I say that there never was a meaner, more ungentlemanly action than this—a codicil of this sort to a will which he made at the time of his marriage with the knowledge and reliance of her family—a positive insult to Dorothea!"
"Well, you know, Casaubon was a little twisted about Ladislaw.
Ladislaw has told me the reason—dislike of the bent he took, you know—Ladislaw didn't think much of Casaubon's notions, Thoth and Dagon—that sort of thing: and I fancy that Casaubon didn't like the independent position Ladislaw had taken up.
I saw the letters between them, you know.
Poor Casaubon was a little buried in books—he didn't know the world."
"It's all very well for Ladislaw to put that color on it," said Sir James.
"But I believe Casaubon was only jealous of him on Dorothea's account, and the world will suppose that she gave him some reason; and that is what makes it so abominable—coupling her name with this young fellow's."
"My dear Chettam, it won't lead to anything, you know," said Mr. Brooke, seating himself and sticking on his eye-glass again.
"It's all of a piece with Casaubon's oddity.
This paper, now,
'Synoptical Tabulation' and so on, 'for the use of Mrs. Casaubon,' it was locked up in the desk with the will.
I suppose he meant Dorothea to publish his researches, eh? and she'll do it, you know; she has gone into his studies uncommonly."
"My dear sir," said Sir James, impatiently, "that is neither here nor there.
The question is, whether you don't see with me the propriety of sending young Ladislaw away?"
"Well, no, not the urgency of the thing.
By-and-by, perhaps, it may come round.
As to gossip, you know, sending him away won't hinder gossip.
People say what they like to say, not what they have chapter and verse for," said Mr Brooke, becoming acute about the truths that lay on the side of his own wishes.
"I might get rid of Ladislaw up to a certain point—take away the
'Pioneer' from him, and that sort of thing; but I couldn't send him out of the country if he didn't choose to go—didn't choose, you know."
Mr. Brooke, persisting as quietly as if he were only discussing the nature of last year's weather, and nodding at the end with his usual amenity, was an exasperating form of obstinacy.
"Good God!" said Sir James, with as much passion as he ever showed, "let us get him a post; let us spend money on him.
If he could go in the suite of some Colonial Governor!
Grampus might take him—and I could write to Fulke about it."
"But Ladislaw won't be shipped off like a head of cattle, my dear fellow; Ladislaw has his ideas.
It's my opinion that if he were to part from me to-morrow, you'd only hear the more of him in the country.
With his talent for speaking and drawing up documents, there are few men who could come up to him as an agitator—an agitator, you know."
"Agitator!" said Sir James, with bitter emphasis, feeling that the syllables of this word properly repeated were a sufficient exposure of its hatefulness.
"But be reasonable, Chettam.
Dorothea, now.
As you say, she had better go to Celia as soon as possible.
She can stay under your roof, and in the mean time things may come round quietly.
Don't let us be firing off our guns in a hurry, you know.
Standish will keep our counsel, and the news will be old before it's known.
Twenty things may happen to carry off Ladislaw—without my doing anything, you know."
"Then I am to conclude that you decline to do anything?"
"Decline, Chettam?—no—I didn't say decline.
But I really don't see what I could do.
Ladislaw is a gentleman."
"I am glad to hear it!" said Sir James, his irritation making him forget himself a little.
"I am sure Casaubon was not."
"Well, it would have been worse if he had made the codicil to hinder her from marrying again at all, you know."
"I don't know that," said Sir James.
"It would have been less indelicate."
"One of poor Casaubon's freaks!
That attack upset his brain a little.
It all goes for nothing.
She doesn't want to marry Ladislaw."
"But this codicil is framed so as to make everybody believe that she did.
I don't believe anything of the sort about Dorothea," said Sir James—then frowningly, "but I suspect Ladislaw.