Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (epub ebook reader .TXT) đź“•
The two eldest, Augusta and Beatrice, lived, and were apparently likely to live. The four next faded and died one after another--all in the same sad year--and were laid in the neat, new cemetery at Torquay. Then came a pair, born at one birth, weak, delicate, frail little flowers, with dark hair and dark eyes, and thin, long, pale faces, with long, bony hands, and long bony feet, whom men looked on as fated to follow their sisters with quick steps. Hitherto, however, they had not followed them, nor had they suffered as their sisters had suffered; and some people at Greshamsbury attributed this to the fact that a change had been made in the family medical practitioner.
Then came the youngest of the flock, she whose birth we have said was not heralded with loud joy; for when she came into the world, four others, with pale temples, wan, worn cheeks,
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there with that brandy bottle beneath his pillow, reflecting in his
moments of rest that that son of his had his brandy bottle beneath
his pillow, he could hardly have been happy. But he was not a man to
say much about his misery. Though he could restrain neither himself
nor his heir, he could endure in silence; and in silence he did
endure, till, opening his eyes to the consciousness of death, he at
last spoke a few words to the only friend he knew.
Louis Scatcherd was not a fool, nor was he naturally, perhaps, of a
depraved disposition; but he had to reap the fruits of the worst
education which England was able to give him. There were moments in
his life when he felt that a better, a higher, nay, a much happier
career was open to him than that which he had prepared himself to
lead. Now and then he would reflect what money and rank might have
done for him; he would look with wishful eyes to the proud doings of
others of his age; would dream of quiet joys, of a sweet wife, of a
house to which might be asked friends who were neither jockeys nor
drunkards; he would dream of such things in his short intervals of
constrained sobriety; but the dream would only serve to make him
moody.
This was the best side of his character; the worst, probably, was
that which was brought into play by the fact that he was not a fool.
He would have a better chance of redemption in this world—perhaps
also in another—had he been a fool. As it was, he was no fool: he
was not to be done, not he; he knew, no one better, the value of
a shilling; he knew, also, how to keep his shillings, and how to
spend them. He consorted much with blacklegs and such-like, because
blacklegs were to his taste. But he boasted daily, nay, hourly to
himself, and frequently to those around him, that the leeches who
were stuck round him could draw but little blood from him. He could
spend his money freely; but he would so spend it that he himself
might reap the gratification of the expenditure. He was acute,
crafty, knowing, and up to every damnable dodge practised by men of
the class with whom he lived. At one-and-twenty he was that most
odious of all odious characters—a close-fisted reprobate.
He was a small man, not ill-made by Nature, but reduced to unnatural
tenuity by dissipation—a corporeal attribute of which he was apt
to boast, as it enabled him, as he said, to put himself up at 7 st.
7 lb. without any “d–- nonsense of not eating and drinking.” The
power, however, was one of which he did not often avail himself, as
his nerves were seldom in a fit state for riding. His hair was dark
red, and he wore red moustaches, and a great deal of red beard
beneath his chin, cut in a manner to make him look like an American.
His voice also had a Yankee twang, being a cross between that of an
American trader and an English groom; and his eyes were keen and
fixed, and cold and knowing.
Such was the son whom Sir Roger saw standing at his bedside when
first he awoke to consciousness. It must not be supposed that Sir
Roger looked at him with our eyes. To him he was an only child,
the heir of his wealth, the future bearer of his title; the most
heart-stirring remembrancer of those other days, when he had been
so much a poorer, and so much a happier man. Let that boy be bad
or good, he was all Sir Roger had; and the father was still able
to hope, when others thought that all ground for hope was gone.
The mother also loved her son with a mother’s natural love; but Louis
had ever been ashamed of his mother, and had, as far as possible,
estranged himself from her. Her heart, perhaps, fixed itself
with almost a warmer love on Frank Gresham, her foster-son. Frank
she saw but seldom, but when she did see him he never refused her
embrace. There was, too, a joyous, genial lustre about Frank’s face
which always endeared him to women, and made his former nurse regard
him as the pet creation of the age. Though she but seldom interfered
with any monetary arrangement of her husband’s, yet once or twice she
had ventured to hint that a legacy left to the young squire would
make her a happy woman. Sir Roger, however, on these occasions had
not appeared very desirous of making his wife happy.
“Ah, Louis! is that you?” ejaculated Sir Roger, in tones hardly more
than half-formed: afterwards, in a day or two that is, he fully
recovered his voice; but just then he could hardly open his jaws, and
spoke almost through his teeth. He managed, however, to put out his
hand and lay it on the counterpane, so that his son could take it.
“Why, that’s well, governor,” said the son; “you’ll be as right as a
trivet in a day or two—eh, governor?”
The “governor” smiled with a ghastly smile. He already pretty well
knew that he would never again be “right,” as his son called it, on
that side of the grave. It did not, moreover, suit him to say much
just at that moment, so he contented himself with holding his son’s
hand. He lay still in this position for a moment, and then, turning
round painfully on his side, endeavoured to put his hand to the place
where his dire enemy usually was concealed. Sir Roger, however, was
too weak now to be his own master; he was at length, though too late,
a captive in the hands of nurses and doctors, and the bottle had now
been removed.
Then Lady Scatcherd came in, and seeing that her husband was no
longer unconscious, she could not but believe that Dr Thorne had been
wrong; she could not but think that there must be some ground for
hope. She threw herself on her knees at the bedside, bursting into
tears as she did so, and taking Sir Roger’s hand in hers covered it
with kisses.
“Bother!” said Sir Roger.
She did not, however, long occupy herself with the indulgence of her
feelings; but going speedily to work, produced such sustenance as
the doctors had ordered to be given when the patient might awake. A
breakfast-cup was brought to him, and a few drops were put into his
mouth; but he soon made it manifest that he would take nothing more
of a description so perfectly innocent.
“A drop of brandy—just a little drop,” said he, half-ordering, and
half-entreating.
“Ah, Roger!” said Lady Scatcherd.
“Just a little drop, Louis,” said the sick man, appealing to his son.
“A little will be good for him; bring the bottle, mother,” said the
son.
After some altercation the brandy bottle was brought, and Louis, with
what he thought a very sparing hand, proceeded to pour about half a
wine-glassful into the cup. As he did so, Sir Roger, weak as he was,
contrived to shake his son’s arm, so as greatly to increase the dose.
“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed the sick man, and then greedily swallowed the
dose.
Sir Roger Dies
That night the doctor stayed at Boxall Hill, and the next night;
so that it became a customary thing for him to sleep there during
the latter part of Sir Roger’s illness. He returned home daily to
Greshamsbury; for he had his patients there, to whom he was as
necessary as to Sir Roger, the foremost of whom was Lady Arabella. He
had, therefore, no slight work on his hands, seeing that his nights
were by no means wholly devoted to rest.
Mr Rerechild had not been much wrong as to the remaining space of
life which he had allotted to the dying man. Once or twice Dr Thorne
had thought that the great original strength of his patient would
have enabled him to fight against death for a somewhat longer period;
but Sir Roger would give himself no chance. Whenever he was strong
enough to have a will of his own, he insisted on having his very
medicine mixed with brandy; and in the hours of the doctor’s absence,
he was too often successful in his attempts.
“It does not much matter,” Dr Thorne had said to Lady Scatcherd. “Do
what you can to keep down the quantity, but do not irritate him by
refusing to obey. It does not much signify now.” So Lady Scatcherd
still administered the alcohol, and he from day to day invented
little schemes for increasing the amount, over which he chuckled with
ghastly laughter.
Two or three times during these days Sir Roger essayed to speak
seriously to his son; but Louis always frustrated him. He either got
out of the room on some excuse, or made his mother interfere on the
score that so much talking would be bad for his father. He already
knew with tolerable accuracy what was the purport of his father’s
will, and by no means approved of it; but as he could not now hope
to induce his father to alter it so as to make it more favourable to
himself, he conceived that no conversation on matters of business
could be of use to him.
“Louis,” said Sir Roger, one afternoon to his son; “Louis, I have not
done by you as I ought to have done—I know that now.”
“Nonsense, governor; never mind about that now; I shall do well
enough, I dare say. Besides, it isn’t too late; you can make it
twenty-three years instead of twenty-five, if you like it.”
“I do not mean as to money, Louis. There are things besides money
which a father ought to look to.”
“Now, father, don’t fret yourself—I’m all right; you may be sure of
that.”
“Louis, it’s that accursed brandy—it’s that that I’m afraid of: you
see me here, my boy, how I’m lying here now.”
“Don’t you be annoying yourself, governor; I’m all right—quite
right; and as for you, why, you’ll be up and about yourself in
another month or so.”
“I shall never be off this bed, my boy, till I’m carried into my
coffin, on those chairs there. But I’m not thinking of myself, Louis,
but you; think what you may have before you if you can’t avoid that
accursed bottle.”
“I’m all right, governor; right as a trivet. It’s very little I take,
except at an odd time or so.”
“Oh, Louis! Louis!”
“Come, father, cheer up; this sort of thing isn’t the thing for you
at all. I wonder where mother is: she ought to be here with the
broth; just let me go, and I’ll see for her.”
The father understood it all. He saw that it was now much beyond his
faded powers to touch the heart or conscience of such a youth as his
son had become. What now could he do for his boy except die? What
else, what other benefit, did his son require of him but to die; to
die so that his means of dissipation might be unbounded? He let go
the unresisting hand which he held, and, as the young man crept out
of the room, he turned his face to the wall. He turned his face to
the wall and held bitter commune with his own heart. To what had he
brought himself? To what had he brought his son? Oh, how happy would
it have been for him could he have
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