Brookfield. A tale of a time gone by

Front matter

B BROOKFIELD. AGNES The Bower of Souls, and other Poems By ROBERT CALOW. Crown Svo, Cloth, 6/- The People says : — "The feeling is alwa>s true, and sometimes goes deep into the human heart. . . . Thoughtful readers, especially those of a religious habit, will sind much in the volume to give employment for their minds." Remington and Co.j Limited, King Street, Covent Garden, and Sydney. BROOKFIELD A Tale of a time gone by. BY ROBERT CALOW REMINGTON & COMPANY, LIMITED LONDON: 15, KING STREET, COVENT GARDLN AND SYDNEY 1894 All Rights Reserved CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. Introduction --.--- i n. Ilbert Mason Arrives ----- 15 III. Songs of a Bye-gone Day - - - - 21 iv. A Lone, Lone Creature - - - - 27 v. Wherein Mr. Dove Appears from the Deep 33 vi. Mr. Dove's Selected Idea Theory - - 39 vn. Which Contains an Addition to the Story - 50 VIII.

Containing Many Things Unheard of - 61 ix. Jars and Sunflowers ----- C7 x. Wherein the Word Love is not Mentioned 73 xi. A Confession of what was Not Mentioned in the Foregoing Chapter So xn. Listening to the Sea Waves - - - S6 xni. Wherein Every One is Pleased and yet Dissatisfied 93 xiv. Wherein the Population of the Metropolis is Again Augmented - 100 xv. Natural, Unnatural, and Supernatural - 107 xvi. The End Cometh that the Beginning May Go 112 XVII. New Victims to an Old Tyrant - - 118 XVIII. Banishment ------ I24 xix. Wherein Phil Gets in and out of Trouble CONTEXTS. CHAPTER PAGE xx. The Parent Teaches its Offspring - - 139 xxi. Where Rats Appear - - - . - 145 xxii. Phil is Filled with Anxiety - - - 153 xxm. The Manager Taught to Manage - - 160 xxiv. The Blind Falleth, and Becometh a Stumbling Block to those who can See- 167 xxv.

Two Games ; One Played Out, the Other Not 174 xxvi. Wherein Two Persons are Very Much - Interested 181 xxvn. An Explosion ; therefore Necessarily Short- 187 xxvm. At Times the Faces of Cards Speak - - 191 xxix. A Visit to America ----- lg8 xxx. Brandy and Water 204 xxxi. The Glow-worm 212 xxxii. A Letter of Mystery 219 xxxm. Captain Thornton Imagines he has Found out Something ----- 224 xxxiv. Unity, Peace, and Concord - - - 232 xxxv. Mr. Bumple is surprised - - - - 237 xxx vi. Defiance not Defence - - - - 241 xxxvn. A Tcte-a-Tete Interrupted - - - 247 xxxvm. Reconciliation ------ 255 xxxix. Conspiracy succeeds Dismissal - - 2G1 xl. The Ways of the World are wicked : very often ------- 267 xli. The Seagull is met with - 275 xlii. Another instance of Unity, Peace, and Concord ------ 28o xliii.

Chapter I

Introduction. That there is truth in the old-world saying that the weather affects our animal spirits is seldom doubted when the temporary philosopher is facing a bleak north-east wind in the middle of December. Our young friend, Cecil Brookfield, had nearly arrived home from the school, for which he had acquired quite an ardent attachment ; for he had come to an age when the thoughtless nature of the boy was passing rapidly away, and giving place to the superior reason of the man. He was walking the few miles from the railway station on this bleak afternoon, when the prospect was as cheerless without, as it was within his soul. Trees and hedges, white with dryness, the very lichens on the bark seemed to add a shroud to the gaunt limbs of death that crowded within the view. There was far, far more certainty of the return of prosperity and life in the bareness around, than there was of bright, sunny hopefulness to the dejected mind now scanning the prospects of the future along this waste of country road.

Cecil had passed through the period when the B Brookfield. 2 majority of lads would gladly leave school. He was entering now sixteen years of age, the stage when discretion gives a lad a taste and liking for learning; the stage when young fellows compre hend that it is to their advantage to go on. Having been withdrawn from the school, there succeeded the disappointment and melancholy that now filled his breast, and even as he crossed the very thres hold of the large villa, for the present his home, the same oppression held him with all its fettered heaviness. " Ah ! Master Cecil," said the old housekeeper, Mrs. Fryer, " I am glad to see you. Good after noon to you, sir. I hope you have had a pleasant journey, and that you are well ; though you don't look very happy. May be, there is little enough here to cheer a lad coming home from amongst a set of healthy, high-spirited young fellows, I know there must be at the school.

Well, sir," she went gabbling on in her old, friendly manner, " Master won't be long before he is back from a short walk. Meanwhile, I will hasten to get a meal, for you must be hungry, coming out of the cold air, and after such a long journey." Then she left him standing by the breakfast room fire, scarcely warmed out of his dejected humour by the hearty and hospitable welcome. The house, the rooms and grounds were the same as he remembered them, but there was some thing that was not as it used to be, now brought more forcibly to his mind by the picture of his mother. Where was the mother's welcome ? Where the loving words from the heart of the parent, who lives afresh at the sight of joy yielded at the return of her child ? His recollections stole back to the lost dear one that made his former returns so happy, and he despaired of ever being joyful again.

Introduction. 3 The master of the house came back from his walk. In the evening Cecil was sitting in the library with Mr. Alexander Brookfield. who was a kindly old gentleman of about seventy-five, and who felt himself getting weak and infirm. The topics of conversation and inquiry having come to a lull, Cecil was about to take up a book, when Mr. Brookfield said : " Wait a bit, postpone your reading a little, Cecil ; I feel I had better say something to you as soon as I can. I want to tell you that Harold is coming home. I sent word to him that I wanted him here during the remaining days of my life. He must come here and assist me now, taking up his position as head of the family and house. I am getting old, and cannot attend to matters of business as I used to do. He must come and attend to them."

"Is it true that he is married ? " asked Cecil. "Yes, so he tells me in his last letter," returned Mr. Brookfield. " I am sorry for it, because I do not know how I may get on with his wife, es pecially as she would assume to be mistress of the house. I suppose I must submit to them now, as I shall soon be in my second childhood, and shall really want their care and what of kindness I can get." "I shall be very pleased to see Harold," said Cecil. " It is years since he saw me. I doubt whether we should know each other. Fourteen years older than myself ; I was very little when he went to America." " There you bring me to a point that I have to speak upon. I think, perhaps, it would not be desirable for you to be here when they come, for I think you will see it may cause a feeling of jealousy in them both, or, at any rate, in his wife, if they found another dependent in the house. b — Brookfield. 4 " I certainly — ," interrupted Cecil, indignantly.

" Wait, my boy, wait and hear me," continued Mr. Brookfield. " I do not wish you to misunder stand me. You will learn some day what unpleasant turns family matters take sometimes through an apparently innocent agent, in the shape of an interested relative being in the same house as the primary claimants to that interest. I wish to pro vide for your future proportionately to others interested, while I have still the power to do so. I wish to make you a certain allowance for your comfort, whilst, as I should propose, you might also be journeying to America, to seek that com petence that so many gain there, while they seem misplaced here. You shall have advice and letters of recommendation from friends and myself, and the wherewith to live upon until you see the desired opening. You need not hasten to take the first offers that come.

Be discreet." " I understand you, sir," returned Cecil, " and appreciate the kindly motive that prompts your generous offer. I shall be glad to do as you wish. I can well imagine, as you say, there might be unfriendly feelings come out of my being at home for long, and nothing could give me more pleasure than to seek my own fortune in a proper spirit." " I am glad to hear you say that," said the old gentleman, whose face brightened up wonderfully at the thought of getting over an anxious difficulty. " I shall be ready to start as soon as you wish, sir," said Cecil. " Harold and I do not know each other, so there will be very little sentiment to be hurt on either side. Of course, I partly knew from what you wrote to me, that I was to finish at school now. The uncertainty of what I was going to do depressed me, but that depression is passed away now."

And the youth looked as buoyant as though a game of cricket was before him. Introduction. 5 " Oh, you will not do anything'in the matter until we speak further upon it," said the old gentleman. " I thought it would be right to tell you and pre pare you for what I thought was the best thing to do." " Very well, sir," answered Cecil, who then took up his book again with a mixed feeling of disap pointment for the matter not being settled, and of pleasure through not having to hurry away. Although Cecil had grown sturdy, he was in clined to remain short in stature, in comparison to the average height of youths at his age. He was gentlemanly and good-looking. With a quick intelligence, that would cause a voluntary regard and appreciation to welcome him from those whom he might meet with in life, there was something in the contour of his face that led others to trust him at once, and implicitly.

One could feel that confidence placed in him would never be abused. His bright and cheerful eyes, and features in general, were very like those on the paternal side of the Brookfield family. Many days passed after this, and still the old gentleman did not refer to the matter of his going away again. Yet they were often together, apparently enjoying one another's society as though they were nearer of an age. Yet it is very dis heartening to a lad to have to wait and wait for a promised thing, for it damps his ardour and weakens his energy. The old man seemed fond of this lad of sixteen, and Cecil undoubtedly showed a most reverend and affectionate regard and appreciation for Mr. Brook field. As they were walking in the garden together one day, Mat, the gardener, remarked to Mrs. Fryer, who happened to be near the open door of the pantry : Brookfield.

" Master seems more happy when he has got some young blood about him." " That he does, I can assure you : and more's the pity he should send them away as he does." " Is this Mr. Cecil a son ? " asked Mat. " Lor, I don't know, and have not got the time to trouble myself about it." "Well, he is a nice lad, whoever he be," said Mat. " And so was he who went away not long since," said Mrs. Fryer, "as nice a lad as ever breathed; but there, I suppose master will be sending this one about his business soon ; or to try his fortune in some uncivilised country." " He sends them all away like that, doesn't he ?" " Yes ; every man-jack of them," said Mrs. Fryer. " He packs them off, and, perhaps, never sees them again. It seems rather a cold-hearted way of send ing one's bairns off into the world, and would not suit me ; but, I suppose it is thought best for them."

" That accounts for his liking to have them with him at home for a time," said the gardener. " Yes ; I don't know whether this one is a son, or not, for I understood there were only two sons living now ; if so, there's Mr. Cecil and Mr. Harold, the one now expected home from America ; but then, what was the other one that went away ? " " Ah ! the one I helped with the luggage,'' said Mat. " That makes three." " Yes ; and what a fine, handsome youth he was ; about a year older than this one. He was finely built, too, fair, strong, and healthy." " That he was," replied the gardener. " If it was not for appearances, he did not want my assist ance." Introduction. 7 " And those eyes of his," said Mrs. Fryer. "The girls will go mad after him some day, with those soft, affectionate eyes of his, that light up his face at times to a perfect picture of nobleness."

" You don't mean to say you've fallen in love with him, Mrs. Fryer? '' queried Mat, laughing. " Indeed I have, Mat, but not as you mean. My time's past for that sort of thing ; still, anyone can love a good-hearted youth like him — that way of loving is public property." " That's right, mother," said Mat. " He told me he felt it hard, bidding good-bye to some of his friends, for he was a great favourite with everyone." " I dare say, poor chap,'' said Mat, " it requires some courage to sail away from your friends to face an unknown future in another part of the world." " That it must, Mat," said Mrs. Fryer. " I would not leave England, even though they dragged me down to the shore by horses." " Ah, well ! I don't think that that is likely to happen." " I think not, but you go now, for the cook will want those vegetables, and don't forget some flowers from the greenhouse ; you can make them up with leaves and ferns.

I want them for the table." " It's certainly very few flowers I can find for you this time of the year, but I will see what I can do," said Mat, as he sauntered away. Mrs. Fryer went about the house, and busied her self further with the preparations they were making for the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Brookfield. It was with kinder hands she altered and decorated, fitted and frilled, moved away this piece of furni ture and replaced another, to suit an imaginary taste that might be possessed by the newcomers, Brookfield. than she would have felt disposed to use some few weeks later. Her handiwork was not to be appreciated as it should have been. How a few weeks may tend to alter mundane affairs ! Harold had been sent away in a very similar manner to his brothers, some years before, and had really succeeded very well.

It was quite the practice of Mr. Brookfield to make his sons do something for themselves, apart from what he might be able to leave behind him. He had principally earned his own means, and he thought it best to let young men do the same, so not to depend upon him, thereby causing, as he thought, a great deal of lackadaisical idleness; although he would not go so far as not to help them at all. He would assist them to start, as he was well able to do ; but, on the other hand, he knew that when a fortune is cut up amongst several children it generally falls away to nothing, which was quite foreign to his principles. The old style was so imbued in his nature that an eldest son was the only son of the family, and must take his birthright. Holding to that idea, he was not one to ruin by division that birthright which he felt he was honourably holding in trust for his son.

Other sons were afterthoughts, to be assisted while he lived towards earning an honourable competence and starting families for themselves, then in their turn to take the place of other extinct ones. So it came about that Harold, who was really almost independent himself, came home to manage and inherit his father's estate. Harold Brookfield was a man of good appear ance, but not with the same frank face that so generally characterised his family. A man of self importance, and generally liked, especially amongst a certain class ; in short, to an extent horsey. Yet Introduction. 9 not one to gamble much with horses or anything else, for he knew how to take care of this world's goods, except, perhaps, in his own household ; of which he knew little and interfered in less. He scarcely reached the middle height, and was somewhat in clined to be corpulent.

Mrs. Harold doubtless was a very good creature, but she seemed to have neglected to put into practice, or take advantage of, those many charms whereby women become so kindly regarded and loved by others. " Harold ! Is that your only brother, do you say ? " she asked, as her husband was going out of the dressing-room, one day, not long after their arrival. " Yes, my dear," answered her husband. " All the others are dead. Cecil and I are the only ones left. There were several, and in fact I did not know which it was that was living, nor even remembered his name." _ " And will he always be here ? If so, it is a pity he is not amongst the rest," said Mrs. Harold. " My dear, what do you mean ? " exclaimed her husband ; " Cecil is a very nice lad, and I like him very much ; happy, frank, and intelligent."

" Yes, a deal too intelligent to suit me. Always prying about, and I suppose running to the old gentleman tattling about our ways. May I ask you, my dear, if you want him to get into favour so much with your father as to cause him to re consider the disposal of his property?" " Well, we shall see. There will be time enough yet to think about that," said Mr. Harold. " Mr. Brookfield is not the person to alter his mind nor his principles very often." " Any way, I can assure you I shall not let the matter rest until he is out of the house," Brookfield. 10 answered his better half. Her chief claim, how ever, to this qualification was more in the matter of points, such as height, weight, and breadth. Her husband made no answer, and went on downstairs towards the hall, where the housekeeper met him.

She, almost crying, came for ward, and said : " Oh, Mr. Harold, sir, please I know it's no fault of yours, sir ; and I have been a good many years here ; but now I feel I must go as soon as the usual time is up, as I can't put up with these new orders. I am sorry to have to go, sir, and it is out of no disrespect to you or master, sir." " Why, Fryer, what is the matter ? You had better wait awhile until you get used to us : it will all blow over presently." And he turned to the door and hurried out, thinking little more of the matter than that it was a temporary squall. Mrs. Fryer thought differently. " To think," she murmured, in semitone, going back to her room, " to think, that here, where we had no stint and every comfort — master and dear old mistress looking after our welfare as though we were some of their own, now, this and that is to be weighed out and allowanced, screwed and stinted by this cheeseparing Yankee.

What is it for ? I should like to know." " That's easy 'counted for," said the housemaid, who overheard the last part of this soliloquy. " To have all the more to dress on, to have all the more to flare away in them there idiotic many-coloured ribbons and vulgar bonnets as she likes to show off in." " You had better mind your own business, Ellen, and be as good as you can, especially when I am gone," said Mrs. Fryer, shutting her door. One day, Cecil was returning through the grounds from a football match, with all the freshness and Introduction. 11 bloom of his age ; happy as the day was long ; enjoying his young life as heartily as boy could, little thinking of ever acquiring enemies in life; when, upon reaching the wicket-gate at the bottom of the garden, and which led from thence into the fields, he espied old Mr. Brookfield taking his usual walk.

He immediately ran over to him, intending to give the dear old man a full relation of his boy ish triumphs and defeats of the day, when, as Cecil came near to him, Mrs. Harold came out of the bushes beside him and arrived first. " Cecil, dear," she said, "Mr. Brookfield must be tired now and cannot want your boisterous nature to worry him." " I will not be the means of worrying him," an swered Cecil, laying stress on the first word. He then darted off towards the house. " Cecil never tires me," said Mr. Brookfield, at the same time resigning himself to the company of his son's wife. " Oh ! gentlemen of your years do not want to be troubled by rough boys who only seem to live to make themselves heard in some shape or form, either by making a noise themselves or causing it to be made. I should send him away if I were you."

" Oh yes ! " he returned, adding presently, as though thinking over it, " Yes, I must think that out," and letting drop the words "college" and "business," said no more. Meanwhile, Cecil wondered, whilst getting ready for dinner, why Mrs. Harold always tried to pre vent him from conversing with Mr. Brookfield, and declared resolutely to seek the first opportunity of speaking his thoughts to the old gentleman, but many days elapsed before he gained that op portunity. At last it came. It was one day when Mrs. Harold had gone Brookfield. 12 to the town on a millinery excursion, and her husband had gone a few miles distant, to look at some horses that a friend wanted to part with. Cecil found the old gentleman in a favourite summer-house, and joined him. Mr. Brookfield greeted him kindly, and seemed to guess that the lad was happy at finding him for a time alone.

" It is so seldom I can speak to you, sir, as I should like, to thank you for your many kindnesses to me. If my dear mother knows and sees how happy I always am, I am sure she must be happy. I wish I could render to you some service that my poor ability is capable of, by way of return. Yet Mrs. Harold seems determined to prevent my frequently speaking to you. Sometimes I fear she is prejudicing your mind against me. I trust I am wrong, for I do not wish to think badly of any one." " Oh, my boy, she will not do that. Try and get on with her while I determine what you are to do. Perhaps we had better adopt what we suggested before, towards giving you a start in life. I must think it out, as to what you shall do. But I cannot get about now as I did to see to things ; so try to like Mr. Harold and his wife : for if anything happens to me, as it may any day, a great deal may depend upon them."

That which was uppermost in Cecil's mind, he could not say. He could not ask him to decide quickly, after what he had heard ; he could not say he would never be dependent upon Harold : so, disappointed, he presently saw Mr. Brookfield go into the house, coughing very much. Cecil sat despondent. He seemed suddenly to have lost his joyous self. Poor Cecil ! To-morrow thy case will not be more propitious ! Introduction. 13 That night the house was disturbed by Mr. Brookfield being seized with such a coughing fit that he broke a blood-vessel. There was a great rushing to and fro. Doctors were sent for. Fires were built up, and the great commotion stirred everyone ; but in a couple of hours all was over. The house was hushed, and Mr. Brookfield had gone to his fathers. That which he was always going to do, was not done.

Alas ! it is a common occurrence, for that which can be done to-day to be put off until to-morrow. The tide had not been taken at the flood. Who can tell the old man's thoughts concerning Cecil ? What did he intend to do for him ? Like as in many another case, his work seemed un finished even at his advanced age. Now death had come, and old Mr. Brookfield's papers were looked over, it was found that everything had been left to Harold, in pursuance of his well-known feelings and ideas. After a time of mourning, Mrs. Harold was again enjoying her new home, as might be expected, quite in her own way. There was scarcely a new fashion brought out, but she was soon wearing it, in advance of her neighbours, who began to con sider that her style was anything but ladylike. They were also getting offended with her on account of her never being at home, or, even if at home, she received them with such an indifferent manner, as to make them feel unwelcome.

Slovenly dressed and more often in a slovenly house-muddle — for which she was commonly rebuked by her husband — she ere long became generally disliked, passed over, and neglected. Changes of servants were frequent, in fact the house was getting known as one where they were changing servants every month, a sign of mismanagement somewhere. On the part of the mistress, or whom ? Brookfield. 14 Mrs. Harold was crafty and selfish whenever her own interest was concerned, as was shown in her management of old Mr. Brookfield, who, curious to say, really seemed to like her. Then she quickly turned her thoughts to Cecil, who was looked upon as little less than a burden, even though he did not share in the estate. Harold was willing to do something for him ; but while, like his father, he was considering the matter, and his wife was making things as unpleasant as she possibly could do, Cecil suddenly disappeared.

It was only heard that he had departed for Gibraltar with the regiment he had previously enlisted in, which, very soon afterwards, was ordered out there. Harold was very much annoyed, and did not disguise the fact. Another item was added to the quantity of jarring incidents that so often mar the relations between man and wife. Another link in the golden chain of happiness was broken. How shall it be when the burden gets heavier, and the chain more fragile ?

Chapter II. Ilbert

mason arrives. Three years passed by and nothing more was heard of Cecil Brookfield. It is a very ordinary thing to let slip by a number of years with scarcely a thought of the departed, and yet on the other hand, it is surprising what a deal one may go through in two or three years' time. Three years is sometimes passed without any perceptible change in our relations with the world, and at the end of it we look back wondering that such a length of time could possibly have gone by. "Three years ago. Is it indeed ?" some one says, having passed weeks, months, and years so regularly in their occupations that it seemed but a few short weeks. On the other hand, one experiences an interminable succession of blocks, drawbacks, bad fortune, illness and deaths ; or, again, happy inci dents and runs of fortune, with good health and everything to make their time a happy one.

In the political world a revolution may have happened at home, or wars prosecuted and finished abroad, changing alike the phases of social intercourse and the proprietorship of vast tracts of country. Bad times make it bitterly long to the despon dent heart, making it remember again in a moment all the trying incidents it passed through, to relate Brookfield. with a deep sigh to the wearied and impatient hearer. The successful in life quickly forget the vanities of pleasure wherein they had temporarily found a satiety and still hopefully look for the future to reveal further draughts of its transient happiness. But lest ye should think, gentle reader, that we are about to impose upon your kindness and patience for three years, we will proceed with the narration of this history. At the time of these incidents, or about the year eighteen hundred and forty-eight, there used to be certain large offices in Fenchurch Street, owned by the firm of Messrs. Selwyn and Son, furriers.