“That it was impossible.”
“Then you do not care for him?”
Madelaine was silent.
“Then you do not care for him?”
“I’m afraid I care for him very much indeed,” said Madelaine firmly.
“Let me thoroughly understand you, my darling. You love George Vine’s son – your old friend’s brother?”
“Yes, father,” said Madelaine, in a voice little above a whisper.
“And he has asked you to be his wife?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me what answer you gave him.”
“That I would never marry a man so wanting in self-respect.”
“Hah!”
“He said that our parents were rich, that there was no need for him to toil as he had done, but that if I consented it would give him an impetus to work.”
“And you declined conditionally?”
“I declined absolutely, father.”
“And yet you love him?”
“I’m afraid I love him very dearly.”
“You are a strange girl, Madelaine.”
“Yes, father.”
“Do you know what it means for me to take this fellow into my office?”
“Much trouble and care.”
“Yes. Then why should I?”
“Because, as you have so often taught me, we cannot live for ourselves alone. Because he is the son of your very old friend.”
“Yes,” said Van Heldre softly.
“Because it might save him from a downward course now that there is, I believe, a crisis in his life.”
“And because you love him, Maddy?”
She answered with a look.
“And if I were so insane, so quixotic, as to do all this, what guarantee have I that he would not gradually lead you to think differently – to consent to be his wife before he had redeemed his character?”
“The trust you have in me.”
“Hah!” ejaculated Van Heldre again. And there was another long silence.
“I feel that I must plead for him, father. You could influence him so much.”
“I’m afraid not, my child. If he has not the manliness to do what is right for your sake, anything I could do or say would not be of much avail.”
“You underrate your power, father,” said Madelaine, with a look full of pride in him.
“And if I did this I might have absolute confidence that matters should go no farther until he had completely changed?”
“You know you might.”
“Hah!” sighed Van Heldre.
“You will think this over, father?”
“There is no need, my dear.”
“No need?”
“No, my child. I have for some days past been thinking over this very thing, just in the light in which you placed it.”
“You have?”
“Yes, and I had a long talk with George Vine this afternoon respecting his son.”
“Oh, father!”
“I told him I could see that the trouble was growing bigger and telling upon him, and proposed that I should take Harry here.”
Madelaine had started to her feet.
“Presuming that he does not refuse after his father has made my proposals known, Harry Vine comes here daily to work.”
Madelaine’s arms were round her father’s neck.
“You have made me feel very happy and satisfied, my dear, and may Heaven speed what is going to be a very arduous task.”
Just then Mrs Van Heldre raised her head and looked round.
“Bless my heart!” she exclaimed. “I do believe I have nearly been to sleep.”
Volume One – Chapter Eight.
Uncle Luke Speaks his Mind
“Hallo, Scotchman!”
“Hallo, Eng – I mean French – What am I to call you, Mr Luke Vine?”
“Englishman, of course.”
Uncle Luke was seated, in a very shabby-looking grey tweed Norfolk jacket made long, a garment which suited his tastes, from its being an easy comfortable article of attire. He had on an old Panama hat, a good deal stained, and had a thick stick armed with a strong iron point useful for walking among the rocks, and upon this staff he rested as he sat outside his cottage door watching the sea and pondering as to the probability of a shoal of fish being off the point.
His home with its tiny scrap of rough walled-in garden, which grew nothing but sea holly and tamarisk, was desolate-looking in the extreme, but the view therefrom of the half natural pier sheltering the vessels in the harbour of the twin town was glorious.
He had had his breakfast and taken his seat out in the sunshine, when he became aware of the fact that Duncan Leslie was coming down from the mine buildings above, and he hailed him with a snarl and the above words.
“Glorious morning.”
“Humph! Yes, but what’s that got to do with you?”
“Everything. Do you suppose I don’t like fine weather?”
“I thought you didn’t care for anything but money-grubbing.”
“Then you were mistaken, because I do.”
“Nonsense! You think of nothing but copper, spoiling the face of nature with the broken rubbish your men dig out of the bowels of the earth, poisoning the air with the fumes of those abominable furnaces. Look at that!”
The old man raised his stick and made a vicious dig with it in the direction of the mine.
“Look at what?”
“That shaft. Looks like some huge worm that your men disturbed down below, and sent it crawling along the hill slope till it could rear its abominable head in the air and look which way to go to be at rest.”
“It was there when I took the mine, and it answers its purpose.”
“Bah! What purpose? To make money?”
“Yes; to make money. Very useful thing, Mr Luke.”
“Rubbish! You’re as bad as Van Heldre with his ships and his smelting works. Money! Money! Money! Always money, morning, noon, and night. One constant hunt for the accursed stuff. Look at me!”
“I was looking at you, old fellow; and studying you.”
“Humph! Waste of time, unless you follow my example.”
“Then it will be waste of time, sir, for I certainly shall not follow your example.”
“Why not, boy? Look at me. I have no troubles. I pay no rent. My wants are few. I am nearly independent of tradespeople and tax men. I’ve no slatternly wife to worry me, no young children to be always tumbling down the rocks or catching the measles. I’m free of all these troubles, and I’m a happy man.”
“Well, then, your appearance belies you, sir, for you do not look it,” said Leslie laughing.
“Never you mind my appearance,” said Uncle Luke sharply. “I am happy; at least, I should be, if you’d do away with that great smoky chimney and stop those rattling stamps.”
“Then I’m afraid that I