Read Ebook: Tony Butler by Lever Charles James Wheeler Edward J Illustrator

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Ebook has 4357 lines and 196753 words, and 88 pages

"My dear Tony, you little know how such people are overwhelmed with such-like applications, and what slight chance there is that you will be distinguished from the rest."

"At all events, I shall not have the humiliation of a patron. If he will do anything for me, it will be for the sake of my father's memory, and I need not be ashamed of that."

"What shall I write, then?" And she took up her pen.

"Sir--I suppose he is 'Sir;' or is he 'My Lord'?"

"No. His name is Sir Harry Elphinstone."

"Sir,--The young man who bears this note is the only son of the late Colonel Walter Butler, C.B. He has no fortune, no profession, no friends, and very little ability. Can you place him in any position where he may acquire some of the three first and can dispense with the last?

"Your humble servant,

"Eleanor Butler."

"Oh, Tony! you don't think we could send such a letter as this?" said she, with a half-sad smile.

"I am certain I could deliver it, mother," said he, gravely, "and I 'm sure that it would answer its purpose just as well as a more finished composition."

"Let me at least make a good copy of it," said she, as he folded it up and placed it in an envelope.

"No, no," said he; "just write his name, and all the fine things that he is sure to be, before and after it, and, as I said before, leave the issue to me."

"And when would you think of going, Tony?"

"To-morrow morning, by the steamer that will pass this on the way to Liverpool. I know the Captain, and he will give me a passage; he's always teasing me to take a trip with him."

"To-morrow! but how could you get ready by to-morrow? I 'll have to look over all your clothes, Tony."

"My dear little mother," said he, passing his arm round her, and kissing her affectionately, "how easy it is to hold a review where there 's only a corporal's guard for inspection! All my efficient movables will fit into a very small portmanteau, and I 'll pack it in less than ten minutes."

"I see no necessity for all this haste, particularly where we have so much to consider and talk over. We ought to consult the doctor, too; he's a warm friend, Tony, and bears you a sincere affection."

"He's a good fellow; I like him anywhere but in the pulpit," muttered he, below his breath. "And he 'd like to write to his daughter; she's a governess in some family near Putney, I think. I 'll go and see her; Dolly and I are old playfellows. I don't know," added he, with a laugh, "whether hockey and football are part of a polite female education; but if they be, the pupils that have got Dolly Stewart for their governess are in rare luck."

"But why must there be all this hurry?"

"Because it's a whim of mine, dear little mother. Because--but don't ask me for reasons, after having spoiled me for twenty years, and given me my own way in everything. I 've got it into my wise head--and you know what a wise head it is--that I 'm going to do something very brilliant. You 'll puzzle me awfully if you ask me where or how; so just be generous and don't push me to the wall."

"At all events, you 'll not go without seeing the doctor?"

"That I will. I have some experience of him as a questioner in the Scripture-school of a Saturday, and I 'll not stand a cross-examination in profane matters from so skilled a hand. Tell him from me that I had one of my flighty fits on me, and that I knew I 'd make such a sorry defence if we were to meet, that, in the words of his own song, 'I ran awa' in the morning.'"

She shook her head in silence, and seemed far from satisfied.

"Tell him, however, that I 'll go and see Dolly the first day I'm free, and bring him back a full account of her, how she looks, and what she says of herself."

The thought of his return flashed across the poor mother's heart like sunshine over a landscape, spreading light and gladness everywhere. "And when will that be, Tony?" cried she, looking up into his eyes.

"Let me see. To-morrow will be Wednesday."

"No, Tony,--Thursday."

"To be sure, Thursday,--Thursday, the ninth; Friday, Liverpool; Saturday, London! Sunday will do for a visit to Dolly; I suppose there will be no impropriety in calling on her of a Sunday?"

"The M'Graders are a Scotch family, I don't know if they 'd like it."

"That shall be thought of. Let me see; Monday for the great man, Tuesday and Wednesday to see a little bit of London, and back here by the end of the week."

"Oh! if I thought that, Tony--"

"Well, do think it; believe it, rely upon it. If you like, I'll give up the Tuesday and Wednesday, though I have some very gorgeous speculations about Westminster Abbey and the Tower, and the monkeys in the Zoological Gardens, with the pantomime for a finish in the evening. But you 've only to say the word, and I 'll start half an hour after I see the Don in Downing Street."

"No, of course not, darling. I 'm not so selfish as that; and if you find that London amuses you and is not too expensive,--for you know, Tony, what a slender purse we have,--stay a week,--two weeks, Tony, if you like it."

"What a good little woman it is!" said he, pressing her towards him; and the big tears trembled in his eyes and rolled heavily along his cheeks. "Now for the ugly part,--the money, I mean."

"I have eleven pounds in the house, Tony, if that will do to take with you."

"Do, mother! Of course it will. I don't mean to spend near so much; but how can you spare such a sum? that's the question."

"I just had it by, Tony, for a rainy day, as they call it; or I meant to have made you a smart present on the fourth of next month, for your birthday.--I forget, indeed, what I intended it for," said she, wiping her eyes, "for this sudden notion of yours has driven everything clean out of my head; and all I can think of is if there be buttons on your shirts, and how many pairs of socks you have."

"I'm sure everything is right; it always is. And now go to bed like a dear little woman, and I 'll come in and say good-bye before I start in the morning."

"No, no, Tony; I 'll be up and make you a cup of tea."

She could not trust herself to speak, and merely clutched his hand in both her own and held it fast.

"There's another thing," said he, after a short struggle with himself; "there may possibly be notes or messages of one sort or another from Lyle Abbey; and just hint that I 've been obliged to leave home for a day or two. You need n't say for where nor how long; but that I was called away suddenly,--too hurriedly to go up and pay my respects, and the rest of it I 'm not quite sure you 'll be troubled in this way; but if you should, say what I have told you."

"The doctor will be sorry not to have said good-bye, Tony."

"I may be back again before he need hear of my having gone. And now, good-night, dear mother; I 'll come and see you before I start."

"Your faithful servant,

"T. Butler.

"I could not write myself 'Anthony,' if I got five pounds for it"

Ten miles across a stiff country, straight as the crow flies would not have "taken as much out" of poor Tony as the composition of this elegant epistle; and though he felt a sincere satisfaction at its completion, he was not by any means satisfied that he had achieved a success. "No," muttered he, as he sealed it, "my pen will not be my livelihood; that's certain. If it wasn't for the dear mother's sake, I would see what a musket could do, I'd enlist, to a certainty. It is the best thing for fellows like me." Thus musing and "mooning," he lay down, dressed as he was, and fell asleep. And as he lay, there came a noiseless step to his door, and the handle turned, and his mother drew nigh his bed, and bent over him. "Poor Tony!" muttered she, as her tears gushed out. "Poor Tony!" what a story in two words was there!--what tender love, what compassionate sorrow! It was the outburst of a mother's grief for one who was sure to get the worst at the hands of the world,--a cry of anguish for all the sorrows his own warm heart and guileless nature would expose him to,--the deceptions, the wrongs, the treacheries that were before him; and yet, in all the selfishness of her love, she would not have had him other than he was! She never wished him to be crafty or worldly-wise. Ten thousand times was he dearer, in all his weakness, than if he had the cunning of the craftiest that ever outschemed their neighbors. "My poor boy," said she, "what hard lessons there are before you! It is well that you have a brave, big heart, as well as a tender one."

He was so like his father, too, as he lay there,--no great guarantee for success in life was that!--and her tears fell faster as she looked at him; and fearing that her sobs might awake him, she stole silently away and left the room.

"There's the steam-whistle, mother; I can just see the smoke over the cliff. I 'm off," said he, as she had dropped off asleep.

"But your breakfast, Tony; I 'll make you a cup of tea."

"Not for the world; I 'm late enough as it is. God bless you, little woman. I 'll be back before you know that I 'm gone. Good-bye."

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