Uncle Silas J. Sheridan Le Fanu (good books to read for beginners .TXT) 📖

“I have⁠—I’ve seen him before⁠—that is;” and at this point I stopped.

My uncle turned his strange glare, in a sort of scowl of enquiry, upon me.

“Oh!⁠—hey! why this is news. You never told me. Where have you met⁠—eh, Dudley?”

“Never saw her in my days, so far as I’m aweer on,” said the young man.

“No! Well, then, Maud, will you enlighten us?” said Uncle Silas, coldly.

“I did see that young gentleman before,” I faltered.

“Meaning me, ma’am?” he asked, coolly.

“Yes⁠—certainly you. I did, uncle,” answered I.

“And where was it, my dear? Not at Knowl, I fancy. Poor dear Austin did not trouble me or mine much with his hospitalities.”

This was not a pleasant tone to take in speaking of his dead brother and benefactor; but at the moment I was too much engaged upon the one point to observe it.

“I met”⁠—I could not say my cousin⁠—“I met him, uncle⁠—your son⁠—that young gentleman⁠—I saw him, I should say, at Church Scarsdale, and afterwards with some other persons in the warren at Knowl. It was the night our gamekeeper was beaten.”

“Well, Dudley, what do you say to that?” asked Uncle Silas.

“I never was at them places, so help me. I don’t know where they be; and I never set eyes on the young lady before, as I hope to be saved, in all my days,” said he, with a countenance so unchanged and an air so confident that I began to think I must be the dupe of one of those strange resemblances which have been known to lead to positive identification in the witness-box, afterwards proved to be utterly mistaken.

“You look so⁠—so uncomfortable, Maud, at the idea of having seen him before, that I hardly wonder at the vehemence of his denial. There was plainly something disagreeable; but you see as respects him it is a total mistake. My boy was always a truth-telling fellow⁠—you may rely implicitly on what he says. You were not at those places?”

“I wish I may⁠—” began the ingenuous youth, with increased vehemence.

“There, there⁠—that will do; your honour and word as a gentleman⁠—and that you are, though a poor one⁠—will quite satisfy your cousin Maud. Am I right, my dear? I do assure you, as a gentleman, I never knew him to say the thing that was not.”

So Mr. Dudley Ruthyn began, not to curse, but to swear, in the prescribed form, that he had never seen me before, or the places I had named, “since I was weaned, by⁠—”

“That’s enough⁠—now shake hands, if you won’t kiss, like cousins,” interrupted my uncle.

And very uncomfortably I did lend him my hand to shake.

“You’ll want some supper, Dudley, so Maud and I will excuse your going. Good night, my dear boy,” and he smiled and waved him from the room.

“That’s as fine a young fellow, I think, as any English father can boast for his son⁠—true, brave, and kind, and quite an Apollo. Did you observe how finely proportioned he is, and what exquisite features the fellow has? He’s rustic and rough, as you see; but a year or two in the militia⁠—I’ve a promise of a commission for him⁠—he’s too old for the line⁠—will form and polish him. He wants nothing but manner; and I protest when he has had a little drilling of that kind, I do believe he’ll be as pretty a fellow as you’d find in England.”

I listened with amazement. I could discover nothing but what was disagreeable in the horrid bumpkin, and thought such an instance of the blindness of parental partiality was hardly credible.

I looked down, dreading another direct appeal to my judgment; and Uncle Silas, I suppose, referred those downcast looks to maiden modesty, for he forbore to task mine by any new interrogatory.

Dudley Ruthyn’s cool and resolute denial of ever having seen me or the places I had named, and the inflexible serenity of his countenance while doing so, did very much shake my confidence in my own identification of him. I could not be quite certain that the person I had seen at Church Scarsdale was the very same whom I afterwards saw at Knowl. And now, in this particular instance, after the lapse of a still longer period, could I be perfectly certain that my memory, deceived by some accidental points of resemblance, had not duped me, and wronged my cousin, Dudley Ruthyn?

I suppose my uncle had expected from me some signs of acquiesence in his splendid estimate of his cub, and was nettled at my silence. After a short interval he said⁠—

“I’ve seen something of the world in my day, and I can say without a misgiving of partiality, that Dudley is the material of a perfect English gentleman. I am not blind, of course⁠—the training must be supplied; a year or two of good models, active self-criticism, and good society. I simply say that the material is there.”

Here was another interval of silence.

“And now tell me, child, what these recollections of Church⁠—Church⁠—what?”

“Church Scarsdale,” I replied.

“Yes, thank you⁠—Church Scarsdale and Knowl⁠—are?”

So I related my stories as well as I could.

“Well, dear Maud, the adventure of Church Scarsdale is hardly so terrific as I expected,” said Uncle Silas with a cold little laugh; “and I don’t see, if he had really been the hero of it, why he should shrink from avowing it. I know I should not. And I really can’t say that your picnic party in the grounds of Knowl has frightened me much more. A lady waiting in the carriage, and two or three tipsy young men. Her presence seems to me a guarantee that no mischief was meant; but champagne is the soul of frolic, and a row with the gamekeepers a natural consequence. It happened to me once⁠—forty years ago, when I was a wild young buck⁠—one of the worst rows I ever was in.”

And Uncle Silas poured some eau-de-cologne over the corner of his handkerchief, and touched his temples with it.

“If my boy had been there, I