My Ducats and My Daughter. ... New edition

Front matter

PRICE ONE SHILLING. THE CRIME OF CHRISTMAS DAY BY HAY HUNTER LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO. « ,(SAY THAT YOU EELTEVE ME, ARTHUR, FOR PITY'S SAKE V'SCC \>. 40'.». MY DUCATS AND MY DAUGHTER BY HAY HUNTER and WALTER WHYTE A NEW EDITION LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE {The rights of translation arid of reproduction are reserved.) CONTENTS. CHAPTER PACE I. The Factory of the Future 1 ii. An Idler in the Market-place 17 in. The Pursuit of Knowledge 37 iv. A Coincidence .58 v. Sunday at Sprayton 67 vi. By the Sea 78 VII. The Happy Valley 93 viii. A Grateful Friend 108 IX. The Views of Mr. Mallory 121 x. Father and Daughter 128 XI. At Hartington Gardens 151 xii. Compromise ........ 162 xiii. A Pleasant Party 172 xiv. The Forum 186 xv. At the Borough 201 xvi. The Lone Peak CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE xvii. Sunday in London 231 xvni. Taken to Task 243 xix. Electioneering 266 xx . Weary of Feigning . . . . . . .283 xxi. Disclosure ......... 296 xxn. Vox Populi J. 322 xxin. An Anxious Father 336 xxiv. A Dress Reception 347 xxv. Festal Oratory ....... 366 xxvi. An Escapade ........ 391 xxvii. Further Views of Mr. Mallory 415 xxvni. The Prodigal . . 438 xxix. Mediation 457 xxx. The Factory of the Past

Chapter I. The Factory Of The Future

Some twenty years ago, Mr. William Lynn of Lynnfield was one of the chief manufacturers of Shawkirk, a thriving town in the Scottish Border district. Mr. Lynn was a kindly, open-handed man, neither very clever nor very industrious. His career, had he been born poor, would never have furnished a theme to preachers of the gospel of getting-on. But on his father's death he had been left at the head of a solidly-established business ; and this, favoured by good times, had continued to prosper, somehow, under his own rather lax supervision. His fellow-capitalists, indeed, failed to understand why success should attend one who wore the shackles of business so lightly, who dreamed away half his hours in a library, and whose head teemed with crotchets for the benefit of the Working-Man. However that might be, it was the fact that the Lynnfield works did a good and safe trade, and were as nourishing a concern as any in Shawkirk.

Then a report went forth that Mr. Lynn had decided to carry one of his fanciful schemes into practice. Shawkirk society was stirred to its deeps. No one knew what the scheme was ; but everyone knew that it was bad, mad, and fated to fail. With the Shawkirk manufacturers it was an A. article of faith that trade should in no wise be alloyed with philanthropy. There was a prevalent feeling among them that Mr. Lynn, in making any such attempt, was acting as a traitor to his class. They viewed his proceedings with extreme disfavour. " If he goes on like this," observed Mr. Macritchie of the Bridgend Mills, " he will do any amount of harm." — "If he goes on like this, he will very soon come to grief," said Mr. Turpie of the Townhead Tannery. No one deplored Mr. Lynn's perversity more bitterly than his brother-in-law, Mr. Peter Ingleby.

This gentleman was the proprietor of a dye-work, which daily empurpled the stream on whose banks Shawkirk is situated. Mr. Ingleby was not by comparison rich. He had, moreover, a growing family; whereas Mr. Lynn had but one child and was a widower. Mr. Ingleby had done his best to show his brother-in-law the error of his ways, but in vain. Mr. Lynn was enamoured of his scheme of co-operation. He was bent upon making Lynnfield a model factory — a factory which should be as a beacon-light to other employers of labour — in short, the Factory of the Future. Already he had taken certain preliminary steps in the working out of the scheme, by providing his hands with a library and a gymnasium, a bowling-green and a swimming-bath. The hands had not been particularly grateful for these boons. They had refused to enter the library or gymnasium ; they had wanted to play quoits on the bowling-green, and had traced the origin of all their maladies to the use of the swimming-bath.

They disliked the idea of being petted and patronised. If their employer really wished them well, why did he not take the much simpler plan of raising their wages . Some of them regarded the whole thing as a kind of joke on a big scale. Others looked askance on the innovations, as foreshadowing a possible design on Mr. Lynn's part to take some fresh advantage of the sons of toil. Mr. Lynn's next proceeding was to build a hall in connection with his factory. This erection cost him a good deal of money. It contained a committee-room, recreation-room, music-room, reading-room, smoking-room, and a bar for the sale of unintoxicating drinks. The hall itself was a spacious, high-ceiled apartment, with a platform, benches, and all things requisite for the holding of meetings. Here, in imagination, Mr. Lynn beheld his hands assembling nightly for the discussion of politics and economics, and for confer ence with himself and with each other on the question of the common good.

He had as yet made no public statement as to his intentions. But he had looked forward to the opening of the new hall as his opportunity for doing so; and on the completion of the building, a placard affixed to the great gate of the Lynnfield Works announced this purpose to the hands. They were invited to gather themselves together on a certain evening, that they might hear from their employer himself an exposition of those co-operative principles which were henceforth to regulate their mutual relations. The work-people stared at the placard in stupid amaze ; but the Shawkirk manufacturers, when they heard of it, were filled with anger and disgust. These doings were terrible to Mr. Ingleby as an employer of labour. And it did seem, moreover, a hard thing that a rich widower, with interesting nephews and nieces, and an only son, in delicate health, should indulge in those costly eccentricities, and show himself thus dead to the feelings which do honour to an uncle.

Mr. Ingleby resolved on a last attempt by way of recalling his erring brother-in-law to a sense of duty ; and walked up to Lynnfield, framing cogent appeals and simmering with indignation. It was a sultry forenoon in July. As Mr. Ingleby drew near the Factory of the Future, he found the hands pouring out at the gates, and was told that Mr. Lynn had given his people a half-holiday on account of the ceremony of the morrow — the opening of the new hall. This fresh extra vagance embittered Mr. Ingleby's mood. Here were some three hundred work-people let loose — the men to drink, and the girls to parade the streets — doing nothing but harm to themselves, and making other employers' hands more dis contented, if possible, than they were already. The Union Jack flying from the turret of the new hall was, in Mr. Ingleby's eyes, a flaunting symbol of frivolity.

The placard on the factory gate seemed an insult to the ties of kinship. In the counting-house the indignant gentleman found only the chief-clerk, who was seated at his desk, with a heap of letters and invoices before him. " Good day, Arden," said Mr. Ingleby. " I did not expect to find anybody here. How comes it that you are not taking an idle day, like the rest of them?" " Somebody must look after the correspondence, you know," said Mr. Arden pleasantly. — " Wait a minute," he added, as Mr. Ingleby was making for a door marked " Private " — " Mr. Lynn is engaged just now — he has some one with him, and they are not to be disturbed. Won't you take the newspaper, Mr. Ingleby . " Mr. Ingleby took the newspaper, but apparently found nothing to interest him in its columns. "Who did you say was with Mr. Lynn." he asked, after an interval of silence.

" Hume — one of our travellers. But they won't be Ion" now, I should think." Mr. Ingleby responded by a significant "Ah!" Then after a pause — "I greatly fear," he said, "that this Hume is a young man who is going wrong." "Indeed ! what makes you think so ." "He belongs like myself," said Mr. Ingbley, "to Mr. M'Candlish's congregation— that is, I should say, nominally. But for some months past, I have not once seen him in chapel. I know that he frequents most dangerous society. And I myself met him by chance only a few nights ago, when, I do not hesitate to say, he was under the influence of intoxi cating drinks. I shall consider it my Duty" — Mr. Ingleby always spelt the word Duty with a capital letter, and pro nounced it with the effect of one — " to warn my brother-in-law against that young man.

I suppose his — ahem — irregu larities have not escaped your observation, Arden ." " So long as he does his work," replied Mr. Arden, " I have nothing further to do with him. Mr. Lynn, I know, has a high opinion of Hume. They have been together for nearly half an hour now," he added. Mr. Ingleby waited, with growing impatience, for about fifteen minutes more. Then, remarking sarcastically on the value of some people's time, he rose, knocked at the door of the private room, and opened it without waiting for a " Come in." He could not suppress an exclamation of surprise at the scene which met his gaze. Mr. Lynn was seated at a table, on which, amid a litter of papers, stood an allegorical group in bronze. Behind him was a Use-size female figure in stucco, representing " In dustry ;" while round the walls were hung flags, floral devices, and festoons of evergreens.

Opposite Mr. Lynn stood a very pale, very agitated young man, who broke off in the midst of an excited speech as Mr. Ingleby appeared. Mr. Lynn himself — a mild-looking man of about fifty years of age, with blue eyes and a light flaxen beard sprinkled with grey — seemed hardly less perturbed than his companion. "Oh, Ingleby," he said nervously, "I'll see you imme diately — I'm engaged just now with Mr. Hume. It is a private matter — that is, some private business we have to talk over. Will you excuse me in the meantime. I shall not detain you very long." "Flowers, statues, and a profligate in tears!" said Mr. Ingleby to himself, as he closed the door. "What does it mean . But it's of a piece with the rest of his doings. Only this much is certain — it can't go on. No, it can't go on." Mr. Ingleby came back to his chair in the counting-house.

He exchanged a meaning glance with the head-clerk, but neither spoke. The ticking of the office clock, the occasional rustle of Mr. Ingleby's newspaper, and the scratching of Mr. Arden's pen, were the only sounds heard. They seemed to ac centuate the silence which hung over the. whole idle factory. There was a sharp contrast in appearance between the two men who were now consciously awaiting the result of the interview in the private room. Mr. Ingleby was in his fortieth year, and looked considerably older. His hair was in colour iron-grey, and had apparently the stiffness of iron. He had the hard features and high cheek-bones of the North Countrie. Looking at that stern, almost granitic face, you could scarcely believe it capable of a smile save at the cost of severe muscular exertion. When Mr. Ingleby frowned — which was, in truth, not seldom — two ridges of bushy grey eyebrow ran into one, two cold keen eyes shot their glance from be neath, and certain wrinkles on the brow became furrows.

Mr. Ingleby was what the Germans call geradlinig — a rec tilinear man. His manners were formal, even to rigidity. If he ever unbent, in any moment of rare geniality, you listened instinctively to hear the crack. No colours save black and white entered into the master-dyer's costume. His garments were actually loud in their protest against Fashion. His stiff upright collar and large black tie seemed almost parts of the man. No eye save his wife's had ever beheld him divested of these symbols of respectability. Mr. Ingleby was, as it were, a living incarnation of Duty — a term which in his mouth commonly meant something disagreeable to others, and consequently not unpleasing to himself. Mr. Arden was about ten years younger than Mr. Ingleby. His features were good, though there were strong indica tions of sensuousness, not to say animalism, about the lips and eyes.

His hair was dark, his face well-coloured ; its prevalent expression suggesting at once affability, shrewdness, and self-possession. Mr. Arden had a singularly musical voice, and spoke with an accent that was not Scottish. He was undeniably a handsome man, who dressed well, and had what the Shawkirk ladies called "a fine manner." Mr. Ingleby, who held fine manners and fine dress in equal con tempt, entertained a feeling of respect for Mr. Arden, based on his capacity for business and his attention to it. He had been heard to say that " Lynn had never done such a sensible thing in his life as when he brought Arden from the South, and took him into his counting-house" — and to prophesy that " that young man would get on." Another quarter of an hour had passed away. Then Mr. Ingleby was aroused from the gloomy reverie into which he had fallen by a sudden cry from Arden — " Good God, Hume ! what's the matter with you ."

Mr. Ingleby looked up from his newspaper, and saw the young man who had been closeted with his brother-in-law hurrying towards the head-clerk's desk. Arden's surprise was natural. Hume had left the counting-house an hour before, outwardly spruce, jaunty, and at his ease. Now, he was haggard and dishevelled, his eyes were moist, and the hand which he held out to Arden trembled visibly. " Good-bye, Arden," he said. " I'm going — going for good — I shan't see you again — good-bye ! " " Where are you going 1" said the head-clerk, staring at him ; " what does all this mean, Hume ." " It means — well, you'll find out soon enough what it means. It means," he went on excitedly, " that I've been speaking just now to the best and kindest man I'm ever likely to meet in this world ! And now, I'm off — this is no place for me !"

"Hold on! "said Arden. "What makes you in such a hurry, man . Are we not to see you again 1" " No. I'm going right away. I'm leaving this for good, I tell you — for ever. Good-bye, Mr. Ingleby " — and he held out his hand to that gentleman also. But Mr. Ingleby deliberately put his hands behind his back, and regarded the young man with a glance of most austere displeasure. " Sir," he said, " you must allow me to draw my own con clusions from the painful scene of which I have been the unwilling spectator. I shall certainly not give my hand to a man from whose words and demeanour I can only infer that he has just been dismissed from his situation for neglect of duty — or worse." Hume, in his half-dazed state, seemed not to heed, indeed, scarcely to hear, what Mr. Ingleby was saying. Without another word he passed out of the counting-house ; and from that day Shawkirk knew him no more.

"I suppose he has been discharged for being drunk," said Mr. Ingleby. " It is only what I should have expected. I am glad, sincerely glad, that my brother-in-law has had the strength of mind to get rid of him. If he had been in my employment, that young man would have been dismissed long before this." And he began to cherish the hope that Mr. Lynn might even yet be recalled to a sense of his duties as an uncle and an employer of labour. ".You are surprised at these statues and wreaths and things, I daresay." said Mr. Lynn, when his brother-in-law joined him in his private room. " They are to be placed in the new Hall this evening. I explain my Scheme there to the men to-morrow, you know." " I have heard that such is your intention," said Mr. Ingleby. And I have come to beg of you once more, Lynn, not to do this thing.

You may resent my interference — that I cannot help ; I must do what I consider my Duty. My conscience will not allow me to stand by without seeking once more to show you the error — the wickedness, I might almost say — of the course you are taking. Sooner or later, this thing means Ruin. If you have no care for yourself, think on your son — think on your — on your — " "On my nephew, you would say 1" suggested Mr. Lynn, quietly. " And if I did say that your relatives have a claim upon you before your workmen, I should only be saying what is right and just in the sight of God and man," said Mr. Ingleby, looking almost sternly in the other's face. "You spoke of your conscience, Ingleby, a minute ago," said Mr. Lynn, mildly ; " and I don't doubt that you are acting as your conscience bids you.

But I, too, have a con science. And my conscience will not allow me to go on any longer making money through the working of a cruel and iniquitous system — a system created solely in the interests of Capital — which grinds down wages to the starvation point, and must lead — " "Yes, yes," said Mr. Ingleby; "I have heard all that before. Talk about it, lecture about it, write about it, if you will — but don't, Lynn, don't for Heaven's sake try to carry it out at Lynnfield. Is it not the case that the firm that fidgets does no good 1 And this ! — this is not fidget ing — it's rank communism, anarchy, revolution — it's un settling everything, upsetting everything, and breaking down a business which it took your father a life-time to build up ! ' "Now, would you just listen to this." interposed Mr. Lynn blandly ; and he produced some loose sheets from a drawer in his writing-table.

" I have here worked out what I take to be a thorough refutation of the old fallacy that wages are paid out of capital. You may have noticed that, not unseldom, when wages are low, interest is low 1" Mr. Ingleby responded by a gesture of impatience. " Now, notice how this fact bears on my theory that wages are not paid out of capital, but out of the product of the workman's labour. This fact about interest shows — " " Oh, we don't need to go into that now," said Mr. Ingleby. " The fact is, Lynn, you live far too much in that library of yours. What you say may be reason in a library, but it is arrant nonsense in a counting-house. — By-the-bye, I suppose you have dismissed that man Hume?" " Well, yes. I have." " There you did right — quite right. I am glad that you have found him out, before he has done any more harm in the place.

I suppose you did detect him in his evil courses — getting drunk, and so on ?" " No — not exactly. It's a painful thing to speak of, and I'm not sure that I have acted rightly, after all. But I may as well tell you, Ingleby. The fact is, he made a mistake about money." "Embezzled, you mean?" " Well you might put it so. The poor soul was tempted by associating with men richer than himself — the old story. He was an able fellow, too, and good at heart ; and he worked well for me for many a long year, since he was a boy, almost. When I think of it all, I fear that I have been harsh. And yet, it would not have been fair to others — " " What would not have been fair ? What, may I ask, have you done with this — this criminal?" " I was afraid that if I kept him on here he might fall again under the same temptations, and perhaps — who knows ? — have led others astray.

I thought it my duty to Society to send him away from this — abroad, where he can make a fresh _ 11 start. Indeed, that was his own wish. So he sails for Australia before the week is out. But I don't feel comfort able in my own mind about it. Perhaps I have not made sufficient allowance for his youth, for his circumstances. Perhaps I should not have done this, after all." " Of course you should not," said Mr. Ingleby ; " there cannot be the shadow of a doubt as to that." "I liked to see him at my house, too," Lynn went on; " and he was always such a special friend of little Arthur's. The whole thing has pained me more than I can say. It is most unfortunate. I feel thoroughly upset, and there is that Address hanging over me which I am to deliver to-morrow." " I suppose you have paid his passage out !"

" Oh, that is all arranged." " And given him money besides?" " You may be sure I did not send him away quite destitute. He will have sufficient for his outfit, and something over and above to make a fresh start, out there, away from his old temptations." "I thought so. How much, may I ask, have you been robbed of by this — this felon?" " A mere trifle — not £100. By the way, Ingleby, I had rather you did not call him a ' felon,' and so on. Technically, you may be right — but it jars on me, you know. Yes, he confessed all, poor lad. The sum is nothing in itself ; you see, it is the principle." " I wonder you did not take him into partnership !" — cried Mr. Ingleby with withering irony. "That would at least have been better than taking all the men in ! And you call this acting on principle — doing your duty to Society !

Your duty, Lynn, let me tell you, was plain. You say that you want to make Society better, and you begin by allowing a thief to escape ! Not content with that, you give him the means of starting on a fresh career of crime, where his true character is not known ! It is simply deplorable. — I am glad of one thing," he added, after a pause — " I am glad I did not shake hands with him ! " From the subject of Hume's delinquency, they returned to the subject of Mr. Lynn's scheme. They discussed it long and hotly, and with the old result. Mr. Ingleby, the practical man, departed victor in the argument ; leaving Lynn, the theorist, unshaken in his belief that he had worked out the Millennium from statistics. Next evening Mr. Lynn set forth his scheme to a mystified audience of weavers, tenters, porters, engineers, and mill girls, whom he declared to be the pioneers in a great Movement, by which the claims of Capital and Labour were to be brought into everlasting harmony.

His hearers did not understand what he meant, but they felt that if there was to be much speech-making of this kind under the new order of things, they would require a compensation for listening more solid than floral decorations. There was a general agreement among the hands that such compensation should take the shape of an immediate rise in wages. From that night Mr. Lynn completely altered the tenor of his life. Instead of trusting the management of his works, as he had hitherto done in great measure, to an excellent staff, he was himself constantly present in the factory. He insisted upon altering the lines on which the business had been conducted ; and his alterations were not improvements. He seemed to have become possessed by the spirit of teasing meddlesomeness. He directed the engineers how to economise their steam-coal, and the clerks their blotting paper.

He spared neither time nor money to make his cherished Scheme a success, and his efforts were not long in leading to striking results. Before three months had passed, Mr. Lynn had contrived to quarrel with his manager, who had served both himself and his father well. He replaced him by the head-clerk, Arden, who studied his master's character to the neglect of his interests. Mr. Arden's promotion brought with it a share in the business. The new manager soon made himself necessary to Mr. Lynn, and showed a zeal in the cause of co-operation apparently not less fervid than his master's. Then came a period of dulness in trade. The hands had never understood Lynn's scheme ; but they understood what was meant by working half-time at reduced wages. They did not mind sharing in the good, but they strongly objected to sharing in the evil.

And so they began to look on their em ployer — as they persisted in regarding Mr. Lynn, despite all his protestations — with suspicious or contemptuous dislike. The business began to go down-hill. Neither Mr. Lynn nor his manager had the technical knowledge required to conduct it with success ; and though the latter strove to atone for this want by a high spirit of commercial daring, his ventures did not bring profit — at anyrate to the copartnership. The more obstinately Mr. Lynn strove to work out his theory, the more complicated became the state of his affairs. He soon found that he must make great sacrifices, if he would keep the promises he had held out to his partners — the men. He made the sacrifices, and kept the promises. He reduced his personal expenditure to a minimum, and adopted a style of living which was, by comparison, mean.

The consequence of this was that nearly all his old friends dropped away from him ; while the drain on his purse continued. Then occurred an event which seemed to the Shawkirk capitalists, who had been watching the lapse of Lynnfield with undissembled glee, as the beginning of the end. Mr. Arden, after two years of managership, resigned his connection with the Factory of the Future, and departed for London. Evidently, the ship must be going down. This defection was a heavy blow to Mr. Lynn. The whole burden of the scheme now pressed upon his own shoulders, and he felt the business slipping through his hands. There was none to assist him. Indeed, the other manufacturers, who looked on him as the common enemy, had formed a kind of 'ring' against him, and cut him out of the market so far as they could.

His balance at the bank dwindled away, and at last he had to draw on his credit. As things grew darker and darker, the incessant planning and brooding began to tell upon his brain. The once mild and even-tempered Lynn became fretful, moody, even morose. There was, indeed, no small degree of truth in what the Shawkirk capitalists said of him — that " Lynn of Lynnfield had become a monomaniac." At length the end came. Three years after the opening of the new Hall, Mr. Lynn died a broken-hearted man. The subsequent investigation into the state of his affairs occa sioned general surprise. That he should have lost, and lost heavily, was what everyone expected. But that in three years Mr. Lynn of Lynnfield, who had been reputed a man of great wealth, should have brought himself to the verge of bankruptcy, surpassed the gloomiest anticipations of even Mr. Ingleby.

Yet such was the case. The fortune which fell to Mr. Lynn's only child, after all liabilities had been met, amounted to rather less than £1000. A few months more, the capitalists said, and he would have died insolvent. There were those in Shawkirk who connected the name of Mr. Arden, ex-manager, with the disaster which had over taken Mr. Lynn. He, it was said, had made a good thing of co-operation, if nobody else had ; and had gone out of the concern just at the right moment for himself. Others, again, held that there was no valid reason for ascribing Mr. Lynn's failure to anyone but himself. He had simply "muddled away his money," and "torn up a fine business by the roots;" and though the time taken up by that operation was certainly short, the scheme had been mad enough to account for anything.

Mr. Arden was a clever man, who had tried to keep Lynn right, until obliged by the latter's obstinacy to give up the task in despair. So said Mr. Arden's friends, of whom he had quite a number. For success never failed to make friends at Shawkirk ; and Mr. Arden had been a successful man. Returning to London not quite empty-handed, and being backed up by a stockbroker named Chevenix, whose daughter he had married — he himself went upon 'Change, and in the course of a few years gained credit and renown as a successful speculator. The fame of his financial operations extended even to Shawkirk, where his old associates magnified his wealth into something fabulous, and spoke of him as an honour to the borough. Mr. Ingleby found himself appointed, under his brother in-law's will, sole guardian and trustee of Lynn's only child.