John Caldigate | Page 7

father on friendly terms. In that case he would be able
to pay Davis himself, and there need be no ground for quarrelling on
that score.
Before dinner the matter was settled at the Grange. The stern old man
bade his visitor sit down, and then explained to him at full length that
which it was proposed to do. So much money the Squire had himself
put by; so much more Mr. Bolton himself would advance; the value
had been properly computed; and, should the arrangement be
completed, he, John Caldigate, would sell his inheritance at its proper
price. Over and over again the young man endeavoured to interrupt the
speaker, but was told to postpone his words till the other should have
done. Such interruptions came from the too evident fact that Mr. Bolton
thoroughly despised his guest. Caldigate, though he had been very
foolish, though he had loved to slaughter rats and rabbits, and to romp
with the girls at Babington, was by no means a fool. He was possessed
of good natural abilities, of great activity, and of a high spirit. His
appreciation was quicker than that of the old banker, who, as he soon
saw, had altogether failed to understand him. In every word that the

banker spoke, it was evident that he thought that these thousands would
be squandered instantly. The banker spoke as though this terrible
severance was to be made because the natural heir had shown himself
to be irrevocably bad. What could be expected from a youth who was
deep in the books of a Davis before he had left his college? 'I do not
recommend this,' he said at last. 'I have never recommended it. The
disruption is so great as to be awful. But when your father has asked
what better step he could take, I have been unable to advise him.' It was
as though the old man were telling the young one that he was too bad
for hope, and that, therefore, he must be consigned for ever to
perdition.
Caldigate, conscious of the mistake which the banker was making, full
of hope as to himself, intending to acknowledge the follies of which he
had been guilty, and, at the same time, not to promise,--for he would
not condescend so far,--but to profess that they were things of the past,
and impatient of the judgment expressed against him, endeavoured to
stop the old man in his severity, so that the tone in which the business
was being done might be altered. But when he found that he could not
do this without offence, he leaned back in his chair, and heard the
indictment to the end. 'Now, Mr. Bolton,' he said, when at length his
time came, 'you shall hear my view of the matter.' And Mr. Bolton did
hear him, listening very patiently. Caldigate first asserted, that in
coming there, to Puritan Grange, his object had been to learn what were
the terms proposed,--as to which he was now willing to give his assent.
He had already quite made up his mind to sell what property he had on
the estate, and therefore, though he was much indebted to Mr. Bolton
for his disinterested and kind friendship, he was hardly in want of
counsel on that matter. Mr. Bolton raised his eyebrows, but still
listened patiently. Caldigate then went on to explain his views as to life,
declaring that under no circumstances--had there been no Davis--would
he have consented to remain at Folking as a deputy-squire, waiting to
take up his position some twenty years hence at his father's death. Nor,
even were Folking his own at this moment, would he live there! He
must do something; and, upon the whole, he thought that gold-mining
in the colonies was the most congenial pursuit to which he could put
his hand. Then he made a frank acknowledgment as to Davis and his
gambling follies, and ended by saying that the matter might be regarded

as settled.
He had certainly been successful in changing the old man's opinion. Mr.
Bolton did not say as much, nor was he a man likely to make such
acknowledgment; but when he led John Caldigate away to be
introduced to his wife in the drawing-room, he felt less of disdain for
his guest than he had done half an hour before. Mr. Bolton was a silent,
cautious man, even in his own family, and had said nothing of this
business to his wife, and nothing, of course, to his daughter. Mrs.
Bolton asked after the Squire, and expressed a hope that her guest
would not find the house very dull for one night. She had heard that
John Caldigate was a fast young man, and of course regarded him as a
lost sinner. Hester, who