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'•'dp Mi «ntto ^^^ ;r^°Uor,.. '^«gol)linp^ *£pisleifc "nionietol,--" *• aercbi^,,. Jfepnrciasef^ spring and the principal producer ; he had : WtieW THE YELLOW ELAG. wonderful powers of foresight, and uncom- I 'Wielet;^ BT EDMUND YATES, mon shrewdness in estimating the chances nd of any venture proposed to him, and with ATJTHOE OF "BLACK SHEEP," » NOBODY'S FOBTHNB," &C &C. all these he was bold and lucky; "far too •^rfTob:- bold," his old employers said, with shaking CHAPTER VII. IN THB CITY. Iraiitjfeoiii!:; heads, as they saw him gradually, but surely, outstripping them in the race; " far *"«dgoodcp, THE descriptions of the great house of Calverley and Company, given respectively too lucky," his detractors growled, when • •Betolief> they saw speculations, which had been siwld sefl tk: by Mr. and Mrs. Calverley, though differing essentially in many particulars, had each a offered to them and promptly declined, •i door-fams,; prosper auriferously in John Lorraine's •l|iMB; u^ty substratum of tmth. The house had been k fa resit:. founded half a century before by John Lor­ .hands. tna bt lei;: raine, the eldest son of a broken-down but As soon as John Lorraine saw the tide ancient family in the north of England, of fortune strongly setting in, he took to himself a wife, the daughter of one of his M Ban Mn. i who in very early years -had been sent up to London to shift for himself, and arriv­ City friends, a man of tolerable wealth and • mfothek great experience, who in his early days dj^iMwerek ing there with the conventional half-crown in his pocket, was, of course, destined to had befriended the struggbng boy, and fame and fortune. Needless to say that, who thought his daughter could not have trnqnllf.fitii like so many other merchant princes, heroes achieved higherhonour orgreaterhappiness. •. VhenatUi of history far more veracious than this, his Whatever honour or happiness may have ac­ it in his own pB first experiences were those of struggbng crued to the young lady on her marriage adversity. He kept the books, he ran the did not last long, for, shortiy after giving icdtoiktiiiic. errands, he fetched and carried for his birth to her first child, a daughter, she master—the old East India agent in Great died, and thenceforward John Lorraine de­ igjljlunltiieiiii St. Helen's—and by his intelligence and in­ voted his Hfe to the littie gu-1, and to the iMnhewnHs dustry he commended himself to the good increased fortune which she was to inherit. gi-aces of his superiors; and was not only When bttle Jane had arrived at a more able to maintain himsehf in a respectable than marriageable age, and from a pretty position, but to provide for his two younger fubsy baby had grown into a thin, acidu­ brothers, who were sipping from the fount lated, opiniated woman (a result attribut­ of learning at the grammar-school of Pen­ able to the manner in which she had been rith. These junior' scions being brought spoiled by her indulgent father), John Lor­ to town, and applying themselves, not, m- raine's mind was mainly exercised as to deed, with the same energy as their elder what manner of man would propose for her with a likelihood of success, Hitherto, brother, but with a passable amount of in­ love affairs had been things almost un­ terest and care to the duties set before known to his Jane, not from any un- them, were taken into partnership by John wilhngness on her part to make their Lorraine when he went into business for acquaintance, but principally because, not­ himself, and helped, in a certain degree, to withstanding the fortune which it was establish the fortunes of the house. Of known she would bring to her husband. these fortunes John Lorraine was the main- I •*-^ VUl* llrtr TEXAS TE6H LIBRAR) "X =?* 50i^ pime 1,1873.1 ALL THE YEAR ROUND, [Conducted by none of the few young, men. who from time affectionately spoke of his senior partner) to time dined solemnly in tfie old-fashioned " seraned to> wisb it, he was not going to house in Brunswick-square, or acted as stand in the way. He wanted a home, and cavaber to its mistress to the Ancient Con- Jane should make him a' jolly one, he'd oesrts, or the King's Theatre, could make take care of that.*^ up their minds to address her in anything Jane Lorraine married George Gurwood, but the most common phrases. That Miss but she did not make him a home. Her Jiane had a will of her own, and a tart rigid bearing and unyielding temper were manner of expressing her intention of hav­ too strong for his plastic, pliable nature; ing that will fulfilled, was also matter of for maay months the struggle for mastery common gossip ; stories were current among was carried on between them, but in the the clerks at Mincing-lane of the " wig­ end George—^joUy George no longer—gave ging " which they had heard her adminis­ way. He had made a tolerable good fight tering to her father, when she drove down of it, and had used every means in his to fetch him away in her chariot, and when power to induce her to be less bitter, less he kept her unduly waiting; the household furtive,; less inexorable in the matter of servants in Brunswick-square had their his dinings-out, his sporting transactions, opinion of Miss Jane's temper, and the his constant desire to see his table sur­ tradesmen in the neighbourhood looked rounded by congenial company. " I have forward to the entrance of her thin, dark tried to gentle her," he said to Lowther figure into their shops every Tuesday Lorraine one day,, " as I would a horse, morning, for the performance of settling and there has never been one of them yet the books, with ffear and trembling. that I could not coax and pet into good Old John Lorraine, fully appreciating' temper; I'd spend any amount of money his daughter's infirmities, though partiy on her, and let her have her own way in from affection^ partly from fear, he never most things if she would only just let me took upon himself to rebuke them, began have mine in a few. I have tried her with to think that the fairy prince who was to a sharp bit and a pair of ' persuaders,' but wake this morally slumbering virgin to a that was no more use than the gentling! sense of something better, to lai^r views She's as hard as nails, Lowther, my boy, and higher aims, to domestic happiness and I don't see my way out of it, that's and married bliss, would never arrive. He the truth. So come along and have a came at last, however, in the person of B and S," George Gurwood, a big, broad-shouldered, If having a B and S—George's abbre­ jovial fellow, who, as a son of another of viation for soda-water and brandy—would Lorraine's early friends, had some time have helped him to see'his way out of his previously been admitted as a partner into difficulties, he would speedily have been the house. Everybody bked good-look­ able to perceive it, for thenceforward his ing, jolly George Gurwood. Lambton Lor­ consumption of that and many other kinds raine and Lowther Lorraine, who, though of liquids was enormous. Wretehed in now growing elderly men, had retained his home, George Gurwood took to drink­ their bachelor tastea and habits, and ing to drown eare, but, as in most similar managed' to get through a great portion of cases, the demon proved himself far too the income accruing to them from the buoyant to be overwhelmed even by the business, were delighted with his jovial amount which George poured upon him. manners, his sporting tendencies, his con­ He was drinking morning, noon, and vivial predilections. When the fact of night, and was generally in a more or less George's paying his addresses to their muddled state. When he went to business, niece was first promulgated, Lambton had which was now very seldom, some of the a serious talk with his genial partner, clerks in the office laughed at him, which warning him against tying himself for was bad enough, while others pitied him, life to a woman with whom he had no which was worse. The story of George's single feehng in common. But George dissipation was carefully kept from John laughed at the caution, and declined to be Lorraine, who had virtually retired from guided by it, "Miss Lorraine was not the business^ and devoted himself to much in his bne," he said; "perhaps a nursing his rheumatism, and to superin­ Httle given to tea and psalm-smiting, but tending the education of his grandson, a it would come all right; he should get her fine boy of five or six years of age, but into a different way ; and as the dear old Lambton and Lowther held many colloquies guv'nor" (by which title George always together, the end of them all being their i,\j\ji S \ ^ Charles Dickens.] THE YELLOW PLAS. [JtHie 1,1872.] 61 both agreeing that they could not tell widowed Mrs. Gurwood, first conceived what was to be done with George Gur­ the idea of making her an offer of mar­ wood. What was to be done with him riage. Pretty nearly forty years of his life was soon settled by George Gurwood him­ had been spent in a state of bachelorhood, self.

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