a time when he 
 could eat fat meat and chutney at four a.m." 
 
 " He is pretty well," said the Admiral's 
 daughter. "The Howsegoes are not a family 
 to fade away early. He takes good naps in 
 the afternoon sometimes, and often sleeps so 
 well at night we have to wait breakfast half 
 an hour for him. On Sunday he occasionally 
 keeps his bed till luncheon-time. I think, on 
 the whole, his digestion continues pretty 
 good." 
 
 "It was most good catholic and accommo-
 
 George Hern. 19 
 
 dating. He had the digestion of a Zulu, or 
 a tough old shell-crunching tortoise, and was 
 as indulgent to his appetite as that man of 
 palate, Msenius, that we used to read about 
 in Horace, or somewhere. But I mean no 
 disrespect towards my good grandfather. 
 Did he ever mention me in my absence ?" 
 
 "Indeed, yes!" said Mrs. Kidd ; "but 
 you know he is no great talker about any- 
 thing." 
 
 " I know he keeps his own counsel (if 
 any)/' said Storker. " He's a careful man, 
 and doesn't dash about like a cat with a pot 
 on his tail. But he may possibly have a 
 secret store of wisdom (as we know he has of 
 wealth). There's many a wise head that 
 holds a tongue as quiet as a fly-catcher's. 
 Besides, one who carries much more than 
 air in his pocket ought perhaps to be 
 content to carry little more than water in 
 his head."
 
 20 George Hern. 
 
 " I tell my cousin Oscar," said Mr. Kidd, 
 " that wisdom in word is very inferior to 
 wisdom in work." 
 
 " Your grandfather likes you, Storker," 
 said his mother, " and says you will grow 
 into a true Howsegoe." 
 
 " Unless I prove to have some brains in 
 my head," said Storker aside to his father, 
 adding aloud, " My grandfather was always 
 very kind to me." 
 
 " His promise to pay the expenses of your 
 American trip speaks rather emphatically for 
 his friendship towards you," said Mr. Kidd 
 Ashbocking. 
 
 " If I could not detect his predilection for 
 me," said Storker, " I might as well have a 
 truffle or a band-box on my shoulders instead 
 of a head ! It has been palpable for years, 
 and I don't intend, my parents, to run foul of 
 him. Between ourselves, I have thought a 
 good deal about the old gentleman during
 
 George Hern* 21 
 
 my travels. I wish he would stump up a 
 little, now and then, during his life. But, 
 depend on it, he will die rich and I shall be 
 the gainer." 
 
 Mr. Kidd's face brightened. 
 
 " You guess rightly, I think," he said. 
 "He has given me hints that he will act hand- 
 somely towards you and us. I know nothing 
 of his will, nothing of his means, nor, I think, 
 does my cousin Oscar. But we both be- 
 lieve he is wealthy (it was published in the 
 newspapers, you know, that he had fifty 
 thousand pounds bequeathed to him by his 
 kinsman, Sir Cloudberry Tichener), and I 
 am heartily glad of it for our sakes and 
 yours, my boy. I hope your prospects are 
 fairly good. I put you into the law, as a 
 profession is a good practical basis, and you 
 can super-add my banking business at any 
 time. Besides the probability of a partner- 
 ship in such an office as my cousin Oscars
 
 22 George Hern. 
 
 was very tempting. I daresay I shall retire 
 in your favour before very long. I can then 
 farm a little land, put some of my agricultural 
 ideas to the test practically, and rest myself." 
 
 " Farm for amusement, you know," said 
 Mrs. Kidd. 
 
 " Yes," said her husband ; " and to deve- 
 lop ideas on bean-rolling, early planting of 
 root, light tumbrils, use of chicory as horse- 
 feed, putting colts in straw-yards on peculiar 
 diet before breaking, pig-skin harness, and a 
 hundred other points which will be useful to 
 the public." 
 
 " Being a * farmer,' except for amusement, 
 doesn't sound well," said Mrs. Kidd. " It 
 sounds like being a ' tradesman ' !" 
 
 " Ah, mother !" said Storker, " America 
 teaches a man to think with consummate 
 scorn of social vanities, and to snap one's 
 fingers at the calling of milk cream. Farmers 
 are sensible fellows ; their petitions, in a
 
 George Hern. 23 
 
 degree, caused our law proceedings to be 
 carried on in English !" 
 
 " Agriculture is an honourable pursuit, and 
 so is commerce," said Mr. Kidd. " The 
 latter is done honour to by the woolsack in 
 the Upper House, remember." 
 
 " Doubtless and decidedly !" said Storker, 
 "and would the Chancellor breathe many 
 words of wisdom thereon if he hadn't a 
 potato or some other product of agriculture 
 inside him ?" 
 
 11 You wouldn't like to go into trade, 
 Storker," said Mrs. Kidd. 
 
 " Why not ? Do you think trade neces- 
 sarily entails the close companionship of 
 fellows whose ideas are limited to ' 'olesale 
 ouses,' ' a sweet thing in night-caps,' and the 
 like ? Think of Cobden and Chevalier and 
 Aries de Something !" 
 
 " I can only remember two friends of our 
 family who had anything to do with trade,"
 
 24 George Hern. 
 
 said Mrs. Kidd: "Richard Butters, who made 
 a quantity of money out of baking-powder or 
 bleaching-powder, and Barbara PeckeFs third 
 brother, who did something with oil." 
 
 " When you retire from the bank, father," 
 said Storker, " I hope you'll rest from busi- 
 ness altogether, and become as lazy as a 
 Guacho. But that's a stupid hope, for rather 
 than take any appreciable repose, you'd 
 collect fleas' eyes, or build a palace of herring- 
 bones, or start a company to supply fishes 
 with gasworks and diving-bells." 
 
 At this juncture Mr. Kidd Ashbocking 
 rose from his seat, with which and the sur- 
 rounding furniture he harmonised but ill, 
 saying that he must wash himself, and step 
 over to the bank, or he would incur the dis- 
 pleasure of Mr. Anguish, his clerk. 
 
 He had scarcely left the room before 
 Admiral Howsegoe entered, followed by 
 Ariel, and, like him, breathing audibly.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Admiral Howsegoe was an old gentleman 
 of square and ponderous dignity, with a body 
 that seemed to overburthen his legs, a large 
 red bulbous nose, staring irascible eyes, 
 heavy brows, a flushed complexion, and skin 
 " creased," to quote his grandson, " like a 
 sun-baked mudbank !" His eyebrows and 
 neat hair were white, but there appeared but 
 little impress of the mellow wisdom of age 
 upon his broad and stolid countenance. His 
 wanderings, as in the case of many British 
 travellers, seemed to have enriched his 
 complexion more conspicuously than his 
 mind.
 
 26 George Hem. 
 
 He bore evidence enough, however, of 
 care for appearance, to judge from the ad- 
 mirably smoothed and parted hair, the velvet 
 coat buttoned with cruel tightness, and the 
 glossy boots fitting well to the foot, though 
 Wellingtons, which some of the wise declare 
 to be incapable of comeliness " on the score 
 of their looseness at the ankle " (to quote 
 Storker again). 
 
 The Admiral wore Wellington-boots and 
 thick-sleeved waistcoats to hide the defects of 
 Nature, which had given him limbs a trifle too 
 slender to match the rest of his body grace- 
 fully. 
 
 He had been a very long time in the 
 Navy, and had now retired on half-pay ; but 
 he was not credited with having seen much 
 active service, except in pursuit of slave-ships 
 on the African coast : and, though a bad 
 breach in his head (mended most carefully 
 and scarcely noticeable) had been by some
 
 George Hem. 27 
 
 attributed to shot, it was generally believed 
 that two quarts of port-wine and a sharp- 
 edged coal-scuttle were accountable for the 
 wound. 
 
 " And how is my ancient ?" said Storker, 
 leading the Admiral to an easy - chair. 
 11 Why, you and Ariel are emitting sounds 
 very unlike ' the soft breathings of a listening 
 maiden/ You have been walking briskly. 
 How are you ?" 
 
 44 Pretty well, but hungry," the Admiral 
 replied, speaking, as was his wont, with dic- 
 tatorial loudness. " What cheer, young 
 mister ?" 
 
 " Oh ! I've enjoyed myself stupendously — 
 learnt all about chowders and cocktail-and- 
 smash, seen no end of scenery from Niagara to 
 the Mirror Lake, and had some good shooting 
 and fishing, especially in Canada. Note my 
 Canadian dog ; a true Britisher, isn't he ?" 
 
 Here much growling, and Mrs. Kidd's
 
 28 George Hern. 
 
 anxiety for the safety of " dear Ariel," made 
 it necessary to bring about a friendly ac- 
 quaintance between him and Moloch, a task 
 which Storker soon accomplished, his sym- 
 pathetic knowledge of the canine nature 
 overcoming Ariel's sulkiness. 
 
 For Ariel was a sulky spaniel, fat and 
 lazy, and inappropriately named. Not by 
 his mistress, indeed, for she was little ac- 
 quainted with Shakespeare's creations, nor 
 desired to be more so, since Miss Bowden- 
 Botright, in a pause between two readings of 
 Hook's Sermons at a Dorcas Meeting, had 
 referred to him as an " indelicate fabulist !" 
 Ariel was thus entitled by Major Foggett, 
 who had presented him to Mrs. Kidd Ash- 
 bocking. 
 
 " Ariel is rather a mean successor to our 
 dogs of old, mother," said Storker. 
 
 " No days like the old days, boy," said 
 Admiral Howsegoe.
 
 George Hern. 29 
 
 " In the matter of our dogs, I agree," said 
 Storker. " Can you recollect ' Baltic,' the 
 grand Danish hound, and * Epicure,' the 
 pure-bred turnspit, and f Dreadnought/ the 
 reposeful Newfoundland? What pets I have 
 had in my time here ! — a hawk, an owl, a 
 jackdaw, an Australian piping crow, an ash- 
 coloured parrot, a tortoise, and a hedgehog ! 
 Clara used to like to watch and help me to 
 feed these things ; but she couldn't see the 
 owl eat a mouse or the hawk a bird, and she 
 would never keep anything in captivity 
 herself. I've no doubt she's still the 
 patroness of the animal world. She went to 
 extremes, but one must admire her kind- 
 ness. 
 
 Admiral Howsegoe turned stiffly, and 
 stared hard at his grandson. 
 
 •• The man's a fool, sir," he said, " who 
 does not admire her ! M 
 
 -Oh, yes!" said Mrs. Kidd. "We all
 
 3<d George Hern. 
 
 admire kindness, of course. I always feel 
 sorry for poor dumb things, and wish people 
 to be kind to them. I always feel I ought to 
 carve a poor fowl tenderly, though of course 
 it's past feeling then, though it has lost the 
 protection of its feathers. The Howsegoes 
 were always kind to the helpless." 
 
 " They appreciate worth," said Admiral 
 Howsegoe. " A wretched lot are the girls of 
 the present day ; but Clara Ashbocking 
 could command the notice of the best man of 
 my acquaintance. Mark that, young mister." 
 
 " Ancient !" cried Storker, turning upon 
 him. " Now that Clara has rejected Bethell 
 Ormerod and the Reverend Mr. Audrey, do 
 you want me to take a turn with her ? In a 
 word, I am not a marrying man. I like 
 Clara as a cousin — let that suffice ! I have 
 no opinion of the sex. I scarcely know a 
 girl that's worth a rag, or the thousandth 
 part of a bad farthing !"
 
 George Hern. 31 
 
 The hues of the Admiral's face deepened 
 as he rejoined with asperity : 
 
 " To the devil with your bachelors, who 
 care for nothing but their stomachs, guns, 
 and dogs — that's all I've got to say !" 
 
 " I've certainly a strong affection for dogs," 
 said Storker, with conciliatory good-humour : 
 "shrewd, faithful fellows, with their strange 
 knowledge of persons, places, and things. I 
 would come down in the middle of a winter's 
 night to feed one I had forgotten. There 
 were always dogs' paw-marks on the drugget 
 at my London lodgings, and sometimes stains 
 by my chair where dogs' morsels were 
 thrown. I can't be happy without two or 
 three dogs here, mother, and you must pre- 
 pare yourself to see a good portion of a 
 sheep, or a limb or two of horse, brought on 
 the premises for their sustenance." 
 
 "Well, I never!" cried Mrs. Kidd; "but, 
 talking of dogs, I have just thought of it —
 
 32 George Hern. 
 
 Don't you remember, father, when we were 
 staying at Hillshithe, how some boisterous 
 greyhounds were out for exercise, and you 
 spoke to them, and they rolled you over and 
 over, and you were stout then ; and, oh, my 
 gracious ! so hot and angry, and scurried 
 away as quickly as any donkey could gallop !" 
 
 This reminiscence seemed to increase the 
 Admiral's choler. He did not reply, but 
 sulkily demanded some brandy in a cup of 
 tea. 
 
 " This walk/' said he, " has made me more 
 than hungry : confoundedly faint. I'm not a 
 fly to be flitting about fantastically all day. 
 Ring the bell, young mister. Save me 
 that task, now you're at home. Your mother 
 is getting so stout, she ought to have taken 
 turns with me in this. And now, Arabella," 
 he added, turning to his daughter, " what of 
 the menu for dinner ?" 
 
 With some difficulty she informed him,
 
 George Hern. 33 
 
 and the result was not much to his satis- 
 faction it would seem, for he twice broke in 
 with unpleasant questions, viz : — 
 
 " Am I to eat nothing better than mould, 
 like a worm ?" and, " Can I live on any bit of 
 rubbish, like a rat or a rook ?" 
 
 The advent of the tea and brandy made 
 him more placid ; but, after taking a few sips, 
 he said : 
 
 " To the devil with Mrs. Oscar ! She will 
 half take away my appetite to-night." 
 
 " Do her habits still annoy you ?" asked 
 Storker. " Does she still look at a penny care- 
 fully before she parts with it, and does it then 
 leave her full of sorrow and perturba- 
 tion r 
 
 " She's the same mean woman as ever," 
 said Admiral Howsegoe ; " and yet she had 
 the impudence to tell a tradesman here, that 
 no one spends so little in the town as I ! 
 Living in this house, what need ? Let her 
 
 vol. 1. 3
 
 34 George Hern. 
 
 look at home. She has a lean and a hungry- 
 soul." 
 
 " Thank God, she can't say I'm mean," 
 said Mrs. Kidd, " though I'm connected by 
 marriage with her. The connection won't 
 make me like her, will it ?" 
 
 " Your being both Ashbockings, "said Star- 
 ker, "connects you no more than a green wall- 
 paper and a meadow are connected by being 
 both of a colour. Because the first is unhealthy, 
 would you say the second must be also ? 
 But I must not speak slightingly of one who 
 is coming to do honour to me this night." 
 
 " Or to take stock of you," said the 
 Admiral, " with a view to make some use of 
 you hereafter, young mister." 
 
 " Do you think, then, that kinship is only 
 appreciated by her in that it may be utilised, 
 as the cannibal may utilise his relations, by 
 devouring them ?" 
 
 " I wish she wasn't coming to dinner,"
 
 George Hern. 35 
 
 said Admiral Hovvsegoe, " that's all I've got 
 to say." 
 
 It was soon time to prepare for this dinner, 
 and Mr. Kidd Ashbocking, generally more 
 punctual in leaving than on entering the 
 Bank, came home for the purpose. Storker, 
 therefore, having housed his dog in one of 
 the four kennels in the back garden, went up- 
 stairs. Peeping in at his father's dressing- 
 room as he passed, his eye fell upon the 
 model frigate, made by a retired butcher 
 many years ago, and the inaccuracies in the 
 rigging of which the banker had often 
 enough pointed out laughingly since, and 
 upon the toy- theatre with which Mr. Kidd 
 used, at times, to entertain the friends of his 
 youth, till certain tittering young spectators, 
 one night, annihilated a puppet with a volley 
 of nutshells. 
 
 In his grandfather's dressing-room he saw 
 the old massive chest, reputed to hold the keys
 
 36 George Hern. 
 
 to the mysteries of that wealthy man. Little 
 else attracted the eye in the ship-shape room, 
 for the bergamot-scented, palma Christi oil 
 for the hair, and the depilatory made of 
 oak-polypody, were, like those keys, con- 
 cealed from the gaze of the curious. 
 
 " Storker," cried his mother, slowly stump- 
 ing upstairs, just as he was entering his own 
 room, " I've been using your room, my dear, 
 for some of my things, and I'm not sure I 
 didn't call the maid away to another job 
 before she could clear them all out." 
 
 Yes, indeed. Upon the bed, with its 
 pink-lined white muslin curtains, lay a tiger- 
 skin mat, a cake of oil- nut soap, a cambric 
 collar, and a black velvet cassock ; on a 
 chair, a dress of mouse-grey Spanish wool, 
 and a work-box with the cathedral of Cashel 
 on its lid ; and on the drawers a lady's night- 
 cap, a yellow leather belt and a boot. 
 
 " Chaos and Phlegethon !" exclaimed
 
 George Hern. 2)7 
 
 Storker good-humouredly. " Why, I see 
 scarcely a thing here belonging to me, 
 mother, except my trio of Ferneley's hunting 
 pictures, my Egan's ' Boxiana,' my White- 
 head's ' Gymnasiad/ and my straw hat with 
 the mallard's feather." 
 
 Before descending from his room he looked 
 from the pleasant open window upon the sea. 
 
 Its broad breast, heaving tranquilly, was 
 speckled and streaked with sun-gleams, and, 
 where the shadows of the floating clouds fell, 
 there was cheery abundance of white light in 
 its waters. There was a sweet modesty in 
 its musical utterance as it splashed down its 
 fountain-fringe on the freshened stones and 
 girdled them with bubbling frills of froth, as 
 though to ask man's praise for this little art- 
 work on the shore were unworthy of the 
 mighty sphere which breathes health across 
 all lands, and shows such merciful favour to 
 those trespassers, our ships, and nourishes 
 the myriads of fish for human food.
 
 38 George Hern. 
 
 As Storker looked at this simple scene of 
 quiet beauty and listened to the liquid sound 
 as calmly beautiful — both soothing to the 
 long-bustling traveller — the fair face of gentle 
 Clara flitted before his mind, and the Admiral's 
 words in praise of her were in his ears. 
 
 " But I'm an unmitigated jackass," he 
 thought, suddenly rousing himself. "These 
 jolly past months have settled my mind. In- 
 dependent bachelorhood, travel, life, sport in 
 season, and money to spend ! Besides, my 
 opinion of the sex, since I was wronged by a 
 certainjlady, is so very poor, and it's not likely 
 to be altered." 
 
 But as he looked at the sky, in turning 
 from the window, there were signs of April 
 inconstancy in some shifting clouds in the 
 South. And his eyes, on travelling to earth 
 again, fell upon Mr. Oxburrow, the brewer 
 (father of four marriageable daughters), who 
 was bowing politely to him from the cliff path.
 
 George Hem. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Ashbockings were of an ancient family, 
 not claiming, indeed, so romantic an origin as 
 the Howsegoes, who spoke of themselves as 
 the descendants, collaterally, of a crusader who 
 encamped before Jerusalem, and lineally of a 
 warrior who fell at Tewkesbury — but tracing 
 back their genealogy to a prudent artisan 
 who, in 1567, married the daughter of a 
 Flemish immigrant and worked as a weaver 
 with his father-in-law. 
 
 The artisan's descendants, improving in sub- 
 stance and position, had intermingled with the 
 Kidds, Normans, and Storkers, Suffolk fami- 
 lies, and there were several Ashbockings of
 
 40 George Hern. 
 
 good standing in the Eastern counties. But, 
 at the time my history begins, they seem to 
 have fallen away, leaving as their sole repre- 
 sentatives the families of our two Heathham- 
 mock friends, Mr. Oscar Norman Ashbock- 
 ing and Mr. Kidd Ashbocking, his cousin. 
 
 Both of these gentlemen filled posts which 
 their respective fathers and grandfathers had 
 filled before them, so that the name was a 
 familiar one in the town. In the church, in- 
 deed, was a rose window in memory of a 
 Norman Ashbocking, and a tablet of Forest- 
 of-Dean stone, with gold-diapered panel, in 
 memory of a Kidd Ashbocking ; and the 
 name of Ashbocking was conspicuous in the 
 churchyard under the chancel windows. 
 
 Heathhammock being a borough under 
 the " Municipal Corporations Act," and 
 governed by such understanding spirits as 
 could be found among a mayor, four alder- 
 men, and a dozen councillors with the help
 
 George Hern. 41 
 
 of a bench of borough justices, Mr. Oscar 
 Ashbocking, as town clerk and justices' clerk, 
 was an important public character. To his 
 custody were entrusted all the charters, tran- 
 scripts of charters, records and documents 
 relating to the charities, the church, and the 
 common ; and all the minute and account 
 books of the corporation and its committees. 
 He also filled the office of treasurer (formerly 
 chamberlain), and was clerk to the vestry, 
 the harbour commissioners, the church and 
 school committees, and the lifeboat trustees. 
 
 He had a large and long-established busi- 
 ness of fine quality — the carriages of such 
 clients as Lord Thimblestone-Leigh and Sir 
 James Addlebanny being often seen at his 
 door — and was a good lawyer, soundly versed 
 in theory (though in his leisure hours now he 
 preferred unprofessional reading) diligent and 
 . energetic in practice, and, if at times wanting 
 in tact, of fair judgment in emergencies.
 
 42 George Hern. 
 
 Conveyancing was his favourite branch of 
 business, but as justices' clerk he gave proof 
 of intimacy with criminal law, and in litigious 
 procedure was alert. He conducted to suc- 
 cessful issues two important actions for the 
 corporation : " the mere management of the 
 numerous witnesses at the assize-town re- 
 quiring," he remarked, " about as much skill 
 as the retreat of the Ten Thousand." 
 
 Of course he was not absolutely free from 
 censure, or without clients who could point 
 out, with oracular stupidity, that certain advice 
 given them by him had issued rather to his 
 own than to their advantage : but he was 
 popular and of acknowledged honour, and 
 the standard of moral feeling in his office 
 was high. 
 
 Like all the Ashbockings of recent times he 
 was, by nature, generous ; but his shrewd and 
 thrifty wife, who brought him a large sum of 
 money and a more valuable gift of keen
 
 George Hem. 43 
 
 counsel, cordial sympathy, and prudent help, 
 had by degrees so deeply instilled into him 
 the habits of economy that he rarely spent a 
 shilling without a qualm, would often travel 
 in a third-class railway-carriage, and would 
 rather, I believe, lift up ten children to look 
 at a sixpenny picture-book in a shop window 
 than purchase it for one of them. In all his 
 dealings he became most wary. " As money 
 is nowadays the mainspring of so much of 
 the machinery of life," he would say, " one 
 hardly needs the advice of Pliny Junior on 
 the subject of bad bargains." 
 
 He was naturally easy enough of access, 
 but his wife's constant warnings made him 
 cautious of addressing in the street, or admit- 
 ting into his office those to whom he could not 
 " book an attendance " with any hope of pay- 
 ment, or whose business he could not charge 
 against the corporation in the large and con- 
 venient list of "Special professional services !'*
 
 44 George Hern. 
 
 No man disliked quarrels and wranglings, 
 in his heart, more than he ; but how could 
 such a taste find indulgence in a lawyers 
 office ? True he was ready to compromise 
 out of court disputes among his poorer 
 neighbours, who could cause much trouble, 
 but could not afford the costs of lawsuits. 
 " Why," he would say, " should you, like 
 Italy, be impoverished by costly warfare ?" 
 But if a person of substance thought fit to 
 risk a portion of it in litigation, he (ever 
 under his good wife's influence) seemed to 
 view the frailty with more complacency. 
 
 In his office he was cautious and reticent, 
 as became a professional recipient of many 
 secrets ; but, apart from business, as he 
 said of himself, A'Kempis would not have 
 commended him for his " reserve in speak- 
 ing." He was a great reader, one who 
 would master a book that interested him 
 without cutting the top edges of the leaves,
 
 George Hem, 45 
 
 and a great conversationalist, very proud of 
 the queer stores of knowledge he had 
 gathered in his readings. u I don't wish 
 ' to get entangled by habits of detail/ as 
 Macintosh remarks," he said one day while 
 talking of the antics of the Satyrs and Sileni. 
 " A lawyer is apt to fall into that snare." 
 
 He would discourse on any subject, from 
 Hafiz to a fly-blown mushroom, and often 
 at some length. " My harangues/' he once 
 confessed, " have not always what Boswell 
 claimed for some of O^den's sermons, ' the 
 merit of being short,' and they might not 
 have satisfied Bishop Andrews on the point 
 of conciseness." But he took as great de- 
 light in them as Cicero did in the higher 
 order of oratory. 
 
 He was a Rugbeian ; but, though always a 
 hard reader, made no great mark at school, 
 owing, it is said, to his continual swervings 
 from the fixed routine of study, and to his
 
 46 George Hern. 
 
 dislike of supplanting his mates in class. 
 Once one of his masters, after a short ex- 
 asperating argument with him, stigmatised 
 him as a vain, chattering lad, with strange 
 learning, but deficient withal, who, if he made 
 a map of the world, would very likely elabo- 
 rate parts admirably, and leave out Africa. 
 But this person afterwards apologised for his 
 censure, and civilly urged his pupil to 
 exchange his widely -varying studies, rich 
 though their fruitage might seem, for a 
 systematic course. 
 
 Until, however, he came under the in- 
 fluence of his wife, no systematic procedure 
 was acceptable to Mr. Oscar Ashbocking ; 
 and, as she did not turn a very exactingly 
 watchful eye upon his leisure doings, his 
 reading was still of the old desultory sort, 
 whereof his conversation (out of the office) 
 generally bore evidence. 
 
 When at home he spent almost every
 
 George Hern. 47 
 
 evening in his large study, among his mighty 
 store of books, most of which he had received 
 from his father and ancestors, but some of 
 which he had himself purchased — for book- 
 stalls held out the most tempting of baits to 
 his carefully-guarded purse. He was usually 
 attended in his study by George Hern, his 
 shorthand-writer, and numerous, sometimes, 
 were the volumes which these two would in 
 one evening displace from the old oak and 
 newer laburnum shelves. Not but that they 
 were regularly put back by Hern. Had 
 that task been neglected now and again, " it 
 would," as the methodical Mrs. Oscar said, 
 " be worth a hundred pounds a year to keep 
 the place in order." Yet Mr. Oscar's office 
 was uniformly neat. 
 
 There was a firm and time-strengthened 
 bond of affection between our town-clerk 
 and his wife, though there mingled with his 
 more tender feelings towards her a certain
 
 48 George Hem. 
 
 awe, evidenced in the moulding of his 
 character under her direction, and, indeed, 
 in his very manner in her presence, especially 
 in his habit of glancing often, and somewhat 
 narrowly, at her when she spoke with unusual 
 emphasis. 
 
 She was proud of him, often alluding to 
 him as a " perfect gentleman" and "a 
 scholar," and was seldom known to rebel 
 against a good dose of his loquacity, though 
 she would rather grub up weeds with a fork 
 than listen to much eloquent speech from 
 any other lips. "One great advantage of 
 your father's talk," she . once said to her 
 daughter, " is that it doesn't call for any 
 pertinent reply. It's beyond you and me 
 and most people, and so mixed up with 
 learned quotation and what not, that one 
 is justified in not making any great effort 
 to understand it." 
 
 Mr. Kidd Ashbocking, like his cousin,
 
 George Hern. 49 
 
 received from his father a good, long-stand- 
 ing business, but, whereas the solicitor's had 
 steadily improved under its present guide, 
 the bankers had lapsed, though as yet 
 manifesting no conspicuous outward symp- 
 toms, into an unhealthy state. 
 
 The collapse, in recent years, of the great 
 house of Bonchurch, Spott, and Jewell, who 
 had a branch bank at Heathhammock, 
 secured to Mr. Kidd many additional cus- 
 tomers, and acted as a temporary balm to 
 the wounds of his business — but a temporary 
 balm only. 
 
 He, also, was educated at Rugby, and was 
 rather a shining light in mathematics and 
 elementary science. In his play-hours he 
 made models with great mechanical skill, and 
 used to speak of his cousin as a " talker,'' 
 and of himself as a " practical man." 
 
 Neither as a boy nor as a man could he 
 be called indolent. On the contrary, he was 
 
 vol. 1. 4
 
 50 George Hem. 
 
 always in some way employed. But as a 
 banker, though he did not lack energy in his 
 conduct of the business, and believed him- 
 self, and in the matter of advice to others 
 proved himself, to be of sound business 
 capacity, he could not be said to devote 
 his heart entirely, or with sufficient earnest- 
 ness, to the important object of earning 
 money. The surly and plodding Mr. 
 Anguish often thought him phlegmatic, un- 
 punctual, and careless. He would stay to 
 fill up a petty tradesman's income-tax return, 
 while Mr. Roudham, of Roudham Manor, 
 was wrathfully waiting to communicate 
 weighty business. Commending and under- 
 taking practical work of all kinds, he did not 
 duly respect that which was profitable. 
 
 Prosperity, therefore, was enjoyed by one 
 of the cousins only. Nor was this the sole 
 point of contrast. Mr. Kidd's natural pro- 
 fuseness and generosity, emphatically ruling
 
 George Hern. 5 1 
 
 qualities, though his individual tastes were 
 simple and inexpensive, received encourage- 
 ment, and not wholesome check from his 
 wife. Seldom, also, were random steps of 
 his guided aright by her advice, or business 
 cares relieved by her sympathetic interest. 
 Ever conscious of the shadow on his pro- 
 spects, yet striving to brighten this by a 
 vague hope of improvement, and, meanwhile, 
 withdrawing his attention from it, he gave 
 busy exercise to his humours as unrewarded 
 helper of others, mathematician, mechanic, 
 architect, agriculturalist, and so forth. The 
 stimulating efficacy of calamity was in a 
 manner illustrated in him, as in many others 
 recorded in history, but did not in his case 
 operate to profitable ends. While his cousin 
 enjoyed the peace arising from regular habits, 
 a firm-fixed, fruitful pursuit, good prospects, 
 and well-earned leisure, he was without rest 
 and without contentment. 
 
 4—2
 
 52 George Hern. 
 
 As a few other distinguishing marks, I 
 will add that Mr. Oscar was a Conservative 
 in politics, Mr. Kidd an advanced Liberal. 
 Mr. Oscar was orthodox in religion, though 
 most catholic and indulgent in his private 
 views ; Mr. Kidd was rather unsettled and 
 heretical in his opinions, though no abettor or 
 protector of wickedness. Mr. Oscar was the 
 most abstemious of men ; Mr. Kidd partook 
 with relish of port- wine and Irish whisky, 
 and smoked much tobacco. Mr. Oscar, ap- 
 preciating the approval of others, would 
 occasionally "go into polite society," where 
 he could yield proof of his culture ; Mr. 
 Kidd disliked social ceremonies, and, to the 
 regret of his wife, preferred the company of 
 the humble. Mr. Oscar was always neat in 
 his attire, while Mr. Kidd's untidiness has 
 been mentioned. 
 
 These cousins, about equal in self- 
 sufficiency, had each some contempt for the
 
 George Hern. 53 
 
 other's lack of his own peculiar tendencies ; 
 but on some subjects Mr. Kidd adjusted his 
 taste and judgment in accordance with those 
 of the successful and bookish Oscar ; and the 
 latter respected in moderation the mathemati- 
 cal, and more the mechanical, prowess of his 
 cousin. " As a boy," he would say, " he 
 made toys, like Robert Hooke, and, like him, 
 should be Curator of Experiments !" 
 
 There were as many points of contrast in 
 the wives of these Ashbockings. Mrs. Oscar 
 being rigidly plain in her dress, stern of 
 manner, indisposed to smile, disposed to 
 admonish, punctual and exact in all her 
 habits, courageous, watchful, restless, in- 
 flexible of judgment, and worldly-wise. 
 
 They might both be considered prone to 
 talkativeness; but Mrs. Kidd spoke with 
 somewhat of a drawl, while Mrs. Oscar dealt 
 out her words with rapidity, as if they could 
 not be stopped, and ended her sentence often
 
 54 George Hern. 
 
 with strange abruptness, as if she feared that 
 her tongue had already outraged prudence. 
 
 Neither of the ladies could gather much 
 amusement from books ; but, whereas Mrs. 
 Kidd would probably fall asleep over an 
 early page, Mrs. Oscar, who never dozed in 
 the day-time, would suffer her thoughts to 
 wander to the practical life around her. 
 
 Mrs. Kidd was not an industrious woman, 
 though she would sometimes busy herself 
 with a little embroidery or crewel-work. 
 Mrs. Oscar would use her needle energeti- 
 cally, carried a pair of draper's scissors in her 
 pocket, and had with her own hands knitted 
 six cloth-fringe hearth-rugs, each entailing 
 above eighty thousand skilful motions of the 
 wrist. 
 
 Mrs. Kidd liked to spend a short time in 
 her flower-garden ; Mrs. Oscar preferred her 
 vegetable -beds. Mrs. Kidd had musical 
 tastes, and interested herself greatly in the
 
 George Hern, 55 
 
 choir at church ; Mrs. Oscar cared for no 
 music but from the hand and voice of her 
 daughter. Mrs. Kidd took part in the 
 Dorcas meetings, district-visitings, and other 
 church-work ; Mrs. Oscar limited her help to 
 a good subscription — I say "good," for she 
 would not allow her frugality to operate to 
 her husband's discredit in a printed list. In 
 orthodoxy the Admiral's daughter excelled ; 
 in downright honour and integrity the other. 
 
 In domestic matters the genial and kindly 
 Mrs. Kidd was a muddler, a shirker of the 
 kitchen, and wasteful ; Mrs. Oscar was sys- 
 tematic, of Netherlandish neatness, and a 
 haunter of the servants' quarters. She was, 
 as her husband would say, quoting Murphy, 
 " of good household understanding." 
 
 Mrs. Kidd was most popular among the 
 tradesfolk ; but Mrs. Oscar (sarcastically 
 alluded to sometimes as " Grab " and " Nip- 
 per ") was apt to incur wrath by troublesome
 
 56 George Hern. 
 
 demands, to scrutinise stock which she did 
 not purchase, and by efforts to cheapen wares. 
 She was, moreover, known to keep and use 
 scales and steel-yards at home, 
 
 The Oscar Ashbockings had but one child, 
 Clara, well-beloved of both her parents. She 
 had been educated at Kensington, and had 
 spent a year in France and one in Germany, 
 at the close of her school career. 
 
 Since she had settled at Heathhammock 
 with her parents she had not been free from 
 suitors, as might be gathered from one of 
 Storker's remarks. Some reason for the dis- 
 comfiture of two desirable wooers will be 
 brought to light hereafter. 
 
 The Kidd Ashbockings had, also, but one 
 child, our friend Storker, who, like his father 
 and uncle, had been placed at Rugby, whence, 
 he informed his friends, he had carried some 
 liberal notions, shin -bruises, and horrible 
 reminiscenses of Georgics, botany, and Greek
 
 George Hern. 57 
 
 accents. He was afterwards articled to Mr. 
 John Slade, of the eminent firm of Whit- 
 bread, Slacker, Slade, and Wapentake, soli- 
 citors, Waterloo Place, W.C. 
 
 During his third year in London, and often 
 afterwards, he met at Mr. Wapentake's and 
 elsewhere the handsome Miss Jane Leeke- 
 Strangways, who seems to have given him 
 cause to regard himself as a favourite ; for, 
 after a time, he offered her his hand with 
 little fear as to the result. She, however, 
 rejected it in favour of that of Mr. Wimp- 
 ling, a Queen's Counsel, of forty-five, with a 
 large income and six unruly children. This 
 uncomplimentary choice it was which im- 
 bued our unfledged attorney's criticisms on 
 the gentle sex with a somewhat unmanly 
 severity. 
 
 Admiral Howsegoe had resided at Castle 
 House ever since his retirement from the 
 navy. He was a widower, and, as may
 
 58 George Hern. 
 
 already be guessed, a man of mystery. He 
 personally received his half-pay in London, 
 by arrangement, once a year, and what 
 became of it no one in Heathhammock 
 knew. Certainly no one there saw much of 
 it, for seldom did coin of his pass over a 
 tradesman's counter. He would sometimes 
 step into a shop for a short gossip, most 
 frequently selecting that of Mr. Bultitude, 
 the chemist, where he could help himself to 
 cloves free of charge, or that of Mr. Sparrow, 
 the confectioner, to whose peppermints he 
 was partial. His peculiarities were, however, 
 tolerated, for he was a member of an un- 
 grudging household, and his secret wealth 
 threw a charm around him.
 
 George Hern. 59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Very soon after Storker had descended to 
 the drawing-room Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Ash- 
 bocking were ushered in. 
 
 Mr. Oscar was a fair man, rather above 
 the middle height, with a broad forehead and 
 large green-grey eyes, which Storker had 
 often called " as undesigning as a rabbit's," 
 and which, with the readily-smiling mouth, 
 gave our town-clerk a look of trustworthiness 
 and suavity. He seemed to be still possessed 
 of much vigour, though he had passed the 
 middle age, and the close application of a 
 diligent lawyer and an earnest student had 
 left its mark upon him in the slightly bent
 
 60 George Hern. 
 
 shoulders, a few faded threads in the light- 
 brown hair, and the lack of flexibility in the 
 pale, but not yet drooping, cheeks. 
 
 Mrs. Oscar was tall and had a quasi-mili- 
 tary stiffness of bearing. Her face was a fine 
 one with strong and good features ; but the 
 overhanging brow and the hard lines behind 
 the nostrils gave her an exacting and censo- 
 rious expression, and the downward tendency 
 of the corners of the eyes and of the lips 
 would lead one to guess that certain wrinkles 
 on the nose were not produced by frequent 
 laughter. The eyes were cold, but keen, and 
 took their circuits of observation none the 
 less profitably that they seldom opened fully. 
 The pale pink lips were rather pinched, but 
 mobile and sensitive, and besides their before- 
 mentioned downward-curving tendency, had 
 another of half breaking into somewhat bitter 
 smiles. They looked, moreover, strangely 
 well fitted to serve as a battery of hard-
 
 George Hern. 61 
 
 hitting words, and in seasons of great annoy- 
 ance would really seem to be shaping un- 
 uttered oaths. 
 
 In her movements there was an eager ac- 
 tivity, a sort of bustling, elbowing, and per- 
 sistent zeal, as of one who had learnt that the 
 world has many stumbling-blocks, and who is 
 ready to surmount them. She wore a dress 
 of dusky silk, and displayed no ornament but 
 a small jet necklace. Her rippling hair was 
 drawn neatly back from her forehead, and 
 much of her head was hidden beneath the 
 plainest of caps, made of spotted tulle and a 
 little lace. It was vaguely hinted that there 
 had been a time when her hair was abundant, 
 elaborately dressed, and much admired, and 
 when its owner made wax flowers and illumi- 
 nated texts artistically. But Mrs. Oscar was 
 not communicative on the subject of her 
 early days, which were as thickly muffled in 
 mystery as those of Anderida. Her childhood
 
 62 George Hern. 
 
 and youth were passed far away from Heath- 
 hammock, in the north of England. 
 
 She advanced rather abruptly to Storker as 
 he entered the room. 
 
 " I am glad to see you again," she said. 
 " No doubt I ought to sit on the sofa till you 
 come to me, but I'm a strong-minded female, 
 you know, and I wish to show you plainly 
 that I welcome you." 
 
 Storker was gratified to receive so unusu- 
 ally cordial a shake of the hand, for some- 
 times this lady, to quote her own words, 
 " would make her fingers almost as stiff as 
 blackthorn spears." I must make the strange 
 confession that at the same moment the 
 thought flashed through his mind that she, 
 like his grandfather, desired now to secure 
 him as a husband for Clara. 
 
 Pardon his egoism. Storker had not 
 during his periodical visits to Heathham- 
 mock considered his father's business at all
 
 George Hem. 63 
 
 carefully. He esteemed him, despite his 
 peculiarities, a prosperous man, who could 
 not, indeed, be otherwise with such a good 
 old banking concern at his back. The only 
 son of such a father and the favourite of 
 Admiral Howsegoe (to leave all else out of 
 the argument) had some cause to think him- 
 self worthy of the attention of the unmarried. 
 
 " Are you quite well ?" he asked. 
 
 " No," replied Mrs. Oscar, who did not 
 often practice ceremony of speech, " I have 
 been plagued with neuralgia lately." 
 
 " An execrable and abominable complaint!" 
 said Storker, turning to greet Mr. Oscar. 
 M I am sorry Clara could not come to-night," 
 he added, eyeing the lady again ; " I hope she 
 is well." 
 
 " Are you then so altered as to ask politely 
 about a female ?" said Mrs. Oscar, returning 
 his gaze ; " I believe she is well." 
 
 " Frank personage as you are, you qualify
 
 64 George Hern. 
 
 some of your answers respecting others as 
 heretofore, I observe," said Storker, smiling. 
 <l If I were to ask if Clara had grown since I 
 last saw her I shouldn't be surprised to hear 
 you, in a cool and cautious moment, answer : 
 * I've not measured her.' " 
 
 The town-clerk looked at his proposed 
 partner as if in some wonder at his boldness, 
 but before he could speak Admiral Howsegoe 
 entered, rubicund and portentous. 
 
 " Dinner due, and Bella and Kidd not 
 down, of course !" he growled, after gruffly 
 saluting the guests. 
 
 " Without wishing to offend our friend 
 Storker," said Mrs. Oscar, " I must say I 
 should have thought you would have known 
 this household long enough, Admiral, to 
 get inured to unpunctuality." 
 
 " I admire Cobbett for many things," said 
 Mr. Oscar, "but especially for his punctu- 
 ality."
 
 George Hern. 65 
 
 u You must console my grandfather, sir/' 
 said Storker, " by some quotations as to the 
 advantage of subjugating the animal propen- 
 sities." 
 
 11 1 expect," said Mr. Oscar, " that the 
 Admiral, like Charles Surface in the play, 
 "would prefer to ' proceed to business with- 
 out further ceremony ' — the business being 
 dinner." 
 
 u A man's a fool, sir," said Admiral Howse- 
 goe, " who doesn't like to have his dinner at 
 the proper time, however ordinary the meal." 
 
 A short conversation on Storker's travels 
 ensued until the mistress of Castle House 
 appeared in a head-dress over-thronged with 
 flowers, a ponderous dead-gold brooch and 
 other conspicuous adornments. 
 
 " The changing of dresses becomes more 
 and more troublesome to me," she said, " and 
 really it seems a pity that it should be neces- 
 sary and proper. There's that motto in the 
 
 vol. 1. 5
 
 66 George Hern. 
 
 frame over our washstand, ' Know thyself;" 
 but how is one to know one's, self if one is 
 for ever changing one's clothes. But where's 
 Kidd ? He finished his dressing some time 
 ago." 
 
 Admiral Howsegoe rang the bell in ire, and 
 Mr. Kidd was brought from his study, where 
 he was found seated, in but seedy attire, with 
 a Pholas shell before him, the beautiful lines 
 of which he was trying to trace on a talipot 
 leaf with the point of a packing-needle. 
 
 The party then repaired to the dining-room, 
 a lofty and large apartment, with short oak 
 wainscot, salmon-coloured and well-pictured, 
 walls, and solid crimson furniture. 
 
 Ariel followed the soup from the kitchen, 
 and seating himself beside his mistress, 
 seemed to enjoy the fragrance which pervaded 
 the room, and which fragrance was, in fact, of 
 a kind to gladden the heart of Admiral Howse- 
 goe in the teeth of his ungracious criticism.
 
 George Hem. 67 
 
 " Storker has come to smarten us up, 
 Mary Ann," said Mr. Kidd, opening the 
 conversation. 
 
 "You should be grateful for a little smarten- 
 ing up, Kidd," said Mrs. Oscar — " Excuse 
 my interference ; but the cayenne to the 
 Admiral, if you please, Bilge !" she added. 
 
 " Perhaps I should be grateful," said Mr. 
 Kidd ; " but I did not allude to dress. You 
 women think so much of appearances." 
 
 " I am no admirer of smartness," said Mrs. 
 Oscar, with a side glance at Mrs. Kidd's 
 head-dress ; " but I like neatness and clean- 
 liness, not tobacco-scent to excess, you 
 know." 
 
 " Ah !" exclaimed Mrs Kidd, mildly, " he 
 is such a smoker. Really, I sometimes almost 
 expect to see the smoke coming out of his 
 pockets and sleeves. But I don't mind the 
 scent, though it makes Ariel sneeze ; only I 
 hope it's not the tobacco that makes Kidd so 
 
 5~2
 
 68 Geoi'ge Hem. 
 
 brown. But it doesn't matter much ; every- 
 one knows him, and it's a treat to see how 
 many touch their hats to him in the street !" 
 
 "You must excuse me, Kidd," said Mrs. 
 Oscar, " for you know I like to utter my 
 thoughts. I really was vexed to see you in 
 the coat you wore to-day in the bank. Upon 
 the sleeves of that coat I think there must 
 be daubs of tobacco-juice, glue, gravy, butter, 
 ink, and candle-grease !" 
 
 " I will discard the coat, Mary Ann," said 
 Mr. Kidd. " It has suffered somewhat in 
 some recent chemical experiments. I should 
 like you to see the exquisite purple flame I 
 produced from strontian and spirits of wine 
 when you were all asleep last night." 
 
 " Bella," said Mrs. Oscar, with a very sar- 
 castic smile, " you and your newly-recovered 
 son, and the Admiral, your father, may one 
 night be blown to fragments !" 
 
 " Gracious !" cried Mrs. Kidd. '* I never
 
 George Hern. 69 
 
 liked the chemicals and combustibles, but I 
 never interfere." 
 
 " To the devil with them !" said Admiral 
 Howsegoe. " I've done with gunpowder 
 now !" 
 
 " I stand, or rather sit, in no fear of death 
 by combustion, and shall so lie down at 
 night," said Storker. " My good father was 
 always — not to speak disrespectfully — as fond 
 of experiments as an ass of carrots ; but he 
 knows what he is about. Not but that com- 
 bustibles ought hardly to be left very near so 
 warm a body as my capsicum-loving grand- 
 father." 
 
 The Admiral lifted his choleric eyes from 
 his wing of boiled chicken, and fixed them 
 on his grandson suspiciously. But it was 
 well known that he would often receive un- 
 complimentary remarks from this favoured 
 youth with uncommon mildness. On this 
 occasion it is doubtful whether he intended
 
 70 George Hern. 
 
 to respond ; for Mr. Oscar, availing himself 
 of the short silence, hastened into a small 
 discourse on chemistry, and especially on 
 certain opinions of Heeren. At its con- 
 clusion Storker congratulated him on his 
 unabated powers of table-talk, which, he 
 said, would always supply amusement and 
 mental dainties on the dullest days at Heath- 
 hammock. 
 
 "Thank you, Storker," said Mr. Oscar, 
 not observing the young man's twinkling 
 eye, " and so you have made up your mind 
 to settle at Heathhammock altogether ?" 
 
 " Well I hope to make a more enduring 
 pause than a meteor's, sir," said Storker, 
 " that is, if you'll allow me." 
 
 Mrs. Oscar turned sharply upon the 
 speaker. His twinkling eye had not been 
 unobserved of her. 
 
 " You are rather- bold and active of 
 tongue," she said, but not unkindly. " Do
 
 George Hern. 71 
 
 you intend to work at your profession 
 earnestly ?" 
 
 " I intend to try to amass unreckonable 
 wealth." 
 
 " Let us hope you will keep the business 
 together," said Mrs. Oscar, beginning to feel 
 some resentment at his flippancy. "You will 
 never be an Oscar Ashbocking." 
 
 " No ; but I must do my best," said 
 Storker, bowing with a smile. " I shall be 
 glad to take advice from you or Mr. Oscar, 
 now or at any time. I trust, by the way, 
 that the exigencies of my profession will 
 never demand such an accommodation of 
 principle as will do violence to my ethical 
 sensibility." 
 
 11 No such exigencies shall be recognised 
 in my office," said Mr. Oscar Ashbocking. 
 
 " There is no sharp practice in my hus- 
 band's business," said Mrs. Oscar. " I know 
 the value of friends, but if any one asserts
 
 7 2 George Hern. 
 
 that there is sharp practice there, that person 
 is my enemy." 
 
 " No one will assert this, I hope, Mary 
 Ann," said the solicitor soothingly, for he 
 observed by the shuffling* of her hands among 
 her knives and forks that his wife was irri- 
 tated ; "and I also hope that Storker will 
 maintain the existing state of things if he 
 joins and succeeds me." 
 
 Here followed a few sentences on the 
 opinions of Seneca, Rollin, and others as to 
 the influence for good or evil of persons in any 
 degree of eminence. 
 
 " Storker will give you satisfaction/' said 
 Mrs. Kidd when an opportunity offered. 
 " He'll become a clever lawyer enough." 
 
 " There are doubtless few mothers in 
 Heathhammock," said Mrs. Oscar, " who 
 do not think their children very meritorious. 
 But do you know much of the law, Bella, 
 that you make such a statement as your last ?"
 
 George Hem. 73 
 
 " No, Mary Ann," interposed Mr. Kidd, 
 11 Bella spoke incautiously ; I could point out 
 plague-spots in the law which call for the 
 medicine of Reform ; and I have, ere this, 
 analyzed the evidence in celebrated cases, 
 and made epitomes of which Oscar need not 
 be ashamed — but we pretend to no knowledge 
 of law. We are aware that one who wishes 
 to keep on friendly terms with you must pre- 
 tend to no such knowledge. The amateur 
 lawyer is your bugbear and abomination." 
 
 " The lawyer's is a profession in which no 
 one can hold his own without long and hard 
 study," said Mr. Oscar. " I say nothing of 
 the illuminati of the law — men who could 
 solve in a moment such points as whether 
 tithe was levied on the aftermath of woad in 
 a certain year or whether ejectment would lie 
 in the case of a fishery or a salt-boilery, or 
 pannage. I simply ask an amateur lawyer to 
 glance at ' Lyttleton's Institutes,' which Coke
 
 74 George Hern. 
 
 called ' the most perfect and absolute work 
 that has ever been written in any human 
 science/ This book (with which every 
 lawyer should have some acquaintance) may 
 lead him to doubt whether he can safely 
 meddle with the law." 
 
 " I am aware of the value of caution, but I 
 assert that your amateur can only cheat law- 
 yers of their legitimate fees and bring people 
 into trouble with a parcel of blundering guess- 
 work," cried Mrs. Oscar. " Of course he can 
 dabble, but I have no patience with ignorant 
 dabblers !" 
 
 " Nor I," said Storker. " A donkey can 
 strike a spark from a stone, but would make 
 a poor display of fireworks. Why I, a stu- 
 dent of law, know as much about Lyttleton 
 as a baby about uttering forged notes, and an 
 amateur would turn in terror from it as from 
 an old man's thrice-told autobiography." 
 
 " Well, I'm glad I have not to learn any
 
 George Hem. 75 
 
 law," said Mrs. Kidd. "But I thought I 
 heard Oscar say the other day that to know 
 a little of everything was now-a-days the 
 fashion/' 
 
 "Fashion!" exclaimed Mrs. Oscar, "I some- 
 times think, Arabella (I hope I don't misjudge 
 you), that you are getting very fond of 
 fashion. Mind it doesn't lead you into folly 
 and vanity, so that we see you carrying out 
 the old saying of ' eating custard with a fork.' " 
 
 " Fashion and its humbug shall never have 
 countenance from me!" said Mr. Kidd. 
 
 " You should view my statement, Arabella, 
 with its context and conditionals," said Mr. 
 Oscar, enlarging upon it then and there. 
 
 At the close of his remarks he opened a 
 new line of conversation, by hailing the 
 arrival of Storker as a boon to Heathham- 
 mock. 
 
 " An infusion of young blood," he said, " is 
 always beneficial. Our borough wants a
 
 J 6 George Hem. 
 
 little impetus. It was once a place of some 
 importance, though not mentioned in the 
 tract ' De portibus maris/ attributed, but not 
 unanimously, to Sir Matthew Hale. I'm 
 afraid you may find the town rather dull, 
 and the Suffolk dialect (taken note of by 
 the bold and learned Balbi) may strike you 
 as rather unpleasant after your sojourn in 
 London and your wanderings in America, of 
 which place, by the way, I am sadly ignorant, 
 being — like Ouintus Curtius — inaccurate in 
 geography. And, as to Africa, my ideas of it 
 are mainly derived from Lucan, Lebrun,Strabo, 
 the poet Freiligrath, and old John Barrow." 
 
 " Oh, I think I can content myself with 
 Heathhammock as my head-quarters," said 
 Storker. " I like it immensely well for its 
 old associations, and for the quiet air of long- 
 established respectability which seems to 
 pervade it. It's as clean as a pearl, com- 
 pared with many confounded towns I have
 
 George Hern. yj 
 
 lately visited ; and even its few unfragrant 
 by-ways seem to take a charm of sea-fresh- 
 ness from the honest fish-wives mending 
 nets at their doorways." 
 
 " You are no doubt pleased with its old 
 solid houses," said Mr. Kidd, " that have 
 withstood the brush of ten thousand violent 
 winds, and its cottages half-built of timber 
 and wrung out of shape, but firm as ever. 
 Compare these with the modern cheap, damp, 
 showy villas they build round London now." 
 
 " To the horror of Mr. Ruskin," said Mr. 
 Oscar. 
 
 And then followed an harangue upon that 
 eloquent writer's opinions. 
 
 " As to the quietude of Heathhammock," 
 said Storker, in due time, " that's one of its 
 charms." 
 
 " The tradespeople are not of that opinion," 
 said Mr. Kidd. " It's not very cheering to 
 be able to walk from end to end of Cliff
 
 78 George Hern. 
 
 Street in the day-time without meeting any 
 one. This was positively my experience a 
 few days ago when I took my design for a 
 cider-mill to Mr. Oxburrow, who was at the 
 1 Lug Sail.' " 
 
 " Perhaps we can clap more energy into 
 the place then," said Storker — " have a tram- 
 way or railway for instance." 
 
 " No doubt being ten miles from the 
 nearest railway station counterbalances the 
 slight advantage of rather cheap labour 
 here," said Mr. Kidd. 
 
 " Heathhammock is too poor and too 
 thick-headed a town to get a railway," said 
 Admiral Howsegoe. 
 
 " I am not sure my husband would benefit 
 by one," said Mrs. Oscar, " or Kidd either. 
 It might tempt a rival banker and a rival 
 lawyer to the place, to gall you both in your 
 latter days." 
 
 <c It would compensate you even for that
 
 Gcoi'gc Hern. 79 
 
 inconvenience," said Mr. Kidd, " by vastly 
 improving the value of your property here. 
 Your twenty cottages in Ashbocking Street, 
 to view the matter practically — " 
 
 " I think I express my husband's opinion 
 when I say that we are contented with our 
 property as it is," said Mrs. Oscar. " One 
 railway-scheme has failed miserably already ; 
 and Oscar has not received his costs in the 
 matter to this day. The Admiral's glass is 
 empty, Bella." 
 
 " I am hopeful of brighter times," said Mr. 
 Kidd, rather dolefully. " I should be sorry 
 to see Heathhammock continue in its present 
 plight — to say nothing of dropping astern. 
 Its pulse is sluggish, and there is a suspicion 
 of crass in Cliff Street." 
 
 " It's a poor place," said Admiral Howse- 
 goe, " and would not be worth living in, if it 
 were not for the visitors who bring some 
 money and manners in the season."
 
 8o George Hern* 
 
 " If that stout Stock Exchange friend you 
 picked up last year comes again, Admiral," 
 said Mr. Kidd, " I should like to ask him 
 here. He will perhaps reveal some Capel 
 Court mysteries to us." 
 
 " We shall not be ashamed to show him 
 our house," said Mrs. Kidd ; " and Storker 
 will have a comfortable home whatever may 
 be said against the town." 
 
 " Granted," said Storker, looking round 
 at the pictures approvingly. 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Oscar, observing him ; 
 "he ought to be comfortable if great expendi- 
 ture can give comfort, and costly pictures." 
 
 4 ' Our modern Cresippus, your father, has, 
 as some old writer puts it, * not a few land- 
 skips and pleasant pieces of perspective/ 
 Storker," said Mr. Oscar. 
 
 " Are you fond of comfort ?" asked Mrs. 
 Oscar, again turning upon Storker in her 
 abrupt way.
 
 George Hern. 8r 
 
 u In degree/" he replied. " I don't like a 
 feather-bed with chickens' feet in it." 
 
 " Are you fond of amusement ?" she con- 
 tinued. ' ; For remember, you will, to some 
 extent, affect my husband's reputation." 
 
 " I like cricket and fishing, and riding and 
 shooting/' he replied. " I hope before long 
 to renew my acquaintance with the old Ant 
 river, and the marshes outside the town, and 
 to try my aim at a curlew or plover, or red 
 shank or snipe, or heron, or wild-duck." 
 
 " Talking of wild-duck," said Mr. Oscar, 
 " I shall never forget the day I accompanied 
 Kidd and Bethell Ormerod in search of these 
 birds on Benstead Broad. It was one public 
 holiday. They said I looked fagged, and led 
 me away just as I was comparing Oldmixon 
 and Daniel. I cannot describe our position 
 and trials. I was miserable !" 
 
 " I can picture you," said Storker, " lurking 
 in muddy water to your waist till your marsh 
 
 vol. i. 6
 
 82 George Hern. 
 
 boots (if you had any) got so full of it they 
 had to stand you on your head to let it trickle 
 out, as it did, down your shivering back. 
 Your next movement, perhaps, was to stumble 
 and drop your gun into so deep a hole that, 
 after vainly trying to make a chain to reach 
 it of your collar, necktie, watch-chain, hand- 
 kerchief, and waistcoat, you had to plunge 
 down after it. But I have no doubt you 
 didn't carry a gun. You're not a sportsman, 
 sir. Clara would not suffer you to be one." 
 
 " I own I take no delight in putting God's 
 creatures to death or torture," said Mr. 
 Oscar ; " but I must not talk so to some of my 
 landed clients." 
 
 " Don't you think, Storker, that there are 
 pursuits more worthy of your attention than 
 mere amusement ?" asked Mrs. Oscar in- 
 cisively. 
 
 " Without an atom of doubt," said Storker; 
 " but ' dulce est desipere in loco! I intend to
 
 George Hem. 83 
 
 work, but I must have recreation. I should 
 like to go to the Derby or the Oaks now and 
 again, for example." 
 
 " Would you not act more wisely and 
 fairly, young man,' 1 said Mrs. Oscar, " by 
 sharing the work of the office at home ? I 
 think we must wean you from this inclination 
 to what I call frivolous, gauzy pleasures." 
 
 " Positively, Mrs. Oscar," said Storker, " I 
 wish I could induce you to try a little frivo- 
 lous, gauzy pleasure ; for you don't know how 
 to enjoy yourself, I fear. Let me suggest that 
 you should accompany me to the Oaks in a 
 neat drag, with plenty of champagne, or to a 
 meet of her Majesty's staghounds at Birkett 
 Paddocks, or to the Spey or the Tweed to 
 fish for salmon and grilse and sip whisky 
 from pocket flasks !" 
 
 " Don't you think you talk too much for a 
 lawyer ?" said Mrs. Oscar very sourly. " I 
 shouldn't like to trust secrets with a pleasure- 
 
 6 — 2
 
 84 George Hern. 
 
 seeker and chatterbox. I would as soon 
 trust them with a young Suffolk joskin at 
 
 once." 
 
 " Storker will be a good boy." said Mrs. 
 Kidd. 
 
 " You must not be too stringent with me," 
 said Storker. " I am somewhat touched to 
 sober issues by the bitterness of Mrs. Oscars 
 tones. I don't wish to be a mere sportsman, 
 or a mere harlequin. But I must have some 
 liberty. I would rather be a rebellious Rocky 
 Mountain buffalo than a Queen's pet cow, 
 that has hardly the trouble of helping herself 
 to food. I must be my own master some- 
 times P 
 
 " Wise men have said that the pleasure of 
 the wisely governed exceeds that of the 
 ruler," said Mr. Oscar ; " or, to unfold this 
 more clearly " 
 
 " I can't quite agree with you, sir," said 
 Storker, " for life seems to me to be little else
 
 George Hern. 85 
 
 than a struggle for mastery. However, once 
 for all, I couldn't sink into a mere office- 
 drudge if you tempted me with a silver mine 
 or a quarry of marble !" 
 
 " Be sensible, boy, and look to the main 
 chance," said Admiral Howsegoe. " No one 
 can demand more of you, except a fool. As 
 to renouncing pleasure, it's idiot's talk. You 
 must have some. But there's no pleasure to 
 be had in this place now. We used to come 
 to balls in the town-hall here that were pretty 
 balls — special floors laid down, hot and cold 
 port and sherry negus, and hot and cold 
 lemonade. But that was when my father 
 lived at Wilford Hall. Heathhammock was 
 a loser by his death." 
 
 " Ah, ancient worthy !" exclaimed Storker ; 
 " you have seen some gay life beside that of 
 Heathhammock balls. You who ate goose- 
 berry tarts for a wager in a ' tuck shop ' at 
 fifteen, and literally killed a man at fifty-two
 
 86 George Hern. 
 
 by tempting him to emulate you in consump- 
 tion of brown brandy." 
 
 The Admiral glanced furtively at Mrs. 
 Oscar and smiled grimly at Storker. 
 
 " I don't know what the world is coming 
 to," he said. " Even our old Heathhammock 
 music-parties seem to be dying away. There 
 were very few last season." 
 
 " It's a great pity," said Mrs. Kidd. 
 " For my part, I never enjoyed them," 
 said Mrs. Oscar, " and only went to please 
 my daughter. Nor does my husband care 
 for them." 
 
 " I suspect that the music interfered with 
 his conversation," said the Admiral ; " and 
 conversation is decidedly a nuisance to the 
 music." 
 
 " It is fortunate that it never injured any 
 song of yours, sir/' retorted Mrs. Oscar 
 abruptly. 
 
 " Of his !" said Storker good-humouredly ;
 
 George Hern. Sy 
 
 u I should sooner expect an anthem from a 
 codfish than a song from the Admiral. In 
 my mother our musical talent is concentrated. " 
 
 " I have always loved music," said Mrs. 
 Kidd. " I used to enjoy the organ-grinders 
 when I was at school at Brighton, and was 
 quite vexed when one stopped to pick up a 
 penny." 
 
 " I have no patience," said Mrs. Oscar, 
 "with your musical enthusiasts — I don't 
 allude to you, Bella — who will chatter about 
 nocturnes, gavottes, and motets, or dash off 
 to the piano when they should ask you to 
 take another muffin." 
 
 11 George Hern used to sing a good song," 
 said Storker. " I often thought of him when 
 I was in America. I saw a few traces of the 
 awful civil war there, in which he was so 
 eager to take part. He's a good fellow and 
 a brave fellow. How is he ?" 
 
 11 You had better ask Mr. Oscar," said that
 
 88 George Hem. 
 
 gentleman's wife curtly, " he sees more of 
 him than any one. Hern is his pet as he 
 always has been." 
 
 Mr. Oscar straightened himself in his 
 chair, and looked at his wife with unusual 
 firmness. 
 
 " I have always tried to befriend this poor 
 fellow," he said ; " and have never felt 
 ashamed to associate with him to some 
 extent, though, as you know, he is not, to 
 quote Crackenthorpe's phrase on the Church 
 of Rome, ' of so honourable a race ' as might 
 be desired." 
 
 " I always liked the fellow," said Storker, 
 " and knew he had brains as well as strength 
 and activity, and a lion's heart. I hugely 
 admire a man at once bold and athletic, and 
 am not marrowless or a chicken myself. To 
 confess the truth I've jostled a policeman into 
 the gutter in my time, and once nearly threw 
 a drunken rough down an area !"
 
 George Hem. 89 
 
 " Ah !" said Mrs. Kidd, " it makes me 
 nervous to hear of these things ; but, as a 
 boy, you used to break the chairs and furni- 
 ture, you know." 
 
 11 George Hern has been wild/' said Mr. 
 Oscar ; " but he has renounced his feats of 
 strength and daring, I hope. He is on the 
 eve of his last examination, which no doubt 
 he will pass. I maintain," he continued, 
 again looking firmly at his wife, " that he is 
 in all respects fitted to join our profession. 
 He has picked up much information in my 
 study, including a little Latin prose, though 
 he knows nothing of Greek, or of Latin 
 verse." 
 
 11 I don't think," said Mr. Kidd, " that he 
 would be a better man in the least decree if 
 he had sighed over ' tv-tu \ or been laughed 
 at for thinking 'sub tegmine fagV the close of 
 a pentameter line. Give me a practical man."" 
 
 <c He is a faithful and sound clerk," said Mr.
 
 90 George Hern. 
 
 Oscar, " and a most persevering fellow. He 
 is a useful depository of the unrecorded, and 
 directory to the recorded business of my office." 
 
 " I'm afraid it will take me some time to 
 transform myself into a walking abstract of 
 your business, sir," said Storker. 
 
 " Make use of Hern by copying his perse- 
 verance !" said Mrs. Oscar. " Surpass him !" 
 
 " I remember once watching him, when he 
 was a little boy, sawing a piece of tough cord 
 into lengths on the edge of a door-scraper," 
 said Mr. Kidd, " and I said then, ' that is a 
 resolute lad.' " 
 
 " And I say now," said Admiral Howse- 
 goe, dropping his hand rather heavily on the 
 table, " as I have always thought, that 
 Oscar's great indulgence of young Hern is a 
 mistake, and I believe his wife will bear me out." 
 
 " No, sir," said Mrs. Oscar, " you must 
 not appeal to me. In the matter of George 
 Hern I refer you to Mr. Oscar."
 
 George Hern. 91 
 
 " Never mind, Mary Ann," said the 
 Admiral, c< I prophesy " 
 
 " Don't prophesy to me, please," she re- 
 joined ; " I don't believe in prophecies. 
 There are twenty foolish guesses at the future 
 to one fair judgment of it." 
 
 " I say that this Hern has been made too 
 much of," said the Admiral warmly. " I 
 should have thought that his folly in thinking 
 of going suddenly away to enlist as a 
 mercenary among a parcel of Yankees " 
 
 " Don't revile the Americans, grandfather," 
 said Storker. " They're our nearest kinsfolk, 
 and our best, in spite of Lundy Lane and 
 Bunker's Hill." 
 
 " Confound it !" said the Admiral. " No 
 one can go far in this hotch-potch, many-sided 
 world without coming to loggerheads with 
 'some one : but here I can't sit in my chair 
 without a collision, and that after a dinner 
 which has not agreed with me. I say that
 
 92 George Hern. 
 
 Hern's father is an ambitious jackass, and 
 thinks the boy fit to rule England and its 
 dependencies. Is Suffolk to bring forth 
 another Cardinal Wolsey ? Not yet, I 
 think." 
 
 " It seems to me," said Mrs. Kidd, "that 
 every one should keep in his place. I've 
 heard the ladies at our Dorcas meetings say 
 as much, and mention Hern." 
 
 " Most women are so busy with repetitions 
 of narrow chit-chat," said Storker, " that they 
 can't give much attention to broad wisdom 
 and weighty matters." 
 
 " My son is always abusing women," said 
 Mrs. Kidd, from whom as well as his other 
 Heathhammock friends, Storker had kept . 
 secret his unsuccessful proposal to Miss Leeke- 
 Strangways ; " and yet I shouldn't wonder if 
 we see him alter and become one of the most 
 passionate lovers in the world. Perhaps he'll 
 be like Lawrence Pawley when he couldn't
 
 George Hern. 93 
 
 have Barbara Gostling. He tried to shoot 
 himself in the head and missed his aim, and 
 brought down a mess of plaster from the ceil- 
 ing ; and then he went to the river to drown 
 himself, but the water was so dreadfully cold 
 he slunk back to his fireside, and ate five 
 stale biscuits, and groaned and moaned — I 
 imagine like my father used to do after 
 trying to smoke cigars." 
 
 The Admiral's indignation was increased 
 by this allusion. He made two fierce blows 
 at a piece of cotton on his sleeve, as he said : 
 
 " I begin to think that Storker's opinion on 
 women is correct. It's the policy of our law 
 to prevent breaches of the peace — then why, 
 in Heaven's name, is there no definite re- 
 striction on a woman's speech ? As to 
 George Hern, he's a smart fellow, but " 
 
 11 I propose we cease to talk about him," 
 said Mrs. Oscar. " We may have to consider 
 him one day : but I should think we might
 
 94 George He7'n. 
 
 talk over Storker's plans with more profit 
 this evening. Admiral Howsegoe, you would 
 not like to run the risk of being ranked with 
 those gossiping simpletons — there are many 
 in Heathhammock — who seem to take more 
 interest in their neighbours' trivial than in 
 their own serious concerns. Bella, are you 
 ready to go into the drawing-room ? You 
 will follow soon, Storker, for I want to hear 
 some more of your American adventures, 
 and so on, you know." 
 
 " One word," said Mr. Kidd. " You must 
 give George Hern his due. If he has got on 
 well, possibly he is not without consider- 
 able merit. Yet it is by no means the 
 constant custom in Heathhammock (I speak 
 as a practical man) to recognise and reward 
 merit. We will follow you shortly," he added 
 to the ladies as they withdrew— Mrs. Oscar 
 remarking that she had heard enough of 
 Hern.
 
 George Hern. 95 
 
 " I was born in 1800," said Admiral 
 Howsegoe deliberately, "when wheat was a 
 guinea a bushel." 
 
 " In the fourteenth century," interposed 
 Mr. Oscar, " you could buy a cow for a 
 shilling, and a good hog for fivepence." 
 
 "Upon my life, sir!" thundered the 
 Admiral, glaring at him ; " do you jeer at 
 my allusions to the past, as if I were only a 
 bundle of broken-down, decaying memo- 
 ries ?" 
 
 "Not at all, Admiral," said Mr. Oscar 
 suavely ; " I beg your pardon for interrupting 
 you. It is natural that you should like to 
 recall the pleasant experiences of the past, 
 to look back on your dropt flowers, as it 
 were, like 'the woman commonly called 
 Proserpine/ as Tacitus has it." 
 
 " I was born, sir, I say in 1800," resumed 
 the Admiral sternly ; " and to-day, and not 
 for the first time of late, my opinion has been
 
 96 Gcoi'ge Hern. 
 
 disregarded and my words have been slighted 
 in this house. Such being the case, let those 
 I would help help themselves. That's all 
 I've got to say. Pass the port, young mister." 
 " Grandfather," said Storker cheerfully, and 
 with no sign of alarm, for similar outbreaks 
 were not uncommon, " I drink health and 
 long life to you. You must overlook our 
 shortcomings. You will never be treated 
 with intentional disrespect in Castle House !"
 
 George Hern. 97 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 George Hern was the natural child of the 
 gay, impetuous, pretty young maiden, Lily 
 Hern, of Heathhammock, by George Boulder 
 of the same place — though, at times, it would 
 have been hard to name the ''domicile of 
 choice " of this restless wanderer. 
 
 Boulder was a brave and generous, but 
 violent and hard-drinking seaman, who cer- 
 tainly could not boast a stainless character. 
 He had been a smuggler — had, indeed, been 
 termed "a tetrarch of the Suffolk smug- 
 glers" — and had been in some way implicated 
 in certain slave-trade transactions with Arabs 
 in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. 
 
 vol. 1. 7
 
 gS George Hern, 
 
 Moreover, in an evil hour, one night, while 
 under the goad of hunger and very gloomy 
 prospects, he made an absurd and desperate 
 effort to break into a private bank within the 
 curtilage of a dwelling-house in Liverpool, 
 wounded two constables in his struggles 
 to get free from them, and was condemned 
 to penal servitude. He was also sentenced 
 to undergo a second term of confinement for 
 attempting, during the first, to escape by 
 scaling the walls of the penitentiary. 
 
 As to the Herns, Mr. Oscar Ashbocking 
 has said that for two generations they were as 
 intractable as any wild race described by 
 Diodorus. The member of the family who 
 appeared to have acted least in opposition to 
 the rules of civilisation was one Susan Hern, 
 who married the unromantic Mr. Richard 
 Figgs, a hatter of Raddiston ; but even she 
 was said to have degenerated, and to have 
 perverted her husband from a passable fellow
 
 George Hem. 99 
 
 to a pot-house merry-maker ; until, missing 
 his way one snowy night, he slept in a ditch — 
 a humble bed, but an expensive one, for he 
 paid his life for it. 
 
 Hiram Hern, Lily's grandfather, was dis- 
 charged from the navy and narrowly escaped 
 a whipping. Reuben Hern, her uncle, was 
 mixed up with a fowl-stealing adventure, and 
 distinguished himself by a long swim in the 
 Samphire Creek to elude Policeman Peacock 
 and two special constables ; and William Hern, 
 her father, was rude, surly, and self-willed 
 enough to illustrate the worst traditions of 
 the family. When Boulder fell in love with 
 Lily, she and her father, who was a widower, 
 were the sole survivors of the Herns, though 
 they were once plentiful on the eastern coast. 
 
 There was a great contrast in the ages of 
 the lovers, Boulder being the elder by many 
 years. His stirring and unsettled mode of 
 life had turned his attention from deliberate 
 
 7—2
 
 ioo George Hem. 
 
 thoughts of marriage before, though he was 
 a lonely man, knowing no kinsfolk, for he had 
 himself been born out of wedlock, on the 
 coast of Norfolk, of humble parents, and 
 making few friends. The girl, however, was 
 heart-free, and returned his passionate affec- 
 tion. He was not a lover to be easily re- 
 jected, having much of the energy of youth, 
 a noble frame and a manly countenance ; and 
 an air of romance was thrown around him by 
 his well-known courage and the many tales 
 of his strange adventures. As to the stains 
 upon his name, perhaps poor Lily vindicated 
 them by the woman's argument that her 
 family had left as many on her own. 
 
 But there was a frowning and inexorable 
 obstacle to their union in Lily's father, who 
 cherished in his stubborn heart an old hatred 
 against Boulder, having been twice publicly 
 threatened and insulted, and once pulled by 
 the nose and thrown down by him, and this
 
 George Hern. ioi 
 
 last in the presence of the lifeboat crew. He 
 rejected all Boulder's offers of reconciliation, 
 savagely forbade the marriage — Lily was 
 but nineteen — and called down the curse of 
 Heaven upon the love of his daughter for his 
 enemy. 
 
 I will not dwell upon the sinful, sorrowful 
 tale of stealthy meetings, passion and frailty. 
 During Boulder's absence from Heathham- 
 mock in a fishing-fleet, which was detained 
 by storms far away in the North Sea, it 
 became clear that Lily would shortly have a 
 child. Heart-crushed and bewildered by her 
 father's cruel taunts, she left her home a little 
 before her confinement ; and her baby was 
 born in the workhouse of Straybirds Hun- 
 dred. Four days afterwards, the mother 
 was laid in her grave ; and Boulder re- 
 turning when the child was a fortnight old, 
 rented a humble home, oddly and from 
 ancient times called Oblivion Cottage, in
 
 102 George Hem. 
 
 Honey-pot Lane, near the North Cliff, took 
 the little fellow thither, and called him by his 
 own name " George." 
 
 After his daughter's death William Hern,. 
 to distract his troubled mind and remove 
 himself from the temptation to do violent 
 revenge on Boulder, went on a voyage to 
 Melbourne. He returned in safety, but, 
 during a subsequent voyage to Hudson, was 
 drowned off the Dogger Bank. 
 
 Enlisting the occasional help of friendly 
 females — though, as his neighbour, Mrs. 
 Josham, said, he could lay a fire, cook, clean 
 plates, and wash linen, as well as a woman — 
 Boulder devoted himself with a good will 
 that ripened wondrously to the little life left 
 in his charge, the pledge of a passion which 
 had stirred his heart profoundly, and would 
 haunt it to the end, the poor, innocent off- 
 spring of that passion's lawless intensity and 
 dishonourable indulgence. The rough and
 
 George Hern. 103 
 
 fierce man's tenderness to the child was very 
 strange to witness. The good impulses of 
 his warm heart found encouragement and 
 satisfaction in his fatherly duties ; and, in 
 spite of the novelty of these, and the little 
 but grave cares they entailed upon him, the 
 happiest moments he had ever spent were 
 passed in nursing his son, answering the 
 many questions he soon began to propound, 
 and planning and striving to supply his 
 daily wants. 
 
 And the child became a still more potent 
 blessing to the man as its human soul de- 
 veloped and called for guidance hour by 
 hour. He meditated faithfully on his re- 
 sponsibilities, and asked the help of worthy 
 men ; and the inborn virtue of the rude 
 seaman, suppressed by inauspicious training 
 and experiences, gradually assumed a certain 
 sway. His soul, by slow degrees refreshed 
 and purified and made impressible to good
 
 104 George Hern. 
 
 by his love and conscientious duty-seeking, 
 could judge truly, and reject many of the 
 evil influences which had ruled him in the 
 past. Solemnly and sincerely he resolved to 
 guide the child aright, according to his lights, 
 and to carve out for it, if he could, a 
 good place in the world. He, therefore, 
 not without backslidings, renounced his 
 dissipated habits, ceased his wanderings, 
 settled as a beach-man at Heathhammock, 
 lived peaceably, worked hard, saved money, 
 generally planned his fishing excursions so 
 as to be ashore on Sunday, and went to 
 church. 
 
 The disgrace of having been a convict 
 made him liable, of course, to a sneer from 
 others at times ; but his old reputation as a 
 man of terror kept in check the insults of all 
 in their sober senses. Besides his tenderness 
 to his little child, and his manly amendment 
 of life, could not fail to win respect among
 
 George Hern. 105 
 
 his mates of the beach, a not ungenerous 
 class. I admit, on the other hand, that some 
 envy was excited by his success ; for his phy- 
 sical power, and good seamanship placed him 
 soon among the first of the along-shore 
 fishermen, and he was appointed cockswain of 
 the lifeboat. 
 
 The child was not unworthy of his devoted 
 guardian, nor of Mrs. Josham's description of 
 him as " a noble boy to be born in wicked- 
 ness and the workhouse." He inherited 
 traits of his mother's comeliness of face and 
 of his father's activity and lusty strength of 
 frame ; and gave signs of a useful intellect, a 
 bold and generous heart, and a strange, in- 
 stinctive delicacy of feeling, notwithstanding 
 a certain eager, resolute vigour which dis- 
 played itself in every action. 
 
 He soon became a pet among the sea- 
 farers who, with their romantic tales, fostered 
 within the bold, bright-faced little fellow
 
 io6 George Hem. 
 
 vague hopes of a life of travel and adven- 
 ture. He loved to roam away to the cliff- 
 edge, and seat himself beside a string of old 
 salt-water gossips, listening to their strange 
 experiences, or to the grand and solemn songs 
 of the sea, which they told him had in its 
 awful hunger, swallowed so many they had 
 known and fraternised with, and which had 
 washed back to the earth they left alive so 
 many bodies, to be put away from sight of 
 the sun and of their brothers. 
 
 But his father discouraged these interviews,, 
 for it was his fixed desire that his son should 
 never be a seaman ; and he feared, tracing 
 much of his own character in the lad, that, 
 even at that early age, he might be fatally 
 prejudiced against a settled life on the land. 
 Few could unfold a more stirring history than 
 he, but he kept it secret from his son. 
 
 But his pride in the boy would not suffer 
 him to be content with the prospect of a poor
 
 George Hern. ioj 
 
 and humble walk ashore for him. He main- 
 tained that he had something of " a Natur's 
 gentleman " about him, and should have his 
 due. Therefore, though at the advice of 
 wise counsellors, he sent him early to the 
 Infant, and afterwards to the National, 
 School, he was jealous of his mixing in- 
 timately with the lower sort of his class- 
 mates, and constantly and earnestly en- 
 couraged the lad's intuitive dislike of the 
 unlovely and degrading, though perhaps 
 wit-sharpening, influences of e: street-life," 
 and his abhorrence of dirt, frowziness, dissi- 
 pation, gross coarseness of speech, and 
 brutality of manner. 
 
 Owing, chiefly, to the steadfast promptings 
 and instigations of his father (for he heartily 
 disliked the confinement of the schoolroom) 
 young George made fair, but not remarkable, 
 progress with his studies. He mastered the 
 primary art of reading with unusual rapidity.
 
 108 George Hern. 
 
 however, being incited thereto by his im- 
 patience to enjoy the contents of the two old 
 volumes of Kelly's " History of the Wars 
 of the Revolution," which lay underneath 
 the brown Bible at home. But he was de- 
 prived of this particular reward, for Boulder, 
 discountenancing a soldier's lot for him, took 
 alarm at these signs of a military taste, the 
 more so, as he had about this time to drag 
 him by force out of a fair peep-show, where 
 the Crimean battles were depicted. So he ex- 
 changed the volumes of Kelly with Mr. 
 Checketts, the stationer, who had dealings 
 in old books, for Maturin's " Sermons " and 
 Johnson's " Lives of the Poets." 
 
 In play-time, George Hern, who was cer- 
 tainly not without ambition, showed to more 
 conspicuous advantage ; and few could cope 
 with him either in daring or bodily power. He 
 could be encouraged or taunted to reckless 
 acts, such as the leaping down from great
 
 George Hem. 109 
 
 heights, and springing about the branches of 
 trees. When roused, he would fight as 
 resolutely as a quail ; but he would sub- 
 mit, with a smile, to a hard knock or fall 
 fairly given. At thirteen, he was a young 
 hero in the cricket-field and on the horizontal- 
 bar ; had won four prizes in field sports and 
 five in boys' swimming matches. Bathings 
 was his especial delight, and he was an un- 
 rivalled diver, seeming almost as much at his 
 ease on the waves as a sea-eull. 
 
 There were two branches of physical 
 exercise, however, from which, to his regret, 
 he was debarred : boating and riding. His 
 father, from the first, persistently dissuaded 
 him from going to sea with him, and forbade 
 his entering a boat in his absence. And he 
 had no opportunity of practising horseman- 
 ship, which he would have enjoyed as heartily 
 as any Tartar that ever smacked his lips over 
 wild honey or arrack. In his dreams, how-
 
 no George Hern. 
 
 ever — for this personage of resolute deed by 
 day was a great dreamer by night — he often en- 
 joyed the triumphs of a Hiero, riding visionary 
 flat-races or steeple-chases, and generally on 
 some wondrous steed, which, though from its 
 vicious propensities, it had to start in the rear 
 of the other competitors, yet always passed the 
 winning-post first! In sober fact, however, 
 lie had mounted nothing nobler than the 
 donkeys on Heathhammock Common. 
 
 One afternoon, when he was in his thir- 
 teenth year, a Prussian vessel, wanting bal- 
 last, put into Heathhammock Harbour, whose 
 yellow waters met the sea between two dusky 
 old piers about four furlongs southward from 
 the town ; and, at the close of his school-hours, 
 he walked with his father to look at this 
 foreign craft. After the survey, some severe 
 criticism from Boulder, and a few disparaging 
 allusions to the evils and miseries of a sea- 
 man's career, the father crossed the ferry at
 
 George Hern. 1 1 1 
 
 the request of a fisherman on the other side, 
 and walked with him to the neighbouring 
 village of Southaston to help to settle some 
 dispute between two harbour-pilots there. 
 As it was probable that he would not reach 
 home till the middle of the evening, he sent 
 his son back to the cottage, with injunctions 
 to call in the aid of Mrs. Josham in the matter 
 of tea, and to prepare his lessons as usual for 
 the morrow. 
 
 On this same afternoon Storker Ashbock- 
 ing, then about fifteen, and Clara, some four 
 years younger, accompanied by a small cream 
 and white fox-terrier belonging to the former, 
 strolled, as they often did, along the beach to 
 the harbour-mouth, and returned some two 
 hundred yards in front of George Hern. 
 
 As they neared the lifeboat-house, which 
 stood about midway between the harbour and 
 Battery Green, they met a man and two 
 youths, part of the crew of the Prussian
 
 1 1 2 George Hern. 
 
 vessel, who had drunk too many pots of potent 
 liquor in the town, and were in a rude and 
 lawless humour, encouraged by the know- 
 ledge that their ship would put to sea very 
 soon after they reached her. The youngest 
 of these rovers, a great hulking fellow of 
 seventeen or more, threw a stone at Storker's 
 dog, and, on his remonstrating with unmis- 
 takable indignation, knocked the hat of the 
 banker's son some three yards from his head. 
 In the heat of the moment the young Eng- 
 lishman, as became the martial ancestry of 
 his mother — though he was himself, perhaps, 
 inclined rather to words than deeds in warfare, 
 — advanced threateningly, and, to the terror 
 of Clara, was met halfway and pummelled 
 soundly. The prospect was gloomy enough,, 
 for, whereas the terrier assisted his master 
 with tongue-service only, the Prussian's supe- 
 rior age and strength were abetted by one or 
 two contributory blows from his elder com-
 
 George Hern. 113 
 
 panion, while the other, with a very ugly 
 grin, advanced upon Clara. Suddenly an 
 English ally dashed to the rescue, like a 
 small lion, in the person of George Hern. 
 
 Striking Clara's assailant on the side of the 
 head twice in quick succession, with all the 
 force of his vigorous and well-exercised arms, 
 he tripped him up as he staggered, and in a 
 moment was at Storker's side, with flashing 
 eyes, and shouting words of encouragement to 
 him and defiance to his foes. 
 
 But Storker had been so severely punished, 
 and was so vividly impressed with the supe- 
 riority of his opponents, that, immediately 
 their attention was diverted from him by the 
 onslaught of Hern, he took to his heels, fol- 
 lowed by his dog, and bellowed out, through 
 a pair of bruised and swollen lips, that he 
 would bring the " infernal, blackguardly, 
 brutal, cowardly beggars to justice, the cat-o'- 
 nine tails, and the gallows before they were 
 
 vol. 1. 8
 
 1 1 4 George Hern. 
 
 an hour older." So Hern was left to face the 
 fearfully-superior force alone. 
 
 Clara instinctively followed her friend for a 
 few paces, but suddenly she stopped, turned, 
 looked around her for some visible living help, 
 but in vain ; and then, with firm pale face, 
 went back towards the combatants, bravely 
 resolved to make some effort, however peril- 
 ous, to stop the struggle. 
 
 With true British pluck, but very doubtful 
 wisdom, George Hern strove to hold his 
 ground. He received several very hard blows 
 and was twice thrown violently to the ground. 
 But after each fall he scrambled up instantly, 
 and cleaning his bloody face, resumed his 
 defence with a sort of frenzied energy, but not 
 without some system. After hurling him 
 down a third time, and just as poor Clara was 
 pausing in bewilderment on the skirts of the 
 fray, one of the Prussians discovered some 
 fishermen on the beach near Battery Green,
 
 George Hei'n. 1 1 5 
 
 and the three hurried off towards the harbour, 
 from which their vessel sailed before Storker's 
 threatened retribution could reach them. 
 
 The disfigured national-school boy never 
 forgot the pale, excited, but sweetly com- 
 passionate young face that looked upon him 
 as he gathered himself up after his last 
 downfall, and glared, not without a feeling of 
 relief, at his retreating enemies. This and 
 her words of praise and gratitude often 
 warmed his heart in his dreams afterwards, 
 when the scene was re-performed with many 
 variations and additions. And, from that 
 day, he never passed Miss Clara Ashbocking 
 without straightening himself, and acknow- 
 ledging in his best manner her kindly 
 salutations. 
 
 Clara Ashbocking was too outspoken to 
 be considered a " model character " by many 
 of the ladies of Heathhammock, but she was, 
 even at this time, the practical helper, as far 
 
 8—2
 
 1 1 6 George Hern, 
 
 as she could be, of those in real need of 
 help with whom she came in contact. Her 
 favourite doll had been a poor mutilated one- 
 eyed lady ; and very bitter tears did she let 
 fall upon a lame lost dog which her mother 
 refused to let her keep. She had contributed 
 earnest and effective words to certain argu- 
 ments, which ended in Bayard Swindell, the 
 reformed " betting and fighting man," being 
 appointed gardener to Mr. Kidd Ashbocking 
 and her father ; in Bilge, the poacher of the 
 past, becoming butler at Castle House ; and 
 in the ancient and ailing Swidger and the 
 half-witted Trippington continuing in the 
 service of her mother, in spite of their 
 infirmities ; and she had many admirers 
 among the poor. 
 
 The shadow upon George Hern's birth, 
 had it come prominently to her notice, might 
 have led Clara to take an interest in him 
 before ; and, now that her sympathies were
 
 George Hern. 1 1 7 
 
 drawn to him and his history, through the 
 strange medium of his pugilistic chivalry, she 
 mentioned him to her father as one worthy 
 of his help should opportunity offer. Mr. 
 Oscar, however, confined his present patro- 
 nage to a gift of a new florin and a copy of 
 " The Guide to Knowledge." 
 
 But a short time afterwards, meeting 
 Boulder in the Sailors' Reading-room, he 
 spoke to him of his son, and heard from him 
 so warmly-worded and flattering a descrip- 
 tion of the youth, that he urged the seaman 
 by all means to carry out a notion he hinted 
 at of placing him for a time with Mr. 
 Service, at Cambridge Academy. And from 
 that period Mr. Oscar occasionally made in- 
 quiries about him. 
 
 And he did not pass from Claras notice. 
 It was remarkable how often she heard of 
 him. She made discovery that Mrs. Olabar, 
 the family laundress, was quite intimate with
 
 1 1 8 George Hern. 
 
 Mrs. Josham, and had much to say about 
 young Hern, whom she eulogised as "quite 
 the little gentleman, in regards of some things 
 and considerin' all, though as to the wearin' 
 holes in his socks, why he'd wear holes in 
 hoss-shoes !" She also found that Tripping- 
 ton often sat next in the choir to, and took a 
 Sunday stroll with, Polly Folkard, the 
 national schoolmaster's maid-of-all-work, and 
 had gathered from her several items of news 
 concerning Boulder's son. Swindell, too, it 
 seemed, knew Boulder well, but spoke of him 
 as "a wunnerful bold un, but a bad un," for 
 in his " fighting days," Swindell feared only 
 Boulder and one Joshua Bedingfield in all 
 Heathhammock and its neighbourhood. 
 
 Clara grew rather friendly with Alice 
 Service, who was one of her young fellow- 
 teachers at the Sunday-school, and took some 
 interest in her gossip about her father's pupils. 
 Alice assured her that there was no such
 
 George Hern. 1 1 9 
 
 cricketer and football-player in the school as 
 poor George Hern, whom her father pitied 
 so much. And really, Alice said, he was 
 quite well-behaved, and was always so very 
 clean, and no wonder, for they said he was a 
 splendid swimmer, and very fond of bathing. 
 And as to the horizontal-bar in the play- 
 ground, he was like a monkey on it, and he 
 was the best singer in the singing-class 
 which practised in the schoolroom every day 
 before dinner. 
 
 Clara was further informed how her young 
 hero, in a shadow-work performance among 
 the pupils of Mr. Service, had acted with 
 such success that he was selected, at the 
 annual dramatic entertainment on the 
 Queen's birthday, to play the part of the 
 heroic Hereward in " The Sea-king's Vow." 
 And also how Mr. Service had taken a 
 decided interest in him and proposed to 
 compliment him, when he lectured on Eastern
 
 1 20 George Hern. 
 
 manners and customs at the town-hall in the 
 following month, by placing him on the plat- 
 form to exhibit certain illustrative costumes 
 which had been lent to him : " For/' said 
 Mr. Service, "the boy's good bearing will 
 more than compensate for his Saxon com- 
 plexion !" 
 
 And George Hern was not unconscious 
 that Miss Ashbocking took a little interest in 
 him, and the knowledge gratified and encou- 
 raged him.
 
 George Hem. 121 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Cambridge Academy was not a " high-class" 
 school. It was decidedly too " low-class," 
 by some degrees, for Mrs. Kidd Ashbocking's 
 son, who was prepared for Rugby by the 
 private tuition of the late curate, Mr. Tink, 
 and his successor, Mr. Peters. Mr. Service, 
 however, was a man of nerve, enterprise, and 
 much common sense, and, though a gossip 
 versed in social vanities might point out 
 peculiar distinctions of grade among the 
 parents of his pupils, his school was well- 
 filled and successfully conducted. 
 
 George Hern derived unquestionable bene- 
 fit there, and, for the most part, was happy.
 
 122 George Hern. 
 
 His unfortunate birth did not wholly escape 
 taunts, but he, in his sphere, could inspire 
 deterrent fear almost as effectually as his 
 father could in his. His schoolfellows were 
 very speedily led to believe the tale of his 
 determined conflict with the Prussian sailors. 
 Besides, his generosity and other good 
 qualities, his pleasant face, and his school- 
 master's favour were further safeguards 
 against much mockery. 
 
 One day, when George was fifteen, Mr. 
 Service was asked by Mr. Oscar Ashbocking, 
 in the course of a conversation, embracing 
 such subjects as Jacob Boehm, blood-bats, 
 Sale's translation of the Koran, the noble 
 instincts of the elephant, and St. Gregory's 
 " Funeral oration on Caesarius," as to the 
 progress the lad had made, and as to his 
 promise for the future. Mr. Service reported 
 favourably on the former point, and, as to the 
 latter, he said that, believing from remarks
 
 George Hem. 123 
 
 made by his daughter Alice, that Hern had 
 a friend in Mr. Ashbocking, he had for some 
 time intended to ask that gentleman to make 
 room for him in his office. He added, that 
 he had discussed the matter with Boulder, 
 who agreed with him that a comfortable 
 place under so considerate an employer as 
 the worthy town-clerk, might induce the 
 youth, then at a critical age, to settle down 
 ashore " at once and for all" 
 
 Mr. Ashbocking, relieved to find that the 
 application was not for a cash donation, and 
 impelled at that moment to quote a peculiar 
 passage from a translation of Sadi of Gulistan, 
 promised to think over the matter. The 
 issue was the appointment of George Hern 
 as his junior clerk, to the great gratification of 
 Boulder, at whose bidding George accepted 
 the post without hesitation, and also to that 
 of Miss Clara Ashbocking, when she read the 
 news at Kensington in a letter from her father.
 
 124 George Hern. 
 
 The duties of his new sphere, accom- 
 panied as they were with the loss of his play- 
 ground amusements, and of the company of 
 his many schoolfellows, were rather uncon- 
 genial to George Hern at first. Indeed, Mr. 
 Creaks, a clerk of long standing in the office, 
 told Mr. Ashbocking, with a shake of his 
 rather weak-brained head, that he feared he 
 would be of " no manner of use." 
 
 " The lad's a smart lad enough, sir," he 
 said, " and can balance a ruler and buck over 
 a table, and lift a good weight ; but, not that 
 I wish to say anything against him, his heart 
 isn't in the orfice work." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear it," said Mr. Ashbock- 
 ing ; " but we must give him a fair chance. 
 Perhaps," he added with a smile, " you may 
 find his athletic qualities of value in collect- 
 ing debts, or rents, or serving process, where 
 threats or even physical annoyance might be 
 expected."
 
 George Hern. 125 
 
 But George Hern strove hard and hope- 
 fully, at times, not only to give satisfaction 
 in the office, but also to interest himself 
 warmly in his work ; for he would rather 
 have faced much more unpleasant tasks than 
 have disappointed his father. Therefore, the 
 prophetic foreboding of Mr. Creaks was a 
 little premature, as George soon proved him- 
 self of some use ; for his energy, while he 
 was under the dominion of his good resolu- 
 tions, enabled him to perform even uncon- 
 genial duties with tolerable success. 
 
 Boulders close and anxious observation of 
 his son, however, soon led him to think that 
 he was not quite happy, and one evening, 
 after gazing at him with an air of mystery, 
 he said, in grave tones : 
 
 " Don't give way, but stand to your post ! 
 I've a word to say, which I didn't think to say 
 so soon. The schoolmaster has made in- 
 quiries for me, and it's led to this. If I can fish
 
 126 George Hern. 
 
 up eighty pound for stamp, and get Mr. 
 Ashbocking to take a matter o' some hunderd 
 an' a little odd more, by easy payments over 
 five year, for premium, I can make a lawyer 
 of you out-and-out, an' no clerk. And," he 
 added, striking his large hand on the table, 
 so that the glass of the paraffin lamp rattled 
 and rang, " I mean to do it! With them 
 articles you're a man ! They're compass, 
 sextan', an' chart to you, and you'll go ahid 
 fair to be a gentleman. I hevn't slaved and 
 saved iver since you was a babe for nothin', 
 an' found you in good eddication into the 
 bargain, and 111 make a gentleman of you if 
 I'm spared. You've bin a good lad, though 
 I've sometimes had to bring you to pretty 
 sharp ; ay, and, with them spirits of yours, 
 I've had to threaten you a time or two with 
 a taste of the colt. But a kind word 'ud allays 
 do more with you than half a yard o' two- 
 inch rope, and so God bless you !"
 
 Georpc Hern. 
 
 <i 
 
 127 
 
 Of course George's prospects were bright- 
 ened by this pregnant statement. His efforts 
 at the office were marked the next day and 
 afterwards by more deliberate perseverance 
 than before ; and Mr. Ashbocking, in a few 
 weeks, informed Boulder that he thought 
 well of his new clerk. But that proud father, 
 acting under the advice of Mr. Service, 
 though much against his own wish, deferred 
 his proposition as to articles in order that his 
 son might undergo a thoroughly fair trial. 
 But the issue of this prolonged test was not 
 satisfactory. 
 
 Shortly after Mr. Ashbocking's interview 
 with Boulder, Storker Ashbocking came home 
 from Rugby for his Christmas holiday, and, 
 during its third week, two of his schoolfellows 
 arrived to stay with him at Castle House. These 
 visitors were high-spirited and fond of mis- 
 chief, and their humours were not resisted by 
 Storker. Strange freaks disturbed the peace
 
 128 George Hern. 
 
 of Heathhammock, such as the hanging of a 
 rug overnight outside the window of Admiral 
 Howsegoe's bedroom, the removal of the 
 board of Corporate Bye-laws from its post on 
 the cliff to the town pump, from which it was 
 suspended topsy-turvy, the shooting of peas 
 from catapults at the lighted windows of the 
 church during evening service, and the ring- 
 ing of the bells of crusty householders at un- 
 seasonable hours. 
 
 A temporary football club was instituted 
 by Storker and his friends, and the valuable 
 help of George as a player was secured in two 
 matches, each of which took place on a Saturday 
 afternoon, the office being regularly closed at 
 noon on that day. Storker had always shown 
 young Hern a rather patronising friendship 
 since the encounter by the lifeboat house, and 
 having narrated to and merrily discussed with 
 him, on the football ground, some of the re- 
 cent adventures of himself and his visitors, he
 
 George Hern. 129 
 
 asked his co-operation in a bold deed they 
 meditated, viz., the firing of one of the old 
 guns on Battery Green at midnight. 
 
 He could not resist the temptation of this 
 new and exciting adventure, and one night, 
 when Boulder was at sea, fishing, the gun was 
 fired. The unprecedented rashness of the 
 proceeding — for the old cannon was honey- 
 combed with rust — led Clara Ashbocking, 
 with strange penetration, to suspect that Hern 
 had taken part in it. She questioned him, 
 and he confessed the truth, as he had already 
 done to his father, from whom he kept 
 nothing secret. To both he expressed peni- 
 tence ; but he was prejudicially unsettled. 
 
 Fortunately Storker's relationship to the 
 town-clerk saved him and his coadjutors from 
 any worse punishment than some bitter verbal 
 criticism. But, after the departure of the 
 Rugbeians with their merriment and of Clara 
 with her calm and friendly smile, George 
 
 vol. 1. 9
 
 130 George Hern. 
 
 Hern, the persevering and exemplary clerk, 
 seemed to be threatened with a reaction. 
 Boulder was busy, and seldom ashore just 
 then, or his son's state of mind would have 
 been detected, and some remedy tried. 
 
 One afternoon, at this time, as the clerks 
 were preparing to leave the office, a dispute 
 arose among some of them as to the possi- 
 bility of walking to Raddiston Pump and 
 back in four hours. George Hern offered to 
 solve the question by performing the feat 
 with some minutes to spare ; but he was told 
 that his interference was not agreeable, and 
 that it was well known that he could do what 
 no other human being would aspire to, even 
 to the insinuating of himself into the good 
 graces of his betters. Some warm expres- 
 sions followed, and, for the first time since 
 his entry into the office, a stinging allusion 
 was made to his illegitimacy by Bedingfield, 
 an engrossing clerk about five years his
 
 George Hern. 131 
 
 senior. In an instant Hern challenged him 
 to fight, but the others interposed and per- 
 suaded Bedingfield to withdraw his unkind 
 words. 
 
 The hardy and industrious Boulder was at 
 sea that night, and George spent it restlessly, 
 though Mrs. Josham, noticing traces of a dis- 
 turbed mind in his manners, had prevailed 
 upon him to take some mild medicine of hers 
 and to go to bed early. He was haunted by a 
 perverse idea, strengthened and seconded by 
 his inclination for the exercise, that his honour 
 was in question until he had made good his 
 boast in the matter of the walk to Raddiston 
 and back ; and, after breakfast on the follow- 
 ing morning, he marched off, in wet, windy, 
 miserable weather, to prove his words, reck- 
 lessly passing the office on his way. 
 
 He covered the distance in due time and 
 vindicated his assertion. But when he 
 reached the bridge over Samphire Creek he 
 
 9—2
 
 132 George Hern. 
 
 turned and retraced his steps. Arguing that 
 he might as well play the fool all day, especi- 
 ally as the rain had now ceased, he went 
 back to Raddiston to see a body of dragoons 
 pass through the town, on their way to the 
 barracks at Norwich. 
 
 Boulder returned to Oblivion Cottage at 
 dusk. He was surprised to learn from Mrs. 
 Josham that George had not been there at 
 dinner-time, and alarmed to hear, on applying 
 at the town-clerk's office, that no one there 
 had seen him that day. He hastened into 
 the street, making excited inquiries of the 
 passers-by, but to no effect. He then strode 
 into the nearest public-house — the " Barge " 
 — demanding in his energetic way if any one 
 there could give him tidings of his son. 
 
 There were several fishermen in the tap- 
 room, among them Joshua Bedingfield, the 
 father of the clerk of that name who had 
 insulted George Hern, a big fellow reputed
 
 George Hern, 133 
 
 to be the strongest man in Heathhammock. 
 He was not friendly with Boulder, being- 
 envious of his greater success as a fisherman, 
 and of the favour shown him by the Lifeboat 
 Committee, in appointing him cockswain of the 
 crew. Moreover the two men had quarrelled 
 more than once in past times, when Boulder 
 was not sparing with bitter and defiant words. 
 This huge Bedingfield, emboldened by much 
 gin and beer, and by the presence of several 
 of his clique, availed himself of this good 
 chance of jeering at Boulder. He suggested 
 that it was too much to think that all 
 Heathhammock kept their eyes on his brat ; 
 that, for aught he cared, he was gone to sea, 
 though Boulder did not think the sea good 
 enough for him ; and that very likely he 
 would be drowned, for folks could not forget 
 that the curse of William Hern was on him, 
 and William Hern was as good a man as 
 Boulder any day in the week.
 
 t^4 George Hern. 
 
 Boulder was in no humour to waste words, 
 so he simply gave the other a hearty curse, 
 and repeated his question as to his son. 
 
 Upon this Bedingfield, further encouraged 
 by Boulder's moderate retaliation, resumed 
 that it was thought by a good many on Heath- 
 hammock beach that the lifeboat cockswain 
 was too proud and uppish, considering that 
 he had been inside four walls which most 
 folks liked to look at from the outside best ; 
 that his own son, he heard, had taken George 
 Hern down a peg or two the day before, and 
 that he himself would put the father under 
 the table for a fourpenny-piece, though he 
 thought himself mighty good with his fists. 
 
 Boulder mastered his passion even at this 
 trying moment, and turned towards the door 
 without speaking, so strong were the new 
 habits engendered in this once intemperate 
 man ; but Bedingfield, amid a general titter, 
 followed him, and tipped his hat over his
 
 George Hern. 135 
 
 eyes. Then the two men met face to face 
 and fought ; and, before any one could inter- 
 vene, Boulder, with a furious vigour that 
 amazed and terrified every beholder, struck 
 down his ponderous opponent with a blow on 
 the temple — and they lifted up a corpse. 
 
 A very bitter close had George Hern's 
 holiday! He saw his father in the police- 
 cell after he returned from Raddiston ; but 
 the poor seaman seemed speechless with 
 horror and remorse, and gazed at his son 
 with a ghastly face that appalled him. 
 
 Tortured with self-reproach, for he felt 
 that he was the sole cause of this new 
 calamity, George threw himself upon his 
 father's neck, and reviled himself in the 
 bitterest terms ; but Boulder, staring wildly, 
 only stroked his head in silence, until the 
 policeman called the boy away. Then the 
 father grasped his hands, and said in deep, 
 sad tones : "No matter how it came, no
 
 136 George Hern. 
 
 matter now. It's come, and all's lost. God 
 must take care of you !" With this he burst 
 into tears, and turned away to hide his face. 
 
 With his father's misery weighing on his 
 heart and conscience, George could not go to 
 bed that night — could not even approach the 
 cottage — but, tired as he was, went wander- 
 ing about the common in the darkness, till, 
 overcome with fatigue, at last, he stretched 
 himself upon the wet grass to rest. 
 
 Before the dawn of the next day a violent 
 shivering-fit drove him to the bed he dreaded 
 to face before. Fever followed — a time of 
 fearful visions and despairing thoughts — and, 
 with returning health, came the knowledge 
 that his father was far away. 
 
 For Boulder was tried for manslaughter 
 and found guilty ; and, the truth being some- 
 what perverted to his prejudice by the 
 witnesses of the fight, all friends of the dead 
 man, and the prisoner's prior convictions for
 
 George Hern. 137 
 
 burglary (attended with violence), and for 
 attempted prison-breaking, being brought to 
 the notice of the court, he was sentenced to 
 two years' imprisonment. 
 
 The kindly Mr. Oscar Ashbocking (deduct- 
 ing a small commission for his services) 
 arranged with the proper authorities for the 
 remission of the penalty of forfeiture ; took 
 charge of Boulder's boat, fishing-gear, furni- 
 ture, and other goods ; placed, as requested, 
 in George's money-box a few pounds from 
 the bag of gold in the padlocked chest, and 
 added the rest of the contents to the poor 
 fisherman's steadily-augmented deposit-fund 
 at Mr. Kidd Ashbocking's bank. He also 
 secured a transferee of Oblivion Cottage, 
 to the satisfaction of the landlord, and 
 secured lodgings for George with his gar- 
 dener, Bayard Swindell, at Sunrise Lodge. 
 
 Boulder did not mention to Mr. Ashbocking 
 his fond idea of procuring articles for his son.
 
 138 George Hern. 
 
 Poor fellow, his "easy payments over five 
 year " were too deeply shrouded in uncer- 
 tainty ! He said, however, that he hoped 
 the town-clerk would permit the lad to stay 
 in his office, and would watch over him a 
 little. Mr. Ashbocking communicated these 
 words to George Hern, and offered to re- 
 admit him to his service, only visiting with a 
 short exhortation the irregular and fatal ex- 
 cursion to Raddiston. 
 
 The father's wish sufficed to outweigh the 
 son's eager desire to escape from Heath- 
 hammock altogether ; so, with a gloomy and 
 dogged diligence, he resumed his duties. 
 
 But another interruption was near at hand. 
 The systematic hatred and studied contempt 
 which marked the conduct of young Beding- 
 field towards him, borne by him for some 
 days with conscientious patience, roused his 
 anger one afternoon, and a tumult occurred 
 in the office. George Hern struck the first
 
 George Hern. 139 
 
 blow ; and, after much consideration and 
 consultation with the other clerks, Mr. 
 Ashbocking regretfully gave him notice to 
 leave. 
 
 On the following day, in the course of a 
 long, rambling walk, George found himself 
 at the busy seaport of Herringmouth, about 
 fourteen miles from Heathhammock, and 
 refreshed himself with ale and bread-and- 
 cheese in an inn on the quay, called " The 
 Fisherman's Return." In the room with him 
 were some of the crew of a vessel which 
 was to start for New York the next day ; 
 and these were listening to one of their 
 passengers, a knowing American, who talked 
 oracularly of the imminent outbreak of civil 
 war in the States, and of the possible eman- 
 cipation of the slaves. 
 
 George heard his words with interest, and 
 the thought flashed upon him that it would 
 be a glorious thing to fight for the Federals,
 
 140 George Hern. 
 
 if they espoused the cause of the slaves. 
 Miss Clara Ashbocking would applaud that 
 step. And, forthwith, the bold and silly , 
 fellow was seized with a burning wish to 
 take ship to America (how exhilarating the 
 thought of the long voyage !) ; to cover him- 
 self with honour as a young cavalry soldier, 
 if possible — as a drummer-boy, if nothing 
 better offered ; and to return to England in 
 time to welcome his father on his release. 
 
 He marched back to Heathhammock in- 
 spirited with vague visions and filled with 
 martial ardour, and dreamt, that night, that 
 Clara praised and encouraged his Quixotic 
 enterprise, and that his father fingered his 
 medals with a smile of pride. In the morn- 
 ing, after a hasty breakfast, he made a 
 bundle of his few valuable chattels, wrote 
 an explanatory letter to Mr. Ashbocking, 
 emptied his money-box, settle^ his lodging 
 accounts with Mrs. Swindell, stating that it
 
 Geoi'gc Hern. 141 
 
 was doubtful whether he should return to her 
 house, and was in the act of sallying from 
 the door, to walk to Herringmouth and make 
 a bargain for a passage to New York, in com- 
 pany with the voluble American, when he 
 confronted Clara Ashbockinor 
 
 " I came home, yesterday," she said hur- 
 riedly, " and heard all ; and it's a horrid 
 shame, and I'll stand on your side against all 
 the clerks, for you'll prove yourself better 
 than any of them. Oh, I have been so sorry 
 for you, George Hern, your poor father " 
 
 She paused, and George said warmly, 
 " You are very kind and good." 
 
 " Trippington saw you last night, when she 
 went up the street on an errand," Clara con- 
 tinued, assuming the firm, practical tone 
 with which she usually spoke. " She said you 
 looked worn-out, as if you had been wander- 
 ing about. I guessed you were in a wander- 
 I 
 
 ing humour, and would be roaming far away
 
 142 George Hern. 
 
 to-day ; so I have come early to see you, and 
 help you if I can." 
 
 I need hardly say that my hero's military 
 projects met with prudent discouragement, 
 to his bitter regret. His bright young face 
 was never seen amongst the camps and 
 trenches of America ! 
 
 But often, as he lay on his web-girt bed at 
 Sunrise Lodge, he took that voyage over the 
 wide sea, and was now a mounted soldier in 
 the army of the Potomac, and now a drummer, 
 sounding his reveille and roll-call, and the 
 terrific roll and rataplan among strange scenes 
 and direful carnage. He was in the thick of 
 the fray at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, at 
 Glendale, Melvern Hill, and Bull's Run. He 
 played a desperate part in the awful fight 
 of Fredericksburg, in the struggles at the 
 Rappahannock River, in the hand-to-hand 
 conflict at Chancellorsville, in the battle of 
 Gettysburg, and in the three days' repulse of
 
 George Hern. 143 
 
 General Lee succeeding that. He received, 
 with burning cheeks, very thrilling compli- 
 ments from Burnside, Hooker and Meade for 
 his undaunted bravery in the field, and for his 
 humane activity in helping the wounded 
 after the engagements. Moreover, he was 
 wounded many times himself, as were the 
 gallant horses he bestrode, when he served 
 with cavalry. And when he was a drummer 
 of foot his drum was shattered more than 
 once, as he dashed onwards in the forefront 
 of the charging troops. 
 
 Ah, the pity of it, that he had to awaken 
 from these stirring unrealities, in sadness of 
 heart, and with not so much as a regimental 
 button for a trophy from his nightly battle- 
 fields !
 
 144 George Hern. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Clara Ashbocking at once and with cha- 
 racteristic energy carried into effect her 
 promise to befriend George Hern ; and, 
 within twenty-eight hours after the interview 
 in which it was made, he was seated on his 
 old stool at the office. Fortunately for his 
 peace of mind, young Bedingheld soon after- 
 wards accepted a situation in London, pro- 
 cured for him by Mr. Ashbocking, and, with 
 his mother and sisters, left Heathhammock. 
 
 My hero found encouragement to sober 
 work more effectual than that he had re- 
 ceived from his father's earnest words, in his 
 own desire to justify Mr. Ashbocking in
 
 George Hern. 145 
 
 sending a good report of him to that father 
 through the officials who had him in charge 
 (for Boulder could neither read nor write 
 himself), in Miss Ashbocking's few words, 
 but many friendly smiles, during her holiday, 
 and afterwards in his recollection of these, 
 and in his hope of their recurrence, with a 
 little merited praise. He became more re- 
 conciled to his desk, found solace for his 
 saddened feelings in the regular routine of 
 his tasks, and even a kind of pleasure in 
 fearlessly confronting their most unpleasant 
 features. The result was that he made de- 
 cided progress. 
 
 This even Mr. Creaks acknowledged 
 when he told his employer that a new junior 
 clerk was wanted. Mr. Ashbocking was 
 gratified with Hern's bearing, and was 
 especially pleased to find that he availed 
 himself of his permission to take home law- 
 books to read in his leisure hours. For the 
 
 vol. 1. 10
 
 146 George Hern. 
 
 sake of his daughter, who had taken some 
 pains with this young man, he wished him 
 to succeed. 
 
 As no clerk in the office could write short- 
 hand, Mr. Ashbocking one day advised 
 Hern, as one who seemed seriously inclined 
 to improve himself, to learn the art ; and, on 
 his agreeing to do so, bought him a manual 
 and reading-book, regarding the outlay as a 
 good investment. Hern grappled with the 
 books, and sent his exercises to members of 
 the Phonographic Alliance, who, as was their 
 custom, corrected them gratuitously. 
 
 After a patient course of practice, he was 
 satisfactorily tested by Mr. Ashbocking, who, 
 from that time, dictated letters and important 
 documents to him for an hour or two daily 
 in his private office. Moreover, he sum- 
 moned him one evening to his study, and 
 asked him to take down some passages from 
 L'Estrange's " Abstract of Seneca," which
 
 George Hem. 147 
 
 George transcribed accurately before he left 
 the room. Thus commenced a course of 
 evening studies, which continued, with few 
 intermissions afterwards, to the enrichment 
 of this young man's mental property, 
 and to his advancement in his employer's 
 favour. 
 
 I pass to two interviews that should be 
 recorded. 
 
 One evening, about twelve months after 
 Boulder's departure, when Mr. Ashbocking 
 and Hern were, as usual, in the study to- 
 gether, the former suddenly laid aside his 
 copy of the great single work of Eunapius, 
 from which he had been dictating translated 
 extracts, and said : 
 
 " I have heard from my daughter the 
 statement you made to her, not long ago, as 
 to your father's idea of some day getting 
 articles for you. Perhaps you hardly ex- 
 
 10 — 2
 
 148 George Hern. 
 
 pected she would mention this to me. Well, 
 I have thought a little about the matter ; 
 and, though there is a prejudice against 
 salaried clerks being admitted to the pro- 
 fession (and one must deal cautiously with 
 prejudices), and, though there are other 
 difficulties in the case, I am unwilling to 
 withhold encouragement from you entirely. 
 I confess that your progress in the office has 
 pleased me, as has your character ; and your 
 help to me in this room has not been without 
 value." 
 
 A smile of pleasure beamed upon the 
 listener's face. 
 
 " I seldom indulged myself with long-hand 
 note-taking before," continued Mr. Ashbock- 
 ing ; " my fingers had exercise enough during 
 the day. I have therefore relished the more 
 my opportunities, through your means, of 
 extracting for classification and other pur- 
 poses, as copiously as I could wish, at every
 
 Geo7'ge Hem. 149 
 
 sitting. Besides, my daughter tells me that 
 I ought to have appreciated your constant 
 presence as a patient listener to my harangues. 
 She thinks they may have been a little try- 
 ing to you sometimes." 
 
 " They refreshed me, sir," said George, 
 with another smile on his frank face. 
 "While you spoke, I could rest my hand 
 and eyes, and lean back in this comfortable 
 chair." 
 
 " True. I hope, too, my words have 
 taught you something worth retaining, ere 
 this. To resume, I will tell you that I think 
 it just possible, if all goes well with poor 
 Boulder after his return, that we may carry 
 out the articles some day. Therefore, I 
 propose that you should keep this in mind, 
 and gradually prepare yourself for the pre- 
 liminary examination. In this matter I am 
 not opposed by Mrs. Ashbocking. She 
 appreciates your gratuitous services in this
 
 150 George Hern. 
 
 room, and admires your diligence, in which 
 you set, I grant, a good example to the other 
 clerks. Besides, she would be glad to gratify, 
 in any prudent manner, our daughter, who, 
 in her kind-hearted way, has more than once 
 acted as your advocate and friend." 
 
 " I wish I might prove myself more worthy 
 of her kindness to me," said George Hern, 
 warmly. " Pardon my boldness, if I say she 
 has been a sort of anchor to me. I thank 
 you, sir, for the suggestion you have just 
 made as to the articles. I will try not to 
 disgrace them, if I ever get them." 
 
 " Well, ' Mr. Secretary,' as my daughter 
 sometimes calls you, you must continue to 
 work hard : you must think and reason ; 
 
 you must examine into the principles and 
 
 essential virtues of the law - works you 
 
 study." 
 
 " I will try, sir," said George Hern, firmly ; 
 
 " and will serve you faithfully, too."
 
 George Hem. 151 
 
 " Faithful servants are not very plentiful, I 
 fear, though neither Richelieu nor Robespierre 
 were without them, I believe. I think you 
 will give me satisfaction in this particular, as 
 heretofore. I think you may be trusted to 
 deal honestly, speak the truth, and act in my 
 absence as you would before my face." 
 
 " I hope so, sir, in important things," said 
 Hern. " Not but what I've played the fool 
 in your absence in this very room," he added, 
 with a little hesitation. 
 
 <c Ah, in what way ?" 
 
 " Whistling, sir, and humming tunes, 
 tapping on the table and marking it with 
 my pencil, falling into a doze, balancing books 
 in queer positions, and trying jugglery ex- 
 periments with the old empty fish-globe, and 
 other things ; and once, sir (to tell the truth 
 and shame the Devil), when I had to get down 
 all the bound pamphlets from those high 
 shelves, to find the letters on tythe-commuta-
 
 152 George Hern. 
 
 tion, I tied two stools to my feet, and stumped 
 about in stilt-fashion. " 
 
 " Anyhow, your secret actions are not 
 destined, it seems, to long concealment ; and 
 as to your confessed and detected misdoings, 
 they are not very grave or numerous, though 
 I once had to take you to task for playing 
 truant, and soon afterwards to despatch you 
 from my place altogether. However, I was 
 not sorry to recall you, and, since that time, I 
 don't remember that I have had to reprove 
 you seriously. I flatter myself that a quiet 
 glance from me would set you right now — 
 and yet you were a wild fellow once, 
 full of martial fire. I believe you have 
 some of that in you now, for your face 
 was flushed with excitement the other 
 evening, when we read of Marlborough's 
 delight in ' the pomp and circumstance of 
 
 war.'" 
 
 " I feel rather strange sensations, sir, when
 
 George Hem. 153 
 
 I read of the charges at Vittoria, Waterloo, 
 and Balaclava." 
 
 " I dare say ; and you would trace out with 
 enjoyment the tactics of Rostopchin at Mos- 
 cow. By the way, make a note that I want 
 to look up shortly what Livy and Xenophon 
 tell us about the lustration of armies. It is 
 better for you to read of military exploits and 
 usages than to go to the wars and very pro- 
 bably perish, like Melichus, of many wounds. 
 I don't know that I have much more to say, 
 unless I close with a little counsel. It is 
 needless for me to recommend sincerity and 
 emphatic moral tone to you. I trust that 
 you will face the future manfully ; that you 
 will be frugal and tractable, though not mer- 
 cenary and servile, like the Carians of whom 
 we read last nio-ht in Aristides. And while 
 
 o 
 
 you are careful with your purse, I should 
 wish ycu to be liberal in your sympathies ; 
 and while you are strict in self-control, to be
 
 154 George Hern. 
 
 lenient in your judgment of others. Be 
 careful of speech, George Hern, a respectful 
 and uninterrupting listener, and always be 
 courteous to females." 
 
 " I will try to bear your words in mind, 
 sir, and to do my duty," said George Hern, 
 getting a little tired of making such asser- 
 tions. 
 
 " Do so. The task of striving to reach a 
 good position will be attended with satis- 
 faction, whatever the end. You will enjoy 
 the conscious power engendered by the im- 
 provement and development of your mind, 
 and the knowledge that you are gradually 
 becoming more capable of coping with the 
 world. It would be folly for me to doubt 
 that my help will be of great benefit to you. 
 The encouraging signs of friendship from 
 one in a higher station, and the companion- 
 ship of a patron with some pretensions to 
 intellect and culture, are likely to be appre-
 
 George Hern. 155 
 
 ciated by one who has experienced some- 
 what of the unspeculative simplicity of the 
 humbly-born." 
 
 Boulder had returned from his second in- 
 carceration, and, much comforted by the good 
 position of his son, who had been the one 
 engrossing subject of his lonely meditations 
 in his absence, had resumed his work on 
 Heathhammock beach with much of his 
 former vigour. The eighty pounds for stamp- 
 duty, the few incidental expenses connected 
 with the articles, and a small portion of the 
 "easy payments," had been placed in Mr. 
 Oscar Ashbockings hands, and George 
 Hern was an articled clerk of two years' 
 standing. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon of a Saturday 
 in autumn, and a chill, rather ominous of 
 coming frosts, stole in at Mr. Ashbocking's 
 study window, whence George Hern was
 
 156 George Hern. 
 
 looking upon the garden, where the deepen- 
 ing shadows were stealthily veiling the hues 
 of the quivering sere leaves, that had glowed 
 like amber drops and flakes of gold in the 
 sunlight of earlier hours, and darkening the 
 long, wide, purple aisle which wound across 
 the sky between vast banks of dull grey 
 cloud. 
 
 It was my hero's duty to write out pen- 
 cilled extracts from a copy of Newman's 
 work on the " Arians of the Fourth Century," 
 which was lying open on the table ; but it 
 was evident that something else engaged 
 his thoughts. 
 
 Suddenly the door opened, and, with a 
 flushed face, he saw Miss Ashbocking enter. 
 She asked him to find " Kater on the Length 
 of the Pendulum " for Mr. Kidd Ashbocking, 
 and Glassford's " Italian Lyrics " for her- 
 self 
 
 He handed her the books with a hesitatine
 
 George Hern. 157 
 
 air, but said nothing. As, however, she 
 walked towards the open door, he marched 
 resolutely past her and closed it. Then he 
 faced her, with signs of strong feeling in look 
 and voice. 
 
 " I have resolved to ask a question," he 
 said. " It fills me with fear and forebodings, 
 but I cannot put it off another hour. It is, 
 whether I may be so bold as to hope that in 
 some future day — some very far-off day, when 
 I have fought my way by intense, uncom- 
 promising labour — into a fair position you will 
 condescend to accept my love, and crown 
 your many kindnesses to me by trying to 
 give me a little of yours ?" 
 
 Clara Ashbocking started, and the blood 
 rose to her cheeks. She glanced at him for 
 a moment, turned away, and, drawing her- 
 self up, said proudly, but in a voice that 
 faltered nevertheless : 
 
 " Your words are so strange they bewilder
 
 158 George Hern. 
 
 me. Is my kindness to end in this ? Is 
 my sympathy to be destroyed for ever to- 
 day r 
 
 " I deserve this !" exclaimed Hern, as he 
 pushed aside, with a gesture of bitterness, an 
 old volume of Tod's " Spenser," upon which 
 his hand had rested. " My forebodings were 
 better prophets than my crazy hopes. For- 
 give me, Miss Ashbocking. Do not break 
 my heart with coldness or reproaches. I did 
 not rightly view the greatness of the sacrifice 
 I asked of you, till now." 
 
 " Friendship I willingly showed you," she 
 said, slowly and with reproach in her voice, 
 " for I thought you needed it ; at least, you 
 were one of the poor — the class from whom I 
 always wish my character to be learnt. But 
 I hardly expected that one of these, that even 
 you, whom I will in justice call the best of 
 these, would claim me for a lover. Oh, 
 George Hern, do you think I stand in dread
 
 George FJern. 159 
 
 of becoming a crotchetty and unappreciated 
 spinster, a blue-stocking ?" 
 
 " Forgive me !" he again exclaimed, and 
 with thrilling earnestness, for her glance now 
 seemed almost cruel. " I have not forgotten 
 my history — my position ; but my ambition 
 and my great love have led me to this folly, 
 which no doubt you regard as a pitiable 
 burlesque. I should have remembered that 
 the misdoings of my family," he added bit- 
 terly, " must be added to my own, and 
 debited against me. I should have remem- 
 bered that I must bring disgrace on any 
 one, even in my own poor station, who is 
 linked with me in marriage, and that my 
 struggles to advance honourably must still 
 leave me somewhat an object of pity. I 
 need say no more. I shall at least have the 
 one poor comfort, Miss Ashbocking, of walk- 
 ing in soul with you henceforth, for my love 
 (or madness) is not transient. Oh, you have
 
 160 George Hern. 
 
 been so kind to me, that I fondly hoped there 
 might sometimes be a mysterious power or 
 charm in the human soul to counterbalance low 
 origin and unhappy history, and beyond the 
 reach of the thorn of social pride ; that your 
 spirit might have discovered a little worth in 
 mine, to set against my shortcomings. But it is 
 folly to speak of minor hopes, when I confess 
 that I hoped to gain your love, and to earn, 
 in time, your friends' consent to your mar- 
 riage with a lawyer's clerk, Uriah Heep and 
 Mr. Guppy notwithstanding." 
 
 Clara's eyes seemed to be gradually softened 
 as he spoke. 
 
 " You have astonished me," she said very 
 gently. "Forgive me if my words have been 
 unkind. Believe me, I pity you from my 
 heart/' 
 
 " Thank you !" he exclaimed, taking com- 
 fort from her altered tones. " You have pitied 
 me in the past, and I hoped, like a fool, that
 
 George Hern. 161 
 
 your pity might bring forth love, as pity has 
 done ere this, and foster it." 
 
 " I would not be unkind," she continued. 
 " Let us not cease to be friends. I may have 
 encouraged and misled you more than I 
 meant to do. I will be candid as you are. 
 I have admired you very much ; your 
 courage, your kindness, your loyalty to duty, 
 your energy and your success have pleased 
 me. I have been proud of my small share 
 in the last. That the interest I took in you 
 has led to sorrow I deeply regret." 
 
 She prepared to leave the room, but he 
 begged her to hear a few more words from 
 him, and said with great fervour : 
 
 " From the time, and it was very early, 
 when I outgrew the boy's sceptical contempt 
 for sexual love, you have been to me the 
 image and type of perfect loveliness of face 
 and form, the ideal of surpassing beauty of 
 character. I have tried to think tenderly of 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 1 62 George Hern. 
 
 Mrs. Swindell and her daughter, because 
 they are of the same sex as you. I have 
 yearned to become more intimate with you. 
 It has been my greatest comfort to hear you 
 speak, or to catch the sound of your voice as 
 you sang far away in the old blue draw- 
 ing-room ; and to look at and handle tenderly 
 the few flowers you have given me." 
 
 A deeper blush covered her face, but she 
 did not move. 
 
 " I know your birthday is on the 2nd of 
 May," he continued. "On the second of 
 every month, at night, in my solitary bed- 
 room, I humour myself by placing a chair 
 before me, imagining that you are seated 
 there, and toasting you with a glass of water. 
 Do not ridicule this solemn mockery ; it is 
 very dear to me, and I enter into it with 
 more enthusiasm than you can guess." 
 
 "Your enthusiasm," said Clara, smiling 
 gently, " amid the bare and unromantic sur-
 
 , George He? -n. 163 
 
 roundings, would not be without a pathetic 
 charm, I think, if one could witness it." 
 
 " Those are kind words ! Oh, Miss Ash- 
 bocking, you will have lovers, men who will 
 prove your power over them, no doubt, by 
 loss of appetite, wandering thoughts, and in- 
 coherent speech ; or who will show their 
 earnest wish to please you by flattery and 
 sprightly speech, and such mighty care in 
 their appearance as suggests the companion- 
 ship of pocket looking-glasses. But it cuts 
 me to the heart to think that you will give 
 your love to one who cannot value it so much 
 as I should do. God grant the loss of it do 
 not make me a villain — the victim of false 
 and perilous imaginations, and of an aching 
 heart for ever !" 
 
 She gazed at him thoughtfully, still blush- 
 ing, sighed, and walked to the door. Some 
 rain-drops beat against the window, and 
 a rising breeze made it quiver. Then 
 
 11 — 2
 
 164 George Hern. 
 
 she turned, and said in a firm, clear 
 voice : 
 
 " I appreciate your gratitude ; nay, more, 
 I respect your sincerity and value your affec- 
 tion. I promise you I will think earnestly, 
 and, with God's help, justly, on these revela- 
 tions of your heart. I am not afraid, George 
 Hern, to obey my conscience. I will never 
 marry one who cannot convince me that his 
 love for me is as warm and true as yours !" 
 
 A bright, joyous look flashed into his 
 face. 
 
 " Then there may be some hope for me/' 
 he cried in a suppressed voice, for her fingers 
 were on the door-handle. " It is a wild 
 thought, but there is hope for me ; and I will 
 wait and trust. This hope will make the old 
 dull office as sacred a haunt to me as the bower 
 to the lover of Petrarch's cruel beauty. It 
 will purify and elevate any ugly sordid task 
 that falls to me, and will spiritualise my daily
 
 George Hern. 165 
 
 drudgery. I don't wish to study my own 
 interests too selfishly : I will watch over and 
 serve your father's faithfully, too ; but I will 
 advance ! I shall feel more confident, now, 
 in such powers as I possess, and perhaps dis- 
 cover a few poor gifts of which I have been 
 
 unconscious." 
 
 She half-turned from him, but still seemed 
 riveted to the spot. 
 
 " Excuse my stupid boasting," he con- 
 tinued. " I will indeed try to deserve praise, 
 though I would rather be trodden upon than 
 flattered. I will work with such a zeal at 
 night, after your father has dismissed me, that 
 I shall thank the wind for muffling from my 
 ears the warning voice of the clock. I cannot 
 think of moderation ! My brain is full of 
 grand impracticable projects ! Potterings 
 and hesitation are incompatible with aims so 
 fondly cherished, yet so high, as mine. From 
 to-day my only recreation shall be to talk and
 
 1 66 George Hern. 
 
 walk a little with my poor old father ; to ex- 
 change, if I may, a few words sometimes 
 with you, and often every day to think of 
 you !" 
 
 He paused, and Clara Ashbocking with- 
 drew. But, sitting in the great red chair by 
 her bedside, with her face hidden in her 
 hands, she became conscious that the ardent, 
 loud-voiced young man, whose words still 
 rang in her ears, had just strengthened 
 strangely a certain hold he had for some time 
 been fixing upon her heart. In simple truth 
 there was springing up within her a love for 
 this poor fellow which neither Bethell Or- 
 merod, Esquire, of Cuttles Warren, nor 
 Harold Audrey, the rich young rector of 
 Heathhammock, could charm away.
 
 George Hern. \6y 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Mr. Oscar Ashbocking's house, which stood 
 on the right hand side of Cliff Street, was 
 ancient, massive, roomy and dull, with great 
 echoing passages and many chambers that 
 were seldom used — I cannot say seldom 
 entered, for Mrs. Oscar was not likely to 
 leave the darkest nooks long unexplored. 
 
 It was flanked on the east by stables and 
 carriage-houses, used in more recent years 
 for storage of wood and lumber, which were 
 approached from the street through a pon- 
 derous spiked gate, between stone columns 
 topped with gaping lions. Behind the house 
 was a good space of garden, sheltered by
 
 1 68 George Hern. 
 
 large venerable trees and lofty walls, and 
 beyond that lay a shadowy grove, reaching 
 to the Common, which formed the southern 
 boundary of the town, and stretched by its 
 side to the beach. 
 
 Soon after breakfast on the day following 
 that of Storker's return to Heathhammock, 
 Clara Ashbocking descended to the kitchen, 
 as was her custom, to gratify Swidger with a 
 little gossip, and to consult with her as to Mrs. 
 Oscar's probable orders for the day. She 
 found her mother, however, already with the 
 ancient cook, to whom she was dealing out 
 some impressive words for her neglect to 
 put her bit of floor-cloth before the kitchen 
 fender instead of the old Brussels hearthrug, 
 during the busy hours of the day. 
 
 " As Storker is coming to dinner to-day, 
 Clara," said Mrs. Oscar, turning to her 
 daughter, " I should like to put something 
 nice upon the table. I told him he must not
 
 George Hern. 169 
 
 expect an evening dinner here. We won't 
 alter our two o'clock hour for anyone, unless, 
 indeed, your father particularly wishes it. 
 Now, Swidger — why, I think you must have 
 passed a bad night from your looks, which are 
 
 sour." 
 
 " No, indeed, ma'am," said the sallow 
 Swidger, in rather croaking tones, issuing 
 from thin lips overshadowed by a nose like a 
 puffin's beak ; " I know your poor opinions of 
 my health and strength, none better; but I 
 slep' in peace, and I call on Emmer Trip- 
 pington to say if I speak false." 
 
 The timid personage appealed to prepared 
 to shuffle away into the back-kitchen, but 
 was arrested by the solemn look which her 
 aged bedfellow turned upon her. She mut- 
 tered, in a scarcely audible voice, that 
 Swidger slep' as quiet as a babe unborn; 
 not that she wished to contradick her mistress, 
 for Swidger did sometimes make that dread-
 
 170 George Hern. 
 
 ful noise in her sleep as gave her the 
 shivers. 
 
 " I must say your countenance looks 
 bilious, Swidger ; but I should remember that 
 you seldom show a very agreeable face when 
 there is a likelihood of a little extra 
 work," said Mrs. Oscar. 
 
 " Beggin' your pardon, ma'am," said Swidger, 
 making a poor attempt to draw up her de- 
 crepit and deformed old body. (< Shirk my 
 work I do not. I've not been that woman 
 for one day o' the five and forty year I've 
 minded this here kitchen fire. Peace o' con- 
 science ! it ain't one meal I've got ready for 
 folk from Castle House, though Mr. Kidd 
 have altered it so as his father mightn't know 
 it if he was lifted out of his grave. I cooked 
 a late dinner with more courses, ma'am, than 
 you'd approve for Admiral Howsegoe, as was 
 captain then, when he come to Heathham- 
 mock with his wife, and the gentlemen played
 
 George Hern. 171 
 
 at cards, and the money rattled till after cock- 
 crow ; and they went to bed as I come down, 
 and the captain looked offal glum and grisly 
 for a bridegroom, and was as blue as the old 
 drawin'-room itself. I see him plain, for he 
 knocked agen me so as I thought I was going 
 to tumble down a matter of thirteen stairs, for 
 I wore boots full long for me then, which I 
 shall do till I'm bed-rid, to spare my corns, 
 not that I've many, thank the Lord !" 
 
 " I have no wish to quarrel with your 
 boots," said Mrs. Oscar ; " but one can hardly 
 admire those long cloth things, turning up- 
 ward at the toes." 
 
 M Let us not laugh at her corns and her 
 comfortable boots," interposed Clara ; " I 
 think that great credit is due to you, for the 
 way in which you get through your work at 
 your age, Swidger, and so does my mother. 
 Every Englishwoman should be proud of the 
 class to which you belong — the old-fashioned
 
 172 George Hern. 
 
 servants ! Besides, we don't forget, that in 
 times when those hands were a good deal 
 less knotty and creased, a certain legendary 
 offer of marriage was refused by you for no 
 apparent reason but your disinclination to 
 leave this house and to deprive us of your 
 
 services." 
 
 These were comforting remarks which had 
 been made before on like occasions. Swidger 
 was seen to smile, though grimly. She also 
 took encouragement to speak again. 
 
 " The old house," she said, " is good enough 
 for me. I hevn't slep' away from it for three 
 and thirty year ; and it's like bein' out of 
 England, a'most, when I go into the streets. 
 And, as to leavin' Heathhammock, I'd as lief 
 go away to sea like the winter. And talkin' 
 of orfers o' marriage, Miss Clara, I'm glad to 
 hear it said that you'll marry Mr. Kidd's son. 
 For the kneadin' together o' the two batches 
 o' the family, now there's so few o' the old
 
 George Hern. 173 
 
 stock left, seem to sound proper and right \ 
 and it'll be a comfortin' thing for me to see 
 before I die, which I hope I 'ont do this many 
 a day, though missis think me no better than 
 a corpse for the coffin now. But she mustn't 
 count everybody so weak because she's so 
 strong. And if the dinner to-day'll be any- 
 thing towards the marriage, Miss Clara, I'll 
 do my hearty best. And, talkin' o' marriages, 
 there's Emmer Trippington tell me George 
 Hern is like to marry Becky Swindell ; and 
 I'm not so pleased about it, for, though not a 
 marryin' woman myself, I thought Emmer 
 Trippington might, though more ungain than 
 might be, and by some called Soft-head ; and 
 why not George Hern for her ? He's kind 
 to her and no better bred, though risin', and 
 that's the truth. But, as to breedin', who 
 better than the Howsegoes ? But old Mr. 
 Habor Howsegoe, I've heard, had a hand as 
 heavy as a hedge-stake carpenter's, and a
 
 174 George Hern. 
 
 nose that could swallow mine, which God 
 forbid P 
 
 Clara had turned away to lift a yellow 
 basin to a shelf, where it was palpably a tres- 
 passer. When Swidger ceased speaking, she 
 said, though not in her usual voice, which was 
 as clear as a bell, that she must go upstairs ; 
 and left the kitchen rather hastily. 
 
 Her mother watched her with anxious eye, 
 but for the present busied herself with her 
 intended consultation with her cook. She 
 then administered certain sharp chidings to 
 Trippington, whose poor wits she often 
 deprived of some of their limited utility by 
 her severe words — so that gross blunders were 
 committed by the stricken maid, such as the 
 placing of a box-iron on the breakfast table, 
 and of a stove-brush in Mrs. Ashbocking's 
 linen drawer. 
 
 After this lady had instilled sufficient be- 
 wilderment into poor Trippington (between
 
 George Hern. 175 
 
 whom and herself there was, nevertheless, an 
 odd bond of affection), she went in search of 
 her daughter. 
 
 Many parts of the house looked sadly in 
 need of the refreshing hands of the painter 
 and paper-hanger ; but Clara's bedroom, in 
 which her mother found her, though very 
 large, and furnished with cumbrous chairs, a 
 towering chest of drawers, and a quaint old 
 u four-poster " bedstead, was a bright and 
 pleasant place. On the walls, among other 
 pictures, were a pair of water-colour studies of 
 flowers, by the Rev. Audrey, presented by 
 himself; and on the mantelpiece stood an 
 alabaster clock, a case of stuffed wheat-ears, 
 a small vase of chalcedony, and some shells. 
 On a crimson shelf beside the bed were a 
 few school-prize books, three modest vol- 
 umes received from Sunday scholars, and 
 one from a humble friend, since dead, the fly- 
 leaf of which was a little stained with tears ;
 
 176 George Hern, 
 
 a work of Audubon was also there, and one 
 of Cornelius Pauw, and lastly, a Bible, the 
 parting gift of Alice Service, who had left 
 Heathhammock with her father. 
 
 Clara was sitting at a round table near the 
 window, at work with her French tatting, 
 making, indeed, some woollen reins for the 
 children of Mr. Mudd, the Curate. 
 
 As her mother entered, she looked up 
 with rather an anxious expression, despite 
 the efforts she had made to calm herself since 
 her escape from the kitchen. Mrs. Oscar 
 gave her one of her careful glances. 
 
 Clara was a tall, fine, graceful, honest- 
 looking girl, with soft, winsome brown eyes, 
 full of tremulous refreshing light, which could 
 change to a richer glow when she was strongly 
 stirred. Her nose was a little too small, while 
 her chin and her well-rounded ears were a 
 little too large. Her upper lip was active and 
 expressive, her lower one plump and round.
 
 George Hern. 177 
 
 Her brow was smooth, and ivory-white as a 
 Circassian maid's. Her cheeks, as her father 
 said, recalled Anacreon's " roses stewed in 
 cream," but they could betray her feelings 
 very suddenly in shifting hues. Above all 
 was a bountiful supply of glossy brown hair. 
 
 " You^know I am not one to hesitate about 
 matters that may prove of importance, Clara," 
 said Mrs. Oscar, seating herself close to her 
 daughter, and setting the latter' 3 work-box 
 more exactly opposite to its owner ; " your 
 strange manner of leaving the kitchen, and the 
 change in your voice, were of course noticed 
 by me, and, as your mother and well-wisher, I 
 should like to know the reason for both." 
 
 " I objected to the allusion to a marriage 
 between myself and Storker Ashbocking," 
 said Clara, smiling rather sadly, but speaking 
 in a firm voice. 
 
 " I do not wish, my dear, to give you any 
 unnecessary pain," said Mrs. Oscar. u I shall 
 
 vol. 1. 12
 
 178 George Hern. 
 
 never try to force you to any marriage against 
 your wish ; nor will your father, though he 
 would leave his business with much greater 
 satisfaction to Storker, if he were your hus- 
 band. He said last night, too, that, as he 
 thinks, with Sir Thomas More, that inter- 
 marriages are often an occasion of peace, he 
 would be glad to see you reconcile me to 
 Admiral Howsegoe by your marriage with 
 his grandson. If anything can dissuade me 
 from the wish to see you and Storker mar- 
 ried/' she added, with a bitter smile, " it is 
 the fact that the Admiral has the same wish ; 
 I don't want to copy him. I don't care for 
 the man. But, Clara, there's no doubt that he 
 has a great deal of money, which will one 
 day be Storker's, and I confess I should not 
 be sorry to see you Storker's wife, if you 
 can learn to like him." 
 
 " Were you pleased with him last night?" 
 said Clara quietly, beginning to hope that
 
 George Hern. 179 
 
 her mother did not suspect that her recent 
 demeanour was in any way caused by the 
 allusions to George Hern. 
 
 " Fairly pleased. It would be satisfactory 
 to have your father's business carried on by 
 your husband, the only young Ashbocking left, 
 especially with the banking concern and the 
 Admiral's money also at his command. This 
 arrangement will atone, in some measure, for 
 the disappointment you caused us in regard 
 to Mr. Audrey and Bethell Ormerod." 
 
 " Why do you trouble yourself so much 
 about my marriage ?" * 
 
 Mrs. Oscar walked to the mantelpiece, 
 shifted each of the ornaments upon it, and, 
 returning to her seat, said impressively — 
 
 " I will tell you why. Some little time 
 ago that impudent girl, Rebecca Swindell, 
 told her mother, who told Bilge her brother, 
 who told Admiral Howsegoe, who told me 
 (not that I want to be in his confidence), that 
 
 12 — 2
 
 180 George Hern. 
 
 she believed that George Hern was vain 
 enough to have a sort of half-idea that you 
 had a liking for him, which might possibly 
 lead in time to your marriage with him. Ah, you 
 are blushing; that is a sad and a cruel sign for 
 me to read. I was troubled with doubts on 
 this very subject when you left the kitchen. 
 Let me tell you, Clara, that such a step as 
 your marriage with George Hern would 
 bring your father and myself in sorrow to the 
 grave.''" 
 
 " No, no, it cannot do that," said Clara, a 
 little stung by her mother's tone. 
 
 " Good gracious, child ! your words alarm 
 me more than your looks. There is, then, 
 some foundation for this incredible report ?" 
 
 "I love George Hern, and have loved him 
 long ; that is the simple truth !" said Clara, 
 bravely. 
 
 " You love George Hern !" cried Mrs. 
 Oscar, rising and pacing the room. " Who
 
 George Hern. 181 
 
 would have believed him capable of such 
 daring insolence, such unparalleled presump- 
 tion, after all the kindness we have shown him ? 
 — though, to be just, we have, I think, had 
 value received," she added in a lowered voice. 
 
 " Do not attack him," said Clara, " I will 
 bear the blame. 1 ' 
 
 " Blame ! I wish to make no enemies, but 
 he is a fool, and must go ! I deeply regret 
 that he is now so essential to your fathers 
 evening amusements, and is so useful in the 
 office that we cannot get rid of him without 
 injuring ourselves. He is a good worker, 
 and a good man in his way ; let him marry 
 the girl Swindell." 
 
 " He will never do that," said Clara, very 
 firmly. 
 
 " Well, he shall not drag you down ; he 
 must go. But I cannot tell the effect of his 
 articles — which, I fear, have spoiled him. I 
 never very heartily approved of them. I
 
 1 82 George Hern. 
 
 must consult your father. Why did you not 
 tell me of this before ?" 
 
 " I have had but few words with George 
 Hern himself, during the past three years, 
 nor should I probably have had many more till 
 he could offer me a home. I do not like 
 secret interviews and correspondence." 
 
 " But you have had a tacit understand- 
 
 tag." 
 
 " Yes," said Clara earnestly; "and few words 
 were wanted. You must forgive my caution 
 and my secresy, mother, on a subject very 
 sacred to me. I feared that my love-compact 
 would be condemned and wondered at." 
 
 u I don't wish to talk imprudently, even to 
 my daughter," said Mrs. Oscar ; "but, pray, 
 by what charm has George Hern gained this 
 mighty love ?" 
 
 " The ties and links that have made up 
 such a love as mine," said Clara, again speak- 
 ing very earnestly, "would be as hard to
 
 George Hem. 183 
 
 trace out, I think, as the intertwining branches 
 of a thicket." 
 
 " Are you in love with his fine person ?" 
 
 " Among other items, yes." 
 
 u I have long thought that most women 
 are fools, but I have never placed you in that 
 catalogue, till now. No wonder you rejected 
 the advances of others, being secretly engaged 
 already — with George Hern for your lover!" 
 
 " With George Hern for my lover, even 
 so." 
 
 " This is terrible !" 
 
 " God only knows how great a power in 
 the machinery of life is the heart He has 
 given to each of us. I would not marry 
 another man for all the wealth of all the 
 deans and chapters in the realm !" 
 
 " This is simply dreadful. This is the end 
 of your practical acquaintance with the lower 
 classes ; of your friendliness to the poor. 
 This is your reward, silly girl, for your visits
 
 184 George Hern. 
 
 to the haunts of infection and of dirt, which 
 your father says is naturally as disagreeable 
 to you, as an Hyrcanean tiger would be. 
 This is the recompense for your excursions to 
 alleys and by-ways in the most cold and wet 
 weather (much against my will) — your mar- 
 riage and settlement for life with one of the 
 poor ! I know you would not very willingly 
 incur a suspicion of inconsistency between 
 your actions and professions ; but I should 
 not have thought you would have carried 
 your crotchets to such a disastrous extent. 
 Do you find the young men of the lower 
 classes agreeable enough, for the most part ?" 
 " Do not be scornful, mother. My visits 
 are chiefly to women, though often, indeed, to 
 children, with whom it is always a pleasure to 
 me to chat about their little joys and troubles, 
 their humble clothes, and their few toys and 
 flowers. As to George Hern, my engage- 
 ment to him cannot be put down under the
 
 George Hern. 185 
 
 small list of my actions which I might head 
 ( prompted by duty ;' but under the larger 
 list which I should mark ' prompted by 
 desire.' " 
 
 " I did not anticipate such a grievous 
 revelation of ridiculous conduct." 
 
 " Let us rather say such a bold deviation 
 from what one might call the paved and pali- 
 saded path of custom." 
 
 " Rubbish ! I am astonished that you can 
 even dream of degrading yourself so utterly. 
 I thought you had too fine a heart." 
 
 " My heart might as well be an urn of 
 ashes, if it suffered me to feel degraded by 
 the most sincere affection it can feel." 
 
 " Such a name as his ! Such a vile con- 
 nection !" 
 
 " I look above and beyond these things ; 
 but the world seems often as much opposed 
 to spirituality as daylight to the stars." 
 
 " The world will take a common-sense view
 
 1 86 George Hern. 
 
 of the sacrifice you think of making, as I do ; 
 you, who might have raised yourself to a very 
 high social grade " 
 
 " I do not wish to hear about social grades, 
 with their shallow jargon and jugglery," said 
 Clara, impatiently. " German silver scorning 
 tinsel, and the cabinet-maker the carpenter — 
 a booby reverenced because he is of patrician 
 lineage ; and a true ' gentleman of worship ' 
 slighted because his parents ate their supper 
 in a backhouse !" 
 
 " But this man's origin, the disgraceful 
 shadow upon his birth !" said Mrs. Oscar, in a 
 tone of disgust. 
 
 " You speak as if a poor natural child has 
 no title to the life that is given him, as if his 
 swaddling clothes should be his pall," said 
 Clara, warmly. " I would rather view his 
 misfortune as a fitting" background t his vir- 
 tues, like the blackthorn to its bloom." 
 
 " Ah, my child, your pretty little speeches
 
 George Hern. 187 
 
 will hardly be appreciated by the circle to 
 whom George Hern will introduce you. It's 
 fortunate that I have taught you how to make 
 dumplings, and that you had not Mrs. Kidd 
 Ashbocking for your mother. You will have 
 the honour, one day, I suppose, of sitting at 
 meals with Boulder.'' 
 
 A pale flush overspread Clara's face, but 
 she spoke resolutely. 
 
 '•'Do not jeer at him, mother; he is very 
 respectable now, and his great diligence is 
 above praise. Mr. Kidd Ashbocking is not 
 ashamed to go fishing with him, often." 
 
 " Your father's cousin need not be taken 
 as your model while your father himself is at 
 hand. Mr. Kidd's friendship with Boulder 
 is not likely to prove of more profit to him 
 than is his love of fishing (of which sport you 
 did not much approve at one time), or his 
 idea that he is doing good to mankind by 
 puzzling his brains over all sorts of formulas
 
 1 88 George Hern. 
 
 to prove some such fact as that glue and 
 sausages are the same price per pound. 
 You must not ask me to congratulate you on 
 having Boulder for a father-in-law. It is not 
 a matter to raise rejoicings among the friends 
 of an Ashbocking, the daughter of a true 
 scholar, and a connection of the Howsegoes. 
 I don't wonder at the Admiral's sarcastic 
 allusions to George Hern last night, if he 
 had put any real faith in the girl Swindell's 
 talk — -but he had no right to appeal to me." 
 
 " Mother/' cried Clara, rising abruptly, 
 " what value does the one great Father of us 
 all attach to our petty distinctions of ' family ' 
 and 'condition ' ? His eye, I think, does not 
 pause very long at a man's pedigree, or con- 
 descend to mark the differences between 
 ragged and rosetted shoes. Why should we 
 talk as if the blood that has been transmitted 
 through a race of territorial dignitaries would 
 trickle less wastefully from a cut finger ?
 
 George Hem. 189 
 
 A queen would take a scavenger's arm in 
 any place of peril, and would lean her cheek 
 on the shoulder of a worse man than Boulder 
 if he would carry her from a wreck to the 
 lifeboat." 
 
 Mrs. Oscar assumed her seat with a doleful 
 sigh. 
 
 " Perhaps I am partly to blame for this 
 infatuation," she said bitterly. " I have not 
 encouraged your entering freely into society, 
 and have humoured too much my own dis- 
 like to company. You have too often been 
 allowed to read poetry, and dream and mope 
 alone in this dull old house since your return 
 from Germany." 
 
 " I am sorry if I have spoken thought- 
 lessly, mother," said Clara. "You have 
 touched me, as it were, rather roughly on a 
 very tender place. I would submit even 
 now to one of the old scoldings for breaking 
 a glass, or spilling tea, or coming late to
 
 i go George Hern. 
 
 meals ; but to-day we have talked on a 
 subject upon which I shall have but one 
 opinion to the end. But I know that your 
 love for me leads to your annoyance." 
 
 " It will not become me to speak of my 
 love for you, Clara," said Mrs. Oscar gloomily. 
 " Why did I never send you to school till a 
 day after the proper time, in order that you 
 might run less risk of lying in damp sheets ? 
 Ask your schoolmistresses whether I showed 
 any anxiety and thoughtful ness about you in 
 my letters and consultations. But I will not 
 talk of these things. I must consult your 
 father. The worst part of this trouble is the 
 blow it will be to his reputation." 
 
 " Oh, do not say that !" cried Clara. 
 " George Hern and I will never really injure 
 his reputation, i Of course, the revelation will 
 cause some unpleasantness — I have always 
 anticipated that — but my father is a man of 
 liberal mind. I will not marry till George
 
 George Hejni. 191 
 
 Hern's position is far better than it is now; 
 I dare almost add, till he cannot be reasonably 
 disapproved of by you. I am sanguine as to 
 his success. Let me, meanwhile, live with 
 you and my father in the old contented way, 
 and do not talk unkindly about my doings to 
 the world. And mother," she added, laying 
 her hand coaxingly on her mother's shoulder, 
 (i may I not hope that you will try, for the 
 sake of your love for me, to repudiate the 
 world's prejudices, and to look at poor George 
 Hern's genuine worth as a man. I have 
 heard you say that you would rather judge a 
 woman by her linen-bag than by her plated 
 candelabra. Will you not adopt some of the 
 spirit of that saying when you sit in judg- 
 ment on the man to whom I have resolved 
 to join myself ?" 
 
 M I can't answer you, child," said Mrs. 
 Oscar, taking her hand. " There are many 
 other men of genuine worth who have not
 
 192 George Hern. 
 
 half so many disadvantages. There is 
 another saying of mine which you should 
 remember, ' The best of everything — War- 
 wickshire fashion of curing bacon, and 
 Gloucestershire fashion of pickling salmon/ 
 I should like to see you engaged to a man 
 whom I could not reasonably wish to set 
 aside for a better." 
 
 On this same morning, at about the time Mr. 
 Oscar joined his wife in the dining-room, the 
 square, weighty, and weak-kneed Admiral 
 Howsegoe, accompanied by Storker, left 
 Castle House for a stroll round Battery Green, 
 and into the town. The young man was not 
 unwilling to see and be seen by some of the 
 Heathhammock public; and the elder was 
 glad, in the first place to secure a private 
 interview with his grandson, and in the second, 
 to cut short and escape from certain comments 
 of his daughter, upon a story left at the back
 
 George Hern. 193 
 
 door with the butcher's joint that morning, to 
 the effect that the Admiral's friend, Mrs. Pit- 
 tock, had been seen tipsy in Spring Lane, 
 and had tumbled against a donkey, who had 
 kicked her into a ditch. 
 
 " The donkey is an odd beast," said the 
 Admiral in his loud tone, " but upon my 
 soul, I feel inclined to classify your mother 
 with him. Mrs. Pittock, my good lady," he 
 added, drawing himself up, and pausing to 
 enjoy a little gusty laughter, " you will want 
 me to help you through with that fine Scerchel 
 Madeira, I doubt ; but the report is probably 
 false and malicious." 
 
 " I am afraid," said Storker, ' f that students 
 of society, like those of criminal law, encounter 
 a good deal about malice." 
 
 "No doubt, young mister," said the Admiral 
 taking his grandson's arm. " And now," he 
 added, in an unusually low impressive voice, 
 " to come to an important topic. You must 
 
 vol. 1. 13
 
 194 George Hern. 
 
 marry Clara Ashbocking. Keep still, and 
 listen to reason. I must see you two tied 
 together before I die ; I must see this old 
 wish fulfilled." 
 
 " You can hardly wonder at my not keep- 
 ing very still," said Storker. " Old wish ! You 
 know my ideas about marriage. By George, 
 sir! whenever I have seen a bridegroom 
 (since I have been of my present opinion), I 
 have felt inclined to say, ' My good fellow, 
 give each of these groomsmen of yours an 
 over-dose of good liquor and a lighted torch, 
 and let them all reel about among your furni- 
 ture and goods ; they will do you less harm 
 so than by abetting that irrevocable act at 
 the altar/ As to women, I have, as you 
 know, a poor opinion of them. They think 
 more about looks than manners, and more 
 about manners than mind. I make no charge 
 against Clara ; but it is pitiable to see so 
 many sensible men under the dominion of
 
 George Hei'ii. 195 
 
 creatures whose spirits can travel little far- 
 ther than from their boot-buttons to their 
 bonnets." 
 
 "Your ideas are false/' said the Admiral 
 warmly, but with a cunning look upon his 
 stolid face, " your opinions are those of a 
 young jackass." 
 
 " I am not a child, grandfather. Remember, 
 I have travelled, and seen something- of 
 life." 
 
 u Remember that I have also — I, who lived 
 in this world when salt and wheat were both 
 a guinea a bushel ; when a ship's earnings 
 would repay her purchase-money in four 
 years, and a cow would bring you in eleven 
 pounds per annum." 
 
 11 But your great knowledge of the world 
 may not have made you a very competent 
 judge of young people's affairs of, the heart. 
 Because age improves some wines, it doesn't 
 follow that it improves pastry."
 
 196 George Hern. 
 
 " You are in want of age or something else 
 to teach you sense, if you won't act upon the 
 hint I am now giving you, young mister," said 
 the Admiral sternly. " Clara Ashbocking 
 will have an uncommonly good sum of money, 
 sir ; you hardly venture to doubt that, I pre- 
 sume ?" 
 
 " I hope I shall not stand in need of her 
 money. Even were I to do so, I should 
 object to the thought of trying to secure her 
 for its sake. To improve a small income 
 with the dowry of an uncongenial wife is 
 about as wise an act as to kill one's self with 
 poison to cure lightness of sleep. Bank- 
 notes and rent-rolls make fragile matrimonial 
 ties." 
 
 " Let us have no more of this," said the 
 Admiral very earnestly ; " I say that the chance 
 is not to be lost. She is a nice girl, and will 
 secure you beyond all doubt, and however 
 idle a dog you may turn out, a present share
 
 George Hern. 197 
 
 in, and the ultimate entirety of, her father's 
 excellent business." 
 
 " And what about mutual affection ?" 
 " That will appear upon the. scene soon- 
 enough. If you cannot get to like this girl, 
 you are a greater noodle than I thought. You 
 will have moral worth, a good heart, a pleasant 
 face, a neat figure, money, and position ; what 
 else do you want, confound you, to produce 
 affection and secure social peace ? Play your 
 cards properly ; knock that fellow Hern, of 
 whom I have my suspicions, out of the field, 
 and speak prettily to the girl." 
 
 " I will never, for a single moment, play 
 the humbug with pretty talk," said Storker, 
 impetuously ; " I would not be bribed to speak 
 idle and unbecoming words to Clara by an. 
 offer of the Atlantic Ocean or the stars; I 
 would rather eat a live fish, or a pot of pomade. 
 I should certainly be sorry to see her marry 
 such a man as Hern ; but I am not fitted to
 
 19S George Hem. 
 
 marry her myself. How can I reconcile my 
 views on shooting, for instance, with hers — I, 
 who shot twenty-seven hares with my own 
 gun one day in February of last year ? You 
 may have noticed some sickliness in my 
 morality at times, sir, but I cannot play 
 the humbug with Clara." 
 
 " I should not trouble to refer you to her 
 at all, if I did not consider her essential to> 
 you." 
 
 " That's a strong word — ' essential.' " 
 
 " I see I must make a clean breast to you, 
 and tell you, though in the strictest confidence, 
 that I am afraid your father won't be able to 
 do much for you ; that he is to some extent 
 playing ducks and drakes with his busi- 
 ness." 
 
 " Ancient, these are prodigiously unpleasant 
 words. Your authority for them ?" 
 
 " Again in confidence, Anguish," 
 
 " What did he tell you ?"
 
 George Hern. 199 
 
 11 Many things ; but I cannot go into 
 details." 
 
 44 Of what does he complain ?" 
 
 " Your father's unpunctuality, incautious 
 way of giving credit and nursing worthless 
 debtors and defaulters, and his want of real 
 interest in the business. He is not careful 
 enough in handling his good customers. For 
 instance, only a day or two ago, he offended 
 Archdeacon Parrotts by turning away during 
 some remarks of his upon railway invest- 
 ments (a subject on which the Archdeacon 
 generally works himself into a perspiration), 
 to catch a curious spider. I don't say the 
 substituted employment was not the most 
 profitable, but the Archdeacon thought other- 
 wise, and has withdrawn his account from the 
 bank. Your father is an arrant ' fiddler,' and 
 you can make nothing else of him. I have 
 heard you say he would spend half a life- 
 time filline a bath with gnats' blood."
 
 200 George Hern. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! but this is an unmitigated disap- 
 pointment to me," said Storker, gloomily. " I 
 thought that in spite of his peculiarities he 
 looked sufficiently well to the main point to 
 guide such a fine old business." 
 
 " You were wrong." 
 
 " He has brains and business capacity." 
 
 " But little common sense. Looking at the 
 plain surface of the fact as it is, for I have 
 not much philosophy in me, I say that I want 
 you to marry Clara. I shall entice your 
 father to retire from the business with what 
 money he has yet left, to leave Castle House, 
 and to polish it up a little for you and Clara — 
 it is rather large for a young couple, but so 
 will her fortune be — and I will live with you 
 and prepare to die happy. As to my money, 
 you will hear something about it after my 
 death ; till then, I can't perch on a currant- 
 bush and get a dinner, like a sparrow, so I 
 must live with you, and you must make me
 
 George Hem. 201 
 
 comfortable ; and till my death you must live 
 on Clara and your own energies. With Mr. 
 Oscar's help, you might make a good thing 
 yet of the bank, for he has some business in 
 him, though a ' fiddler/ too, as far as words 
 go. It's a pity your father did not ask me to 
 help him with advice, for though I have been 
 a man of pleasure, my thoughts have not 
 been confined to whist and loo, basset, piquet, 
 crimp, and lansquenet. I have some business 
 in me." 
 
 " My father said yesterday that he might 
 retire from business before very long." 
 
 " He will be glad to get out of harness, and 
 won't object to go with some of his treasures 
 into a smaller house, especially if he can mess 
 about with a little land. And I'm sure he will 
 be delighted to superintend any improvements 
 at Castle House." 
 
 " Surely we shall need none, even if the 
 rest of your queer plans are carried out. My
 
 202 George Hern. 
 
 father certainly likes to play the amateur 
 architect, builder, and mechanic. I have 
 sometimes thought that Mr. Oscar would 
 make himself comfortable in a police cell, with 
 an attentive listener and a moderate tempera- 
 ture ; and my father, I believe, would take a 
 good spell on the treadmill, if he were urged 
 to criticise or improve upon its machinery. 
 By George, sir ! when he retires from business, 
 how he will plunge into profitless and abortive 
 experiments ! But I'm ashamed of this tone 
 of levity. As Rochester says, ' I've got a 
 blow ;' my prospects do not make the respect- 
 able appearance I had anticipated, and it's 
 rather confusing to be asked to patch them 
 up by a sordid and dishonest courtship." 
 
 " To the devil with all stupid scruples ! 
 Her mother wishes to see you married to 
 her, that's all I've got to say." 
 
 " Did she tell you so ?" 
 
 " No, she tells me nothing worth hearing ;
 
 George Hern. 203 
 
 but I have formed a pretty clear idea that she 
 does, from hints she has dropped." 
 
 " She does not know my father's circum- 
 stances ?" 
 
 " No, thank God." 
 
 " You think that she has a strong season- 
 ing of that gall with which the world is apt to 
 impregnate the constitutions of all of us ? 
 How, then, will it fare with me, when she 
 finds out that I knew and kept from her the 
 true state of things at the bank when I mar- 
 ried her daughter ?" 
 
 " I can't argue with you. If you play your 
 cards well, you can manage both her and her 
 husband. He, too, would like you to succeed 
 to the business. I don't much like his silly 
 fancy for young Hern ; but he's easily led, or 
 I'm mistaken, if one can only listen to his 
 gabble. Why, the other day, when he had 
 got Swindell before him to reprimand him for 
 being drunk, he didn't say one hard word,
 
 204 George Hern. 
 
 because the fellow listened patiently to some 
 sort of general talk on drunkenness ; and the 
 culprit having sworn that he was only a little 
 elevated, not, as had been said, 'as drunk as 
 blazes,' the interview ended in a good- 
 humoured explanation of the curious origin of 
 that last word. You'll have a chance of 
 beginning your tactics at dinner to-day, young 
 mister." 
 
 " I am afraid, sir," said Storker, " that your 
 hopes concerning this matter are of a rather 
 vaporous character."
 
 George Hern. 205 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mrs. Oscar paced sadly from Clara's bed- 
 room to her own, and the haggard expression 
 which stole into her face in the solitude, told 
 how fondly she had cherished the hopes that 
 had been marred by her daughter's determina- 
 tion, and how serious were her fears as to its 
 results. After a short spell of meditation she 
 rang the bell. Trippington appeared, and at 
 once noticed the unhappy looks of her mis- 
 tress. 
 
 " Is it neuralgy, ma'am ?" she asked 
 timidly. " Shall I get you the quinine ?" 
 
 " Get me nothing, Trippington, unless you
 
 2o6 George Hern. 
 
 have any remedy for a headache caused by a 
 troubled mind." 
 
 " If it is hollow teeth, ma'am, that's racking 
 you," said Trippington, encouraged by the 
 absence of severity from the doleful tones 
 of her superior, " my sister Jane in London 
 had a bottle o' stuff " 
 
 " I want you to go into the office," said 
 Mrs. Oscar more dryly, " and to ask one of 
 the clerks to find out whether your master 
 can spare me a few minutes in the dining- 
 room at once." 
 
 The town-clerk replied to the message in 
 person, anticipating serious news — as nothing 
 of small import would induce his wife to en- 
 tice him from the office during business 
 hours. He gazed anxiously at her gloomy 
 face, and she told him shortly of her interview 
 with Clara. 
 
 " It is indeed a grave dilemma, which I did 
 not foresee," he said, shaking his head.
 
 George Hem. 207 
 
 " Grave ! Is not it rather a terrible di- 
 lemma ?" she cried. " I don't wish to speak 
 rashly, but is it not the very worst calamity 
 that could possibly befall us ?" 
 
 " Well, I hardly think we may call it that," 
 he said gently. 
 
 14 1 have often feared you would spoil George 
 Hern." 
 
 " Our daughter may be persuaded from a 
 position to which you so strongly object." 
 
 "/ strongly object? Don't you? I am 
 glad I never greatly encouraged your attach- 
 ment to this young man. Don't you strongly 
 object ?" 
 
 " Perhaps not so strongly as you. But as 
 you do strongly object, I repeat that our 
 daughter may be persuaded from this engage- 
 
 ment." 
 
 " She is thoroughly firm. But, tell me, 
 Oscar, will you — can you admit that your 
 strong liking for George Hern leads you to
 
 208 George Hern. 
 
 modify your opinions about this false and 
 ruinous step ? Have you forgotten the talks 
 we have had about a marriage between 
 Clara and your cousin's son, the last of the 
 family, and one who could carry on your 
 business ?" 
 
 " No ; but since the failure of our well- 
 meant, but, perhaps, somewhat foolish ar- 
 rangements re Audrey and Ormerod, I have 
 grown less hopeful of securing such a hus- 
 band as we (in petty prudence rather than in 
 broad wisdom) think fit for our daughter. I 
 hope that your wishes will always have with 
 me the authority of Manlian Edicts (I have 
 not thrown an envelope into the fire for at 
 least six days — each one hasgoneinto the waste 
 basket) but, to speak candidly, Mary Ann, to 
 one who can appreciate candour, I think we 
 ought to admit a third party into these coun- 
 cils of ours, now — our daughter herself." 
 
 " Am I, then, no longer fit to exercise the
 
 George Hern. 209 
 
 influence I have for years exercised in this 
 house ?" 
 
 " Yes ; but when our daughter is in ques- 
 tion " 
 
 " And George Hern !" said the lady bit- 
 terly. 
 
 " Well, for George Hern I ask justice ; for 
 our daughter I ask indulgence, and simply 
 appeal to your love. Let us not deal 
 thoughtlessly with her in such a weighty 
 matter." 
 
 " You are right," said Mrs. Oscar in a low 
 tone, and with difficulty suppressing a sigh at 
 the discovery of a new era in her life ; M I 
 would not injure her, nor would I lead her 
 wrong in any way." 
 
 " She can scarcely have a better guide." 
 
 " I did not anticipate that you would find 
 it necessary to defend our girl, as it were, 
 against me. You are right to prevent her 
 from obeying her mother to her own preju- 
 
 vol. 1. 14
 
 2io George Hern. 
 
 dice. Be sure you warn her also not to 
 imitate my faults." 
 
 Mr. Oscar led his wife to the sofa and 
 spoke some consolatory words to her. A 
 short discussion followed, and it was arranged 
 that Clara should be prevailed upon to stay 
 for a time with some relations of her mother's 
 in the north of England. 
 
 " And I will try, if you strongly wish it," 
 said Mr. Oscar, "to accustom myself by 
 degrees to dispense with Hern's help. I con- 
 fess I shall miss him very sadly ; but if he 
 leaves me shortly after the expiration of his 
 articles — he cannot leave before — he and our 
 daughter might not meet for some time, and 
 their mutual affection might cool. As to 
 Storker, I could benefit him without linking 
 him to our daughter in a marriage that might 
 break her heart." 
 
 " But if Clara will not give up George 
 Hern ?"
 
 George Hern. 2 1 1 
 
 " We cannot make her do so. Indeed, I 
 should be very reluctant to meddle with a 
 pair of true and ardent lovers. It would be 
 like making a raid upon a sacred place. The 
 tender vanities, the shadowy sublimities of * 
 young lovers " 
 
 " I must again refer you to the many prac- 
 tical inconveniences of this love affair," said 
 Mrs. Oscar curtly. 
 
 M It will be, no doubt, attended with some 
 inconveniences," he remarked. 
 
 (t How coldly you speak of it ; can you not 
 reason seriously with George Hern ?" 
 
 " Yes ; but you must remember that he 
 must gain greatly by the marriage, and can 
 lose nothing, unless it be his temper now and 
 then, under the bitter suggestions which, 
 Goethe tells us, men at ease are apt to inflict 
 upon men in love." 
 
 " But you will not pledge yourself in any 
 way to him ?" 
 
 14—2
 
 212 George Hern. 
 
 " No ; though, like Sir Francis Drake, I am 
 easy of access, I am not, like him, liberal of 
 promises. " 
 
 " I know you are not with most people," 
 said Mrs. Oscar, rising, and once more resort- 
 ing to the adjustment of mantelpiece orna- 
 ments ; " but your treatment of George Hern 
 is beyond my comprehension." 
 
 " Ah, Mary Ann, in that study of mine, 
 which our daughter calls * the best and most 
 unworldly place in the town/ a peculiar fellow- 
 feeling has sprung up between myself and 
 George Hern, which I shall be sorry indeed 
 to lessen. You may think it strange that 
 links of friendship can be forged and fixed 
 between us by note-takings and discussions 
 on such subjects as Chladnis figures, Dinas 
 bricks, the catenarian curve, solar physics 
 and cadastral surveys ; by speculations on 
 the merits of antagonistic individuals, such as 
 Horace Walpole and Whitfield, or Bishop
 
 George Hern. 2 1 3 
 
 Hurd and Priestley, and by attempts at con- 
 cise definitions of such words as ' orenius' and 
 1 chiaroscuro ' — I have passed many happy 
 hours with George Hern." 
 
 " Most people would think your amuse- 
 ments dull as well as eccentric." 
 
 " Perhaps so. Last night, for instance, we 
 were engaged with some of the peculiar 
 chronological dicta of Scaliger and Calvisius. 
 The night before we were comparing the 
 similarity in the opinions of such different 
 writers as Burton and Jules Simon on the 
 study of divinity ; and then proceeded to 
 take some notes on the erudition of Court de 
 Gebelin. I shall at least have the satisfaction, 
 when I part with Hern, of knowing that I 
 have made him more erudite, in a certain way, 
 than ninety-nine of every hundred men he 
 will meet. He will never confound, as some 
 might, the 'Cotswold Games' with the * Diver- 
 sions of Purley,' or the Commentary on the
 
 214 George Hern. 
 
 Itinerarium of Antoninus the geographer 
 with the Commentaries of the Emperor of the 
 same name." 
 
 " I am afraid such knowledge will not 
 prove of much service to him, though it is, 
 no doubt, an ornament to you. And now, as 
 you have been finding fault with me this 
 morning, I am going to ask you why you do 
 not try and write a book that will pay you 
 for all this work in the study ?" 
 
 "Ah," said Mr. Oscar, rather uneasily, 
 " that task would demand more time than I can 
 spare. Perhaps, when you allow me to 
 retire from business, I may produce some 
 essays after the pattern of that ' breviary of 
 honest men,' the great work of ' downright 
 Montaigne/ At present my conversation is 
 not likely to be rivalled by my written works, 
 as in the case of Coleridge, and certainly not 
 to be surpassed by them, as in the case of 
 Corneille."
 
 George Hern. 215 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A few minutes before the appointed dinner- 
 hour Storker knocked at the door of Mr. 
 Oscar Ashbocking's office, and was admitted 
 to his presence. 
 
 " You look trim and comfortable here, sir," 
 he said. " My grandfather declares that he 
 often detects a sort of sulphurous atmos- 
 phere in lawyers' offices ; but he could not 
 take this place as an illustration, for the 
 scent from the garden through that open 
 window is of a character quite antipodal to 
 that." 
 
 " This is a pleasant room," said Mr. 
 Oscar ; " and I am glad you approve of it,
 
 216 George Hern. 
 
 for your own office overlooks the garden. 
 Sit down." 
 
 " Thanks. I'm not afraid of a lawyers 
 chair, though to some people it conveys as 
 grim an idea as the Atlantic roll. I have 
 passed the Giants' Causeway, and have 
 been behind the scenes in a lawyer's office. 
 So neither roll nor chair has any terrors 
 for me. I trust you will pardon a little 
 trespass on your valuable time. I have 
 come, as it were, just to introduce myself 
 to my future sphere. You are busy, I 
 suppose, as usual ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I am generally pretty closely en- 
 gaged. Vacuna has little court from me." 
 
 "I'm sorry to say that hard work never 
 presented any great attraction to me ; never, 
 indeed, seemed to agree very well with me. 
 I hope, however, that I shall be able to give 
 you some useful help in practical business, 
 since you're so kind as to offer to take me in.
 
 George Hern. 217 
 
 But you mustn't look to me for any know- 
 ledge of the nicer points of theory. Law- 
 reading was always irksome to me. You 
 can pose me in a moment with questions on 
 the doctrine of ' Scintilla juris,' or on the 
 principles of ' Constructive fraud,' or ' Con- 
 tingent remainders.' " 
 
 " You did not try for honours at your final 
 examination ?" 
 
 " I might as hopefully have attempted the 
 task of QEdipus. I could never make a per- 
 severing attack upon a multiplicity of hardly- 
 distinguished details : hence my knowledge 
 of theory is of a very incomplete character. 
 And as to my knowledge of practice, though 
 I stuck pretty well to the office work, I 
 doubt it is narrow of compass. I should be 
 apt to confound the Secondaries' Court with 
 that of the Stannaries, and so forth. I state 
 these things that you may not base any great 
 expectations on me. Confound the old law-
 
 2i8 George Hern. 
 
 books ! A monster bonfire of a million of 
 them would be a better spectacle than that 
 of twenty scolding old women running a race, 
 blindfold, with a lot of crockery secretly 
 set in the course." 
 
 " I am sorry you have neglected theory/' 
 said Mr. Oscar, " as you would have found 
 the study of it of much service to you in 
 after-life." 
 
 " I presume, sir," you don't trouble your- 
 self much about the niceties of theory now, 
 do you ? Practical life does not call upon us 
 to deal with petty, intangible and unappre- 
 ciable technicalities, does it ? If so, I had 
 better set myself to dissect the brains of a 
 periwinkle than enter this office." 
 
 " I hope I am, in business, a practical per- 
 sonage," said Mr. Oscar. " For instance, 
 you observe that these papers are arranged 
 in orderly fashion ? — thanks, in a great mea- 
 sure, to my wife."
 
 George Hern. 2ig 
 
 " Yes, sir; I have heard of your orderly 
 habits, and I certainly see before me proofs 
 of them. This table looks as if it might 
 have been arranged by a man of the most 
 punctilious tidiness — one who, if he had two 
 moments in which to escape from a burning 
 house, would run up to the top storey to set 
 a box straight which he had left standing 
 awry. But I must learn not to chatter so 
 much, or Mrs. Oscar, whom I must secure as 
 my friend, will take a dislike to me. A 
 lawyer, she thinks, should be reticent ; and 
 yet it is surely better to give your clients 
 some words, than to charge them thirteen 
 and fourpence for merely wiping their feet 
 on your door-mat." 
 
 " You must try to please my wife," said 
 Mr. Oscar; "and, I acknowledge, the task 
 may not be unattended with difficulties. 
 She is a keen observer of details ; would 
 never spell Frederic with a k without in-
 
 220 George Hern. 
 
 quiries, and never speaks or writes the 
 words * et cetera.' She abhors want of order 
 and unpunctuality. I will take this opportu- 
 nity of saying, too, that I hope you will not 
 bring any dogs you may have to this place ; 
 for though Mrs. Oscar would not, with 
 Terence, regard the entrance into the house 
 of a strange black dog as a prodigy of ill 
 omen (having little more respect for the 
 ghostly and supernatural than Allan Ram- 
 say), she would consider it an objectionable 
 experiment.' , 
 
 " I will try to please the lady, sir, though 
 I am not much accustomed to make efforts 
 to conciliate the sex." 
 
 " Many a man who has made a boast to 
 the like effect has afterwards talked in a 
 very different strain." 
 
 " Belying his words, eh, like the atheist 
 who broke a blood-vessel and died at the 
 commencement of an energetic discourse on
 
 George Hem. 2 2 1 
 
 the sufficiency of this present life for any 
 reasonable being ? To change the subject, 
 have you a decent staff of clerks, sir, now ? 
 I heard that Creaks is still with you." 
 
 11 Yes ; and Creaks is a faithful fellow. 
 He tells me he has lost eight teeth in 
 this office. His son is also with me, and is 
 a tolerable clerk. Amos Splint, though weak 
 in the eyes, has brains ; a fact, I am told, 
 he has more than once evinced by over- 
 reaching his father (a shrewd dealer) in bar- 
 gains. He is rather conceited, however, 
 and is a little too fond of trying to find out 
 faults in the work of the other clerks. Then 
 I have Chipperfield, and a tall young fellow 
 they call Ramrod, but whose name is Spink. 
 But the best man, by far, is George Hern, 
 the articled clerk, who is formed, as it were, 
 to my hand. He has much of the material 
 of a ' Grillon ' or an ' Outram ' in him, but 
 is a most estimable lawyer's clerk."
 
 222 George Hern. 
 
 At this juncture the dinner-bell was 
 heard. 
 
 A shadow had fallen upon each of the 
 four persons who sat down in the dining- 
 room, and each of them was more or less 
 ill-at-ease. But not one of them could be 
 called a reticent person, and the master of 
 the house was certainly not willing to let 
 his conversational powers stagnate. 
 
 " We live in a homely sort of fashion 
 here, Storker," he began, " and are some- 
 times contented, as it were, to eat our 
 knuckle of veal without bacon. Nor have 
 we, like Pythagoras and the ancient priest- 
 hood of Egypt, an antipathy to a mess of 
 beans." 
 
 " I shall enjoy your unpretentious hospi- 
 tality, no doubt," said Storker, welcoming, 
 with a genuine smile of pleasure, the share of 
 fish handed to him by the nervous Trip- 
 pington.
 
 George Hern. 223 
 
 " Will you try a little of our home-brewed 
 beer?" continued Mr. Oscar. "It was 
 made with snow-water. We always have a 
 kilderkin in broach. It suits us as well as 
 usquebagh. Clara, hand Storker that sauce. 
 I think he will like it, if I explain — or would 
 he prefer a little of that tomato ?" 
 
 " He will hardly care to hear the histories 
 of our few viands, father," said Clara, turn- 
 ing to Storker a smiling face which pleased 
 him. 
 
 " No, no," said Mr. Oscar, good-humour- 
 edly. " Such histories might reveal certain 
 struggles between your mother and trades- 
 men, in the matter of price, which would not 
 sound romantic. I only hope, my dear," he 
 added, in a lively tone, to his wife, " that 
 prices are not purposely raised when you are 
 seen approaching, and then reduced under 
 the pressure of your rhetoric." 
 
 " That old joke doesn't offend me," said
 
 224 George Hern. 
 
 Mrs. Oscar, snappishly. " But why don't 
 you call me * Scrab ' at once ? I know my 
 nicknames, and treat them with contempt ; 
 but I hardly expected to hear them almost 
 recalled in this company." 
 
 "lam far from wishing to hurt your feel- 
 ings in any way," said Mr. Oscar, with pro- 
 pitiating mildness. 
 
 " If you would prefer that Swidger should 
 do the shopping, say so," continued his wife. 
 " The brisket of beef which we shall have to- 
 day may not seem to you to be worth the 
 price I agreed to pay for it ; if so, reprimand 
 me." 
 
 " You know my father won't do anything 
 of the kind, mother," Clara interposed. "That 
 ' countenance of stern commandment* is quite 
 unnecessary." 
 
 "Swidger might know something of butcher's 
 meat," continued Mrs. Oscar, without glanc- 
 ing at her daughter ; " but as to the difference
 
 George Hern. 225 
 
 between holland, duck and dowlas, I doubt if 
 she is aware of it ; so she could not well do 
 the general shopping. But Trippington might 
 be taught. I must not have my peculiarities 
 and my careful ways meddled with," she 
 added, turning abruptly, but somewhat apolo- 
 getically, to Storker. " I like to have ' value 
 received'; I detest unnecessary expenditure, 
 and I detest waste in every shape and form. 
 I often think that, if I were a mighty poten- 
 tate, I would make all the farmers in the land 
 feed their stock upon vegetable refuse, mixed 
 and made palatable with the best spiced food." 
 
 " I must make a note of that for my father," 
 said Storker, though not in his merriest tone, 
 for certain gloomy details of his grandfather's 
 unpleasant news recurred to him. 
 
 "If you are wise, I think you won't say 
 much to encourage his agricultural taste," said 
 Mrs. Oscar; "It may prove an expensive 
 one. 
 
 VOL. T T K
 
 226 George Hern. 
 
 Storker appreciated this remark of the 
 careful housewife, but did not reply. 
 
 " I don't wonder that a farmer's healthy 
 life should seem tempting to people whose 
 business keeps them much indoors," said 
 Clara. 
 
 "Nor I," said Storker; "I should not 
 object to spending some hours of every day 
 in the fields." 
 
 <4 You can claim to be, in part, what the 
 code of Terpsichore demands for 'the pas- 
 toral,' " said Mr. Oscar, "viz., ' thick-set and 
 vigorously constructed.' " 
 
 " I don't think I have any great ambition 
 to be ' pastoral-looking,'" said Storker, with a 
 furtive glance at the uncomplimentary reflec- 
 tion of his face in his spoon. " I don't think 
 a London 'bus-conductor would be likely to 
 ask me if my mother knew I was out. But 
 ' the pastoral ' has as refreshing a sound, I 
 think, for many a man in our profession as it
 
 George Hern. 227 
 
 could have for an eye-sore maker of wigs or 
 mender of watches." 
 
 ■" Your work is rather dry and dull, is it 
 not ?" said Clara, with a certain expression of 
 weariness on George Hern's face very vividly 
 before her. 
 
 " It is," said Storker, emphatically. "You 
 might iind proof of that in the eagerness with 
 which judge and counsel welcome a joke in 
 court ; and in court the liveliest side of our 
 business is seen." 
 
 " The humours of the police court had a 
 strange attraction for Munden," said Mr. 
 Oscar. 
 
 " Don't you think the public would reap 
 some benefit if lawyers took a little more of 
 this pastoral enjoyment ?" said Clara. u The 
 fresh air might improve their health and 
 spirits, and make them unwilling to stir up 
 strife." 
 
 " You are wrong, child," said Mrs. Oscar, 
 
 15—2
 
 228 George Hern. 
 
 curtly ; " they would lose money over their 
 1 pastoral enjoyment,' if you mean by that 
 their farms, and there would be a mighty 
 excess of litigation till they were recouped." 
 
 " Which they would soon be, I suppose," 
 said Clara, " if litigation is so expensive 
 a luxury as public opinion (or prejudice) 
 affirms." 
 
 " I wish to say nothing to the disparage- 
 ment of the profession," said Mrs. Oscar; 
 "an honourable lawyer earns his living as 
 worthily as a parson." 
 
 " Still, you must admit that litigation is 
 often an expensive luxury," said Mr. Oscar, 
 mildly. " Unless a litigant sues in forma 
 pauperis, he had better assure himself that he 
 has a proper understanding with his banker. 
 The Board of Trade may proceed with some 
 satisfaction against shipowners, having the 
 Mercantile Marine Fund to fall back upon 
 for the costs. The ■ law's delay,' too, is for
 
 George Her?i. 229 
 
 the most part a picture from the life; though, 
 it is true, nuisances may be abated summarily, 
 and the tendency of law reformers is towards 
 the simplification of process." 
 
 " The law reformers !" said Storker ; " who 
 are they ? Not the men who have studied 
 the law. I think most of the lawyers L have 
 met with are as cordially conservative as a 
 rich widow with a large family." 
 
 " To return to the subject of the combina- 
 tion of farming with our business, Storker/' 
 said Mr. Oscar ; " Eumseus occurs to me. 
 That man of swine, you know, was also a 
 man of thought and business, a leader of men. 
 Clara is smiling ; she thinks me a pedant ; 
 but she wont quite class me with the pedantic 
 bore who calls his warm bath his 'Emmaus/ 
 and cannot get into it without quoting Jose- 
 phus on the subject. But, to resume, our 
 profession does not admit of the attention 
 being turned to other pursuits ; though, it is
 
 230 George Hern, 
 
 true, Sir Matthew Hale wrote a discourse on 
 religion, and other unprofessional works, and 
 Mansfield, Blackstone, Jacob and Talfourd 
 were all serious students of poetry." 
 
 " If they did not confine themselves to the 
 work of their profession in their business 
 hours/' said Mrs. Oscar, " I say that it is 
 probable they did not do their duty in the 
 world properly." 
 
 " I should be sorry to think that," said 
 Clara, though agreeably conscious that 
 George Hern was beyond the reach of this 
 reflection. 
 
 " You can hardly think it possible that 
 Akenside could have done more good in his 
 generation," said Mr. Oscar, " if he had 
 given himself up to his profession, and had 
 based no hopes upon what he calls ' the 
 sweet magic of harmonious verse ?' I am 
 inclined to agree with you, Clara." 
 
 " I wish to believe," said Clara, " that he
 
 George Hern. 231 
 
 brought better treasures from the ideal than 
 any he may have overlooked in the actual 
 world." 
 
 " An ideal world is a perilous place for 
 giddy young people (who have been thought 
 to be wiser) to make excursions to," said 
 Mrs. Oscar, with some bitterness. " And as 
 to the actual world, it seems to me that young 
 people are now supposed to know as much 
 about it as their elders, and to be justified 
 in showing them disrespect." 
 
 " That should not be," said Mr. Oscar, 
 soothingly. " I know that Goethe says one 
 must be young to do great things ; but a 
 young person is at best only a learner of life. 
 A young person cannot understand one half 
 of the significance of the lines on Tintern 
 Abbey, or of many a passage in this same 
 Goethe's ' Faust.' I would refer young per- 
 sons to the celebrated allusion of Lassus to 
 1 Experience.' "
 
 232 George Hern. 
 
 " I have frequently received assurances of 
 this effect from my grandfather," said Storker, 
 laughing. " Come, Clara, you and I must 
 bear in mind that we had better sit down and 
 confine our hopes of life to the mending of 
 old shoes, than delude ourselves with the 
 idea that we can walk alone, without some 
 training from that flinty old drill-master, Ex- 
 perience." 
 
 " You won't think so much about amuse- 
 ment as, to judge from your conversation last 
 night, you now do, when you are a few years 
 older," said Mrs. Oscar, with an impatient 
 movement of her feet. 
 
 " You will try in vain to dissuade me from 
 taking my amusement," said Storker firmly. 
 " I would as willingly be wedged head 
 downwards in a tallow-smelter's shaft, as 
 be forced to sit moping in an office from 
 January to December." 
 
 "You partly agree with the old triad of
 
 J 
 
 f George Hern. 23 
 
 the Kymry, that 'arms, horsemanship, and 
 hunting are the three gentlemanly arts ?' " 
 said Mr. Oscar. 
 
 " Yes ; though I have no practical ac- 
 quaintance with the first item ; nor, indeed, 
 have I, like George Hern, any strong de- 
 sire to cultivate such acquaintance. I 
 might possibly become an M.F.H., but am 
 as little likely to see my name followed by 
 V.C. as by D. D. I would avoid ' royal periL' " 
 
 " Unless you are prepared to settle down, 
 Heathhammock is not the place for you," 
 said Mrs. Oscar, speaking hurriedly, to dis- 
 tract her visitor's attention from Claras face, 
 which had flushed slightly at the mention of 
 George Hern. 
 
 " Rather than be a mere drudge in Heath- 
 hammock, or any other place in this pill-box 
 country," said Storker, " I would go back to 
 America to-morrow." 
 
 " I hope, Storker," said Mr. Oscar, " that
 
 234 George Hern. 
 
 your tour has not made you a living contra- 
 diction of the dictum of Polynice, c there is 
 no man who does not love his country/ You 
 must remember, too, that the ' happiness of 
 personal freedom' is emphasized by Goethe 
 as one of the praiseworthy characteristics of 
 English life." 
 
 " I hope I am not destitute of patriotism," 
 said Storker. " I believe I am not ; but I 
 am not accustomed to much self-examina- 
 tion." 
 
 " You young people should practise more 
 introspection," said Mr. Oscar, who was in 
 the act of adding, " as I sometimes tell my 
 young secretary," but, on this occasion, sup- 
 pressed the allusion. " It is one of the most 
 sublime faculties of the spirit of man !" 
 
 * I have not much inclination for it," said 
 Storker ; " nor can I imagine that there is 
 much gratification to be derived from it, if it 
 take the form (as it is apt to do) of self-
 
 George Hern. 235 
 
 accusation. One might as well carry a 
 pocket-gallows about with one." 
 
 The dinner was despatched amid conver- 
 sation of this kind, varied, towards its close, 
 by a conscientiously polite allusion, by 
 Storker, to the improvement in Clara's ap- 
 pearance since the date of the framed por- 
 trait of her on the wall, which piece of 
 courtesy drew from Mr. Oscar a remark 
 about Farindons statement that all portraits 
 are flatteries. A simple and short-lived 
 dessert followed, and then Storker went 
 away, promising to begin his duties at the 
 office on the following morning. 
 
 " Don't you call him — to use a common 
 expression — a jolly-looking youth, Clara ?" 
 Mrs. Oscar asked, when she was alone 
 with her daughter in the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 " I should think that is a good description, 
 mother," Clara answered, gloomily.
 
 236 George Hern. 
 
 " Don't you like his appearance, child ?" 
 said Mrs. Oscar with a sneer. 
 
 " I can't say I admire many fat men," said 
 Clara. " They are so often sensual-looking, 
 and seem to smile at you as if you were a 
 beefsteak ; but I should not say this of Storker. 
 He is very good-natured and agreeable, and, 
 though stout, certainly not dull. He can spell 
 blanc-mange and spinach, as well as eat them. 
 I am afraid he thinks we are under the tute- 
 lage of rather dull Lares and Penates here, 
 and I think he did not quite appreciate the 
 beer." 
 
 " No doubt he would have done us the 
 favour of drinking a pint of our best Bur- 
 gundy or Bucellas in preference ; but dinner- 
 wine is a luxury I am still allowed to forbid. 
 I could improve this young man if I took 
 him in hand for a time. There is a 
 little too much of " the man of fashion * 
 in his air, and not enough ' if you please '
 
 George Hern. 237 
 
 and ' thank you ' in his talk ; but he is 
 a very tolerable youth, in my opinion — if 
 that is worth anything, which I begin to 
 doubt."
 
 238 George Hern. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Mr. Oscar Ashbocking's summons to the 
 private house did not pass unnoticed by 
 George Hern, whose habit it was to watch 
 with warm interest all communications with 
 that sacred quarter. With the alert and sus- 
 picious sensibility of an aspiring lover, he at 
 once fell to picturing some gloomy cause for 
 the solicitor's unusual withdrawal from busi- 
 ness in office hours ; and his visions were not 
 brightened by the sight of Mr. Oscars 
 thoughtful countenance and reserved de- 
 meanour after his return. He had lone 
 connected special difficulties with Storker's 
 arrival at Heathhammock, and it seemed to
 
 George Hem. 239 
 
 him that they had begun to reveal themselves 
 on this first day. 
 
 I must be pardoned for inserting a few 
 words here as to my hero's appearance at this 
 time. He was not an Apollo who would 
 have filled the breasts of the taller couples at 
 the head of a chain of school-girls with 
 rapture, but a bold-looking fellow of grand 
 proportions, and with a gracefully-tempered 
 freedom of movement in his athletic limbs, 
 and a pleasant freshness of complexion which 
 many (as Alice Service had done) attributed 
 to his constant sea-bathings throughout the 
 year. Despite his old and ineradicable love 
 of out-door exercise, he had not now the rich 
 hue which used to be seen in his cheek : his 
 many thoughtful indoor hours forbade that ; 
 and the high forehead, over which a stray 
 lock of the light hair very often trespassed, 
 was of a very comely whiteness. When his 
 blue eyes were turned downwards, you would
 
 240 George Hern. 
 
 notice that his substantial features, especially 
 the square chin and the protruding, though 
 well-moustached upper lip, were far from 
 perfect ; but when he looked up in his bright 
 energetic way, you forgot those defects in 
 watching the signs of intellect and emotion, 
 the eager, thoughtful, sensitive, and deter- 
 mined expressions on the winning sunny 
 face. 
 
 His dress was neat, and fitted his fine 
 form well ; indeed, he was very particular in 
 this matter, and was so scrupulously clean 
 that he had been called by the slovenly 
 Amos Splint, " a dandy to the skin." His 
 deep horror of dirt disabled him from giving 
 his full attention to a book if the page 
 before him had a removable smudge upon 
 it, and in order to be always ready for these 
 removals, he carried in his pocket a piece of 
 ink-eraser, which he found more effectual 
 than india-rubber.
 
 George Hern. 241 
 
 On this, as on every day, his tasks furnished 
 him with ample employment ; but his pauses 
 were more frequent than usual. Mr. Oscar 
 addressed but few words to him, and at six 
 o'clock told him that he should not want him 
 in the study that evening. 
 
 This was a disappointment to George 
 Hern, for he had been hoping that in the 
 evening something might transpire to throw 
 light upon the question that had haunted 
 him. He often heard news in the study. 
 
 Rather discontentedly, the useful articled 
 clerk locked the door of his little office, 
 adjoining Mr. Oscars, spread the linen 
 covering over the table in the latter, thus 
 further concealing the papers which were 
 already carefully arranged so as to give as 
 little information as possible to curious or 
 treacherous visitors, drew the green curtains 
 in front of the shelved Reports and Statutes 
 in half-calf bindings, and the uninviting legal 
 
 vol. 1. 16
 
 242 George Hern. 
 
 text-books, adjusted some of the japanned 
 boxes against the wall, placing one marked 
 " Simper's Chanty " upon another marked 
 " Flaxmannal's Trust," and upon this latter 
 a third labelled " Plummer's Estate," and 
 lastly, drew down the blind before the 
 window, among whose panes a bluebottle- 
 fly was buzzing and blundering lazily. 
 
 Hern was allowed to go to and from his 
 lodgings through his employer's garden, into 
 which Mr. Swindell's little premises opened ; 
 and this course he now took, muttering to 
 himself, with a sigh : 
 
 " I dare say these fancies are baseless and 
 foolish, like so many I have had before ; but 
 it's hard to pass weeks and months without 
 anything more comforting than her glances, 
 precious to me as they are. I have set myself 
 a most difficult task, and, now that the time 
 is drawing near when I must take a serious 
 step, I feel that my hopes may have befooled
 
 George Hern. 243 
 
 me more than I had thought possible in my 
 darkest hours. But I have been over- 
 worked," he thought, quickening his steps. 
 " The examination over, I shall look at my 
 fortune more boldly." 
 
 Mr. Swindell's cottage was prettily swathed 
 in ivy, whose glossy leaves crawled up the 
 very chimneys. It faced Silver Lane, one of 
 the links between Cliff Street and the com- 
 mon, and in its rear was a small garden, con- 
 nected with Mr. Oscar Ashbocking's by a 
 gate of twisted boughs and a green door, both 
 fixed in one deep archway, whose bricks were 
 thickly clad with jasmine, honeysuckle, and 
 ivy-leaved snap-dragon. 
 
 Hern walked through this archway, guarded 
 with its two barriers, and along the gravel- 
 path into the cottage. As he passed the 
 parlour, his trouble was not lessened by the 
 sight of a female's beaver hat which was 
 lyjng on a chair by the door. There was 
 
 j 6 — 2
 
 244 George Hern. 
 
 nothing offensive about the hat, with its violet 
 plume fastened by a carnelion butterfly set in 
 German silver ; but it recalled the unpleasant 
 fact that Miss Rebecca Swindell was at Heath- 
 hammock. She had shown him much atten- 
 tion for some time ; but during her present 
 fortnight's holiday from the milliner's shop in 
 Bayswater, she had been more demonstrative 
 than ever. Unquestionably a timid look stole 
 into the face of this bold fellow as he hurried 
 up to the little sitting-room occupied by him- 
 self and his father, who had lodged here with 
 him ever since his discharge. 
 
 This was a quaint little room. Age had 
 made the oak floors so crooked that the fur- 
 niture had to be kept steady with wedges and 
 mats of folded paper ; and the door was so 
 warped from the threshold, that in gusty 
 times, the whining wind swept under it with 
 a force that lifted the few bits of carpet from 
 the boards, and shook the one picture of a
 
 George Hern. 245 
 
 man with a broken nose that hung above the 
 looking-glass. But the luxuriant ivy on the 
 walls formed so good a protection for them 
 against the driving rains, that they did not 
 need the aid of cement without, or battening 
 within, to keep away the signs of damp so 
 common in buildings of a later day. 
 
 Traces of Boulder were to be seen here 
 and there, such as a cod-line, a sprat-net, a 
 grapnel, and a brass pocket-compass ; but 
 George's books and papers were arranged on 
 a side-table by themselves, if I except the 
 company of his father's punch-ladle, with a 
 guinea set in its bowl. On a stout bracket on 
 the wall was a stuffed bittern in a glass-fronted 
 case, very narrow in comparison with the 
 meadows and fens his lone sad cry was wont 
 to ring across. 
 
 George next walked into his bedroom, to 
 splash his face and head with water, and 
 really felt inclined to rest for a little time in
 
 246 George Hem. 
 
 an easy posture on the bed. He gazed hesi- 
 tatingly at the clean, but ancient, knotted 
 counterpane ; but was partly roused from his 
 indolent mood by the fluttering and chirping 
 of sparrows above the sack-cloth in his chim- 
 ney, up which no smoke had passed for many 
 years. He resolved to read a page or two 
 of " Addison on Contracts " before the arrival 
 of tea, and, perhaps, of his father; but he 
 came to a pause again at the window. 
 
 It overlooked the back-garden, and just 
 beneath it was a bed of peach-coloured catch- 
 fly, London-pride, yellow crown-imperial and 
 forget-me-not, surrounding a box shrub, cut 
 rather artistically into the form of a dwarfish 
 man : but Hern's eyes were wandering be- 
 yond these objects to such parts of Mr. Ash- 
 bocking's grounds as could be seen above the 
 high wall surrounding them. 
 
 At this moment, along a path near the 
 edge of the grove, bordered by elms and,
 
 Geo7'ge Hern. 247 
 
 here and there, a silver birch, Clara Ash- 
 bocking walked, stopping before a little 
 spindle tree, whose pale green blossoms 
 found fitting mates in some Solomon's seals 
 at its foot. His face flushed with excitement, 
 for he had often told her that this tree was 
 well within view from his bedroom window. 
 She turned her face towards him unmistak- 
 ably, and waved her handkerchief ; and, with 
 a fluttering but joyful heart, he leapt from the 
 window, to avoid passing the parlour again, 
 and hurried into Mr. Ashbocking's garden, 
 and thence into the grove. 
 
 In a few moments he stood before a very 
 charming figure, in a simple dark dress and a 
 straw hat decked with rosebuds and sprays 
 of other flowers, who offered him both her 
 hands, and did not shrink at all from his 
 passionate kiss. 
 
 " You have the strongest proof of my 
 devotion," he said, in a low but impetuous
 
 248 George Hem. 
 
 voice, " in my not compelling you to give me 
 more of such sweet chances as this." 
 
 " Do you think I willingly forbid them ?" 
 she saicl, gently. " I must refer you to my 
 old saying about duty and desire. Well, well, 
 if a time of trouble and censure come to us, 
 we ought at least to find some comfort in such 
 honourable abstinence from secret meetings. 
 But I could not forego a little talk to-day ; 
 and if you had not seen me from your 
 window, I should have written to you and 
 risked the fruits of my courage." 
 
 " I have been worried with doubts and 
 fears to-day." 
 
 " Note, then, how well I know you. My 
 anticipation of that uncomfortable fact was 
 one of the causes of my strong wish to see 
 you." 
 
 " You will tell me all that has happened to- 
 day ?" 
 
 " I will."
 
 George hern, 249 
 
 They walked to a pine-wood summer- 
 house, which was set amid the ruins of a 
 small chapel, whose few stained fragments of 
 stubborn masonry, mantled with a rich em- 
 broidery of gilly-flowers and pencilled gera- 
 niums, and silver-streaked and deep green 
 ivy, mingled with the great moving arms of 
 the trees in the heart of the grove. The 
 summer-house itself was embowered in 
 japonica and jasmine, wistaria and climbing- 
 roses, a fragrant haunt, in which the twilight 
 settled early. Near the entrance, among 
 larger brethren, stood an ancient mulberry 
 tree, a little crooked elm overwhelmed with 
 threads of parasites, and a quaint arid oak 
 stump, circled by a ring of deep-hued grass, 
 — the track, legend said, of fairy dances in 
 the olden times. On the ground were some 
 blossoms of white-wood and purple-star 
 anemonies, blue-bells, daisies, and pheasant's- 
 eyes. Here and there, too, could be seen a
 
 250 George Hern. 
 
 late primrose, of which a deep, damp stream- 
 bank might be proud ; and a few modest, 
 shadowy violets peeped up among- the milk- 
 parsley and the green and golden tinged moss 
 at the roots of a wild pear-tree. 
 
 A black-cap, some linnets, and a few other 
 birds were singing dreamily in this favoured 
 retreat of theirs, where no gun had been heard 
 for many years, and with their silvery trill 
 mingled the hollow and monotonous whoop 
 of some member of a family of owls, whose 
 ancestors for generations had nursed their 
 young in a great wych elm hard by. An eyed 
 hawk-moth fluttered about the lance-shaped 
 leaves of a spurge-laurel, a little company of 
 flies were rising and falling with slothful hum 
 among some thick, creamy blossoms of 
 syringa, and a brave squirrel turned his 
 back upon the lovers, and continued his 
 excursion up a beech-tree. 
 
 With her hand in Hern's, Clara told him
 
 George Hern. 251 
 
 of the doings of the day, and they exchanged 
 many anxious glances. 
 
 " I don't think Storker will molest me,"" 
 she said at the close of her little history. 
 
 " I have always suspected that an attempt 
 would be made to marry you to him, since the 
 defeat of the other eligible husbands," said 
 Hern ; " but the few interviews I have had 
 with you were too short to admit of our deal- 
 ing with this or a thousand other things. 
 What right have I to expect to escape great 
 anxieties ? What a proud and a thankful 
 man I ought to be when I think that I still 
 hold possession of you, while others — and 
 such others — have failed !" 
 
 " Such others ! You speak as if you 
 suffered grievously in comparison with them. 
 As if their superior stations shamed and 
 utterly eclipsed your poor virtues, your 
 courage and generosity, your grand energy, 
 your loyal affection for your father, your
 
 2 5 2 George Hern. 
 
 kindly feelings for others. I could see un- 
 lovely traits in these eligible persons." 
 
 "Surely, too, in me?" 
 
 " Perhaps, had I searched in downright 
 earnest. But I did not, could not, criticise 
 you in a similar way. Why, that earnest 
 look at this moment in your eyes would stay 
 me from doing so !" 
 
 " You are a cruel critic, no doubt, at the 
 worst of times — you, the beloved of women, 
 children, and the dumb ! But you gave these 
 poor men as sharp a pang by shrinking from 
 them as you would have done by taunting 
 them." 
 
 " Then be for ever grateful that I did not 
 shrink from you. But this, you know, I 
 could not do. You know how my love has 
 crept over my fears and objections — a queer 
 word : excuse it — like the foam of the rising 
 tide over the sand-drifts and pebble-ridges. 
 Slowly but surely has this tide flowed from
 
 George Hern. • 253. 
 
 the time when I learnt how highly you valued 
 a kind glance from me, and how it encou- 
 raged you in your duties in a rather magical 
 fashion." 
 
 " Could I be unconscious of this ? How 
 different would my life have been without 
 this consciousness !" 
 
 " But even you cannot tell how conscien- 
 tiously I have striven to identify myself with 
 you, with your joys and sorrows, your difficul- 
 ties and toils. And I have had a good re- 
 ward," she added, in a low tone, and looking 
 steadily into his eyes. " I have encouraged 
 good and unworldly feelings ; and, I trust, 
 have in small measure preserved in my 
 heart some of the innocence of its young 
 time, when I used to blush and feel real grief 
 as I confessed my sins to God. And have I 
 not learnt, from the example of your noble 
 energy in the right, to foster such impulses to 
 good as stirred within myself ? And have I
 
 254 George Hern. 
 
 not been taught a lesson in unselfishness by 
 many reverent glances into a world very 
 different from my own — a world where the 
 shadows have sometimes gathered dolefully 
 — your world ?" 
 
 " With which I am going to drag you into 
 closer contact. This deed has decidedly an 
 air of selfishness ! Proud as I am, how often 
 has the lowered station, which will be a thorn 
 to you in reality, been a thorn to me in antici- 
 pation !" 
 
 " I think there is a youth who holds a balm 
 for the wounds that thorn will give me — a 
 youth who, whether I was in France or in 
 Germany, kept my thoughts centred on this 
 •old home of mine, with its dreamy grove, and 
 the musical walnut-trees, and the gorgeous 
 old-fashioned lilies in the garden. However 
 bright the things around me, when those 
 thoughts stole into my mind, the visionary 
 scene had the greater charm."
 
 George Rem. 255 
 
 i( Such words are full of comfort to me. I 
 have often counted among my causes for 
 pride the fact that the thoughts of one who 
 has travelled far, and been in many different 
 scenes, should turn from them to a man who 
 has been pent up in this little place, only 
 leaving it for the two journeys to London at 
 my examination times — a narrow-minded 
 country-townsman !" 
 
 " You surely don't expect depreciation on 
 the score of your want of travel from one who 
 nipped the grand American Crusade in the 
 bud ? I congratulate you on a course of 
 conduct as admirable as that of the bravest 
 traveller — keeping steadfastly to your post, 
 and toiling honourably there." 
 
 14 And growing into a dull dog there ?" 
 11 No, no ; your work has not dulled or 
 benumbed you. You have kept your heart 
 warm with your love for your father 
 and "
 
 256 George Hern. 
 
 " For you. Yes ; without this love and 
 my fanciful communions with you, and my 
 thoughts (wild enough sometimes) of you 
 and of our future, I should have sunk into a 
 gloomy drudge. I must, however, acknow- 
 ledge the comfort and help I have found in 
 your father's company." 
 
 " And the satisfaction you have derived 
 from the consciousness of having done your 
 duty, we will add. As to my father, he 
 will still be your friend, I am sure. And 
 my mother's true, strong love for me will win 
 her to our side ere long. But," said Clara, 
 " I must cut short this happiness, and part 
 from you now. Trust in God, George, and 
 wait patiently." 
 
 " Impetuous and impatient as I am, I will 
 wait patiently, for the prize will be great at 
 the end. You can't comfort yourself with 
 that thought so perfectly." 
 
 " I am content with the prize I shall
 
 George Hem. 257 
 
 receive. You will endow me with your 
 strong arm and your brave, kindly, loving 
 heart, and with these I am content." 
 
 i( I wish I could give you all you de- 
 serve." ; 
 
 " Such as a horse to ride on in harness of 
 silver bells ? Ah, you would like to play the 
 part of Ivanhoe, and win the charger from 
 the Templar with lance and sword." 
 George smiled sadly. 
 
 " My romances, like my travels, are con- 
 fined to my dreams,'' he said. " The prosaic 
 realities of life press so heavily upon me 
 sometimes, that I feel as if I must make some 
 desperate effort to burst my bonds, and take 
 a taste of liberty.'' 
 
 11 To roll on the ground before the world 
 like a dog, for instance ?" said Clara, with a 
 quiet smile. '* You have borne your yoke 
 and burden well — most patiently — and vividly 
 this flashed upon my mind to-day when 
 
 VOL. I. 1-]
 
 258 George Hern. 
 
 Storker was maintaining the necessity of 
 recreation to such a trifler with work as him- 
 self. Act worthily and bravely still, till you 
 have earned your independence, and, with a 
 clear conscience, can summon me to join and 
 follow you." 
 
 She rose, and with her hand still in Hern's,, 
 passed with him towards the border of the 
 grove. They paused near a Spanish chest- 
 nut tree, through whose yellow blossoms a 
 part of the roof of Mr. Swindell's house 
 could be seen. 
 
 Above it rose roll upon roll of rather 
 sombre cloud, like the smoke of a mighty 
 battle ; but, higher still in the vast realm of 
 vapour, lay peaceful-looking masses of purest 
 white, with here and there a slender streak 
 of gold, like a cranny-gleam from a far-off 
 land of light. 
 
 The gardener's wife had been heating the 
 water for her own and her lodgers' tea ; and
 
 George Hem. 259 
 
 no altar fire could have sent forth a more 
 calm and graceful breath than the little 
 silver-blue column of smoke, which wavered 
 upwards from the cottage chimney for a little 
 way, and then spread itself and vanished. 
 Clara pointed to it. 
 
 " It seems heart-broken," she exclaimed, 
 " at the want of welcome from these other 
 vapours so sublimely far above it !" 
 
 " Do you think it, then, an emblem of my- 
 self, and my pretensions, and their fate ?" 
 said George Hern, tightening his clasp upon 
 her hand. 
 
 " I quite foresaw that reference," she said, 
 with a cheery smile. " But we will not part 
 with morbid thoughts in the ascendancy. I 
 am prepared to go through life with you, 
 and I see no horrifying visions in the future 
 — no Juliet's drugs, no Cleopatra's asps. I 
 will go through life with you : that is my 
 portion — hand in hand, and heart to heart, 
 
 17—2
 
 260 George Hern. 
 
 whatever shadows may confront you. What- 
 ever burden you may have to bear I will 
 share with you. I wish to act prudently, but 
 will be no slave to prudence. I would follow 
 you, if it were to a wilderness where never 
 mortal step or voice has disturbed the whis- 
 perings of the desolate waters and the winds. 
 I would not desert you, except at your own 
 bidding, under threat of death. I can say no 
 more. I will be loyal to the end. Good- 
 night." 
 
 " Good-night !" said George Hern, ear- 
 nestly. " My darling, knowing you, I can 
 believe in angels well !" 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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 ■iiwini I