Of course I have not the least claim—indeed, I have already a debt to you which will never be discharged, even when I have been, able to pay it in the shape of money."
"Yes, my boy, you have a claim," said Caleb, with much feeling in his voice. "The young ones have always a claim on the old to help them forward.
I was young myself once and had to do without much help; but help would have been welcome to me, if it had been only for the fellow-feeling's sake.
But I must consider.
Come to me to-morrow at the office, at nine o'clock.
At the office, mind."
Mr. Garth would take no important step without consulting Susan, but it must be confessed that before he reached home he had taken his resolution.
With regard to a large number of matters about which other men are decided or obstinate, he was the most easily manageable man in the world.
He never knew what meat he would choose, and if Susan had said that they ought to live in a four-roomed cottage, in order to save, he would have said, "Let us go," without inquiring into details.
But where Caleb's feeling and judgment strongly pronounced, he was a ruler; and in spite of his mildness and timidity in reproving, every one about him knew that on the exceptional occasions when he chose, he was absolute.
He never, indeed, chose to be absolute except on some one else's behalf.
On ninety-nine points Mrs. Garth decided, but on the hundredth she was often aware that she would have to perform the singularly difficult task of carrying out her own principle, and to make herself subordinate.
"It is come round as I thought, Susan," said Caleb, when they were seated alone in the evening.
He had already narrated the adventure which had brought about Fred's sharing in his work, but had kept back the further result.
"The children are fond of each other—I mean, Fred and Mary."
Mrs. Garth laid her work on her knee, and fixed her penetrating eyes anxiously on her husband.
"After we'd done our work, Fred poured it all out to me.
He can't bear to be a clergyman, and Mary says she won't have him if he is one; and the lad would like to be under me and give his mind to business.
And I've determined to take him and make a man of him."
"Caleb!" said Mrs. Garth, in a deep contralto, expressive of resigned astonishment.
"It's a fine thing to do," said Mr. Garth, settling himself firmly against the back of his chair, and grasping the elbows.
"I shall have trouble with him, but I think I shall carry it through.
The lad loves Mary, and a true love for a good woman is a great thing, Susan.
It shapes many a rough fellow."
"Has Mary spoken to you on the subject?" said Mrs Garth, secretly a little hurt that she had to be informed on it herself.
"Not a word.
I asked her about Fred once; I gave her a bit of a warning.
But she assured me she would never marry an idle self-indulgent man—nothing since.
But it seems Fred set on Mr. Farebrother to talk to her, because she had forbidden him to speak himself, and Mr. Farebrother has found out that she is fond of Fred, but says he must not be a clergyman.
Fred's heart is fixed on Mary, that I can see: it gives me a good opinion of the lad—and we always liked him, Susan."
"It is a pity for Mary, I think," said Mrs. Garth.
"Why—a pity?"
"Because, Caleb, she might have had a man who is worth twenty Fred Vincy's."
"Ah?" said Caleb, with surprise.
"I firmly believe that Mr. Farebrother is attached to her, and meant to make her an offer; but of course, now that Fred has used him as an envoy, there is an end to that better prospect."
There was a severe precision in Mrs. Garth's utterance.
She was vexed and disappointed, but she was bent on abstaining from useless words.
Caleb was silent a few moments under a conflict of feelings.
He looked at the floor and moved his head and hands in accompaniment to some inward argumentation.
At last he said—
"That would have made me very proud and happy, Susan, and I should have been glad for your sake.
I've always felt that your belongings have never been on a level with you.
But you took me, though I was a plain man."
"I took the best and cleverest man I had ever known," said Mrs. Garth, convinced that she would never have loved any one who came short of that mark.
"Well, perhaps others thought you might have done better.
But it would have been worse for me.
And that is what touches me close about Fred.
The lad is good at bottom, and clever enough to do, if he's put in the right way; and he loves and honors my daughter beyond anything, and she has given him a sort of promise according to what he turns out.
I say, that young man's soul is in my hand; and I'll do the best I can for him, so help me God!
It's my duty, Susan."