The Moonstone | Page 8

himself in the Duke's place--how many lawyer's
purses he filled to bursting, and how many otherwise harmless people
he set by the ears together disputing whether he was right or wrong--is
more by a great deal than I can reckon up. His wife died, and two of his
three children died, before the tribunals could make up their minds to
show him the door and take no more of his money. When it was all
over, and the Duke in possession was left in possession, Mr. Blake
discovered that the only way of being even with his country for the
manner in which it had treated him, was not to let his country have the
honour of educating his son. "How can I trust my native institutions,"
was the form in which he put it, "after the way in which my native
institutions have behaved to ME?" Add to this, that Mr. Blake disliked

all boys, his own included, and you will admit that it could only end in
one way. Master Franklin was taken from us in England, and was sent
to institutions which his father COULD trust, in that superior country,
Germany; Mr. Blake himself, you will observe, remaining snug in
England, to improve his fellow-countrymen in the Parliament House,
and to publish a statement on the subject of the Duke in possession,
which has remained an unfinished statement from that day to this.
There! thank God, that's told! Neither you nor I need trouble our heads
any more about Mr. Blake, senior. Leave him to the Dukedom; and let
you and I stick to the Diamond.
The Diamond takes us back to Mr. Franklin, who was the innocent
means of bringing that unlucky jewel into the house.
Our nice boy didn't forget us after he went abroad. He wrote every now
and then; sometimes to my lady, sometimes to Miss Rachel, and
sometimes to me. We had had a transaction together, before he left,
which consisted in his borrowing of me a ball of string, a four-bladed
knife, and seven-and-sixpence in money--the colour of which last I
have not seen, and never expect to see again. His letters to me chiefly
related to borrowing more. I heard, however, from my lady, how he got
on abroad, as he grew in years and stature. After he had learnt what the
institutions of Germany could teach him, he gave the French a turn next,
and the Italians a turn after that. They made him among them a sort of
universal genius, as well as I could understand it. He wrote a little; he
painted a little; he sang and played and composed a little--borrowing,
as I suspect, in all these cases, just as he had borrowed from me. His
mother's fortune (seven hundred a year) fell to him when he came of
age, and ran through him, as it might be through a sieve. The more
money he had, the more he wanted; there was a hole in Mr. Franklin's
pocket that nothing would sew up. Wherever he went, the lively, easy
way of him made him welcome. He lived here, there, and everywhere;
his address (as he used to put it himself) being "Post Office, Europe--to
be left till called for." Twice over, he made up his mind to come back
to England and see us; and twice over (saving your presence), some
unmentionable woman stood in the way and stopped him. His third

attempt succeeded, as you know already from what my lady told me.
On Thursday the twenty-fifth of May, we were to see for the first time
what our nice boy had grown to be as a man. He came of good blood;
he had a high courage; and he was five-and-twenty years of age, by our
reckoning. Now you know as much of Mr. Franklin Blake as I
did--before Mr. Franklin Blake came down to our house.
The Thursday was as fine a summer's day as ever you saw: and my lady
and Miss Rachel (not expecting Mr. Franklin till dinner-time) drove out
to lunch with some friends in the neighbourhood.
When they were gone, I went and had a look at the bedroom which had
been got ready for our guest, and saw that all was straight. Then, being
butler in my lady's establishment, as well as steward (at my own
particular request, mind, and because it vexed me to see anybody but
myself in possession of the key of the late Sir John's cellar)--then, I say,
I fetched up some of our famous Latour claret, and set it in the warm
summer air to take off the chill before dinner. Concluding to set myself
in the warm summer air next--seeing that what is good for old claret is
equally good for old age--I took