Varney the Vampyre 96The Interview with the Quaker at Dearbrook
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Literature · Horror
Varney the Vampyre 96
The Interview with the Quaker at Dearbrook
RymerEnglish
The Quaker was a man of about middle age, and was duly attired in the garb of the particular sect to which he belonged. There was about his countenance all that affectation of calmness and abandonment of worldly thoughts and desires which is mistaken by so many people for the reality of self-denial, when, really, those who know this sect well, are perfectly aware that there is not a more money-loving, grasping people on the face of the earth.
After gravely motioning his visitors to be seated, Mr. Shepherd cast his eyes up to the ceiling, as if he were muttering some prayer, and then he said,—
“Verily, may I ask to what I am to attribute this visit from individuals who, in this vale of unblessedness, are unknown to me.”
“Certainly, sir,” said Henry; “you are entitled, of course, at once, to such an explanation of us. I have called upon you because I am the proprietor of this estate, to know how it is that you became in possession of it, and under what pretence you hold that possession?”
Mr. Shepherd slightly changed colour, and staggered back a pace or two before he said,—
“The property is mine, but I naturally decline to produce my title to any body who may ask for it. Thou mayest go, now; behind thee is the door.”
“Mr. Shepherd,” said Henry, “I am fully in a condition, as to means and evidence both, to prove my title to the estate, and an action of ejectment will soon force you from it; but I am unwilling, under any circumstances, to do what I fully may do if anything short of that will answer my purpose. I therefore give you fair notice, that if, upon my convincing you that I am the owner of the estate, you go out quietly within fourteen days, I will make no inquiry as to how long you have been here, and will say nothing whatever upon the subject of rental owing to me on account of such occupation.”
“I defy thee, friend,” said the Quaker; “and if thou givest me any trouble I shall put thee in Chancery, from whence thou wilt not get out for the term of thy natural life; so I give thee due notice, and thou mayest please thyself in the transaction; and again I tell thee the door is exactly behind thee, out of which I beg to request thou shouldest at once walk.”
“I tell you what, Mr. Quaker,” said the admiral, who had with difficulty restrained himself thus far, “I look upon you as one of the greatest humbugs ever I came across, and that’s saying a great deal, for in my time I have come across some thumpers; and if we don’t make you smart for this confounded obstinacy, you wolf in sheep’s clothing, we will know the reason why. If it costs me a thousand pounds I will make you suffer for it.”
“Thou mayest be damned, friend,” said the Quaker; “possession is a great number of points of the law, and, as I have it, I mean to keep it. I have a friend who is in the law, and who will put thee as comfortably in Chancery, and with as little expense to me as possible. This is a very charming estate, and I have not the slightest intention of giving it up.”
“But you must,” said Charles, “give it up to the right owner. How can you be so foolish as to run yourself to legal expenses for nothing?”
“Teach thy grandmother, young man, to suck eggs,” said the Quaker. “I wish thee all a remarkably good day, and thou mayest all return from whence thou camest, and hang thyselves, if thou pleasest, for all I care; and having made up my mind to live and die on this very pleasant property. I shall have to put thee all into Chancery.”
“Why, you canting thief!” said the admiral.
“Thou mayest be damned,” said the Quaker. “In speaking so to thee, I use the language which I am perfectly well aware thou wilt best understand; so I say unto thee again, thou mayest be damned. Obediah, show these sinners off the premises; and, should they refuse to go with that quickness that shall seem to be fitting and proper, thou mayest urge them on with divers kicks on their hinder persons, and thou mayest likewise call to thy aid, Towzer, the large dog, to bite singularly great mouthfuls out of them.”
The Quaker turned, and was walking in a very stately manner out of the room, when the admiral stepped forward, and exhilarated his movements with such a kick, that away he went as if he had been shot out of a gun.
“There, friend,” said the admiral, “since you seem found of kicking, I think that is a very good beginning. It strikes me you didn’t know who you had to deal with; and now, Mr. Obediah, it’s your turn, and we’ll manage Towzer when we get outside.”
“I thank thee all the same, friend,” said Obediah, “but would rather be excused.”
“Perhaps you would like your nose pulled instead, then?”
“No, friend, it is quite long enough already; and I shall take myself off to the lower regions of these premises forthwith.”
So saying, Obediah rushed from the room with great precipitancy, leaving, most certainly, the admiral and his party masters of the field; and although both Henry and Charles both disapproved of the assault which the admiral had committed, they could not interfere for laughing, and, as they left the house, which they did now of their own accord, Charles said,—
“Uncle, you may depend you will be pulled up to the quarter session.”
“Damn the quarter session!” said the admiral. “Do you think I was going to sit still, quietly, while that vagabond promised to kick me; but, as it is, it’s all up with coming to Dearbrook to live for one while to come; for, if he is really as good as his word, and puts the matter into Chancery, there’s an end of it. I have heard it’s like ducking in head foremost into a hollow tree, with a wasp’s nest at the bottom of it; you may kick, but I’ll be damned if you can get out.”
“Well,” said Henry, “I believe that’s rather an apt illustration; but we must do the best we can in such a case, and, in the meantime, seek out some other place to reside in. Your friend, the little lawyer in the town, shall have the case to conduct for us, and perhaps, after all, we shall defeat the Quaker sooner than you imagine.”
“I long to see the day come,” said the admiral, “when that fellow will have to troop out of the place; for, in all my life, I never did know such confounded impudence as he treated us with.”
“Never mind, never mind,” said Charles; “the time must come, of course, when this pleasant estate, to which we have taken such a fancy, will be ours; and, until then, we shall have no difficulty whatever in finding some sweet verdant spot, full of exquisite and natural beauties, which we can make a home of well and easily, caring nothing for being a short time only kept from possession of that which, of right, shall, in a short time, belong to us; and there is one thing that I am rejoiced at, which is, that Flora has not seen this place; so that she can have no regret about it, because she don’t know of its existence farther than by name, and it can hold no place in her imagination which could make it a subject matter of regret.”
When they reached the inn, they informed Mrs. Bannerworth and Flora of the ill success of their enterprise, and of the obstinacy of the tenant of the house; and on that evening they had a good laugh with each other about the little scene that had occurred between the admiral and the Quaker; so that, upon the whole, perhaps, they were quite as happy—for people can but laugh and be merry—as if they had at once got possession of the Dearbrook estate without any trouble or difficulty whatever.
They determined upon staying there for that night, although they might have got fresh horses and gone back, if it had pleased them so to do; but there was much to tempt them in the romantic scenery, around which they took a stroll, when it was lit up by the sweet moonlight, and everything came out in silvery relief, looking so beautiful and serene, so pensively quiet and so admirable, that it was calculated to draw the mind entirely from all thought of earthly matters, and to completely rid them of even the shadow of an annoyance connected with that Dearbrook property which was so wrongfully detained from them.
“It is at such seasons as this,” said Flora, “that contentment steals into the heart, and we really feel with how little we should be satisfied, provided it be sufficient to insure those ordinary comforts of existence which we all look for.”
“It is, indeed,” said Charles; “and you and I, Flora, would not repine if our lot had been much more humble than it is, provided Heaven had left us youth and love.”
“Those, indeed,” said Henry, “are dear possessions.”
“Well, then,” remarked the admiral, “you have got youth on your side, and I once knew a worse looking fellow than even you are; so why don’t you fall in love with somebody at once?”
“Don’t make so sure, uncle,” said Flora archly, “that he has not.”
The old admiral laughed—for he liked Flora to call him uncle, and said,—
“You shall tell me all about it, Flora, some day when we are alone; but not now, while these chaps are listening to every word we utter.”
“I will,” said Flora; “it’s a grand secret of Henry’s, which I am determined to tell.”
“That’s very unkind of you,” said Henry, “to say the least of it.”
“Not at all. If you had trusted me, Henry, it would be quite another thing; but as I found it out from my own natural sagacity, I cannot see that I am bound in the slightest to bestow upon you any consolation on account of it, or to shew you any mercy on the subject.”
“And she hopes,” said Charles, “that that will be a lesson to you to tell her upon another occasion everything whatever, without the slightest stint or hindrance.”
“I stand convicted,” said Henry; “and my only consolation is, that I don’t mind a straw the admiral knowing all about it, and I meant to tell him myself, as a matter of course.”
“Did you?” said the admiral; “that’s a very good attempt to get out of it; but it won’t answer exactly, Henry, with those who know better; so say no more.”
In such light and pleasant conversation they passed some time, until the chill night air, grateful and pleasant as it was to the senses, made them think it prudent to retire to the inn again.
After they had partaken of the evening meal, and Flora and Mrs. Bannerworth had retired to rest, the gentlemen sat up, at the express desire of the admiral, to talk over the affair upon which they were all in common so deeply interested.
A general feeling of anxiety evidently pervaded all their minds to ascertain something of the whereabouts or the fate of Varney, who had so very mysteriously taken himself off at a time when they least of all expected he would have executed such a manœuvre.
“You all see,” said the admiral, “that what is bred in the bone, as I told you, will never be out of the flesh; and this vampyre fellow could not possibly be quiet, you see, for long, but he must be at his old tricks.”
“I do not know,” said Charles Holland, “but I am rather inclined to think that he has somehow become aware that he had become rather a trouble to us, and so his pride, of which I think we have had evidence enough that he has a large share of, took the alarm; and he went off as quick as he could.”
“It may be so,” said Henry; “and, of course, in the absence of anything to the contrary, I feel inclined to give even Varney, the Vampyre, credit for as much purity of motive as I can.”
“That’s all very well, in its way,” said the admiral; “but you must acknowledge that he did not leave in the most polite manner in the world; and then I, for one, cannot exactly approve of his jumping upon Dr. Chillingworth’s back, from off a garden wall, as a cat would upon a mouse.”
“Be liberal, uncle,” said Charles, “and recollect that we are not quite sure it was Varney, for the doctor declines to be positive upon the subject, and he ought to know.”
“Stuff,” said the admiral; “the doctor knows well enough; but he is like the man that threatened to kick the other for laughing at his wife—he said he was sure he had done it, but if he had been d—d sure, he would have kicked him into the middle of next week.”
“Certainly,” said Charles, “the doctor seems quite clearly of opinion, that whoever committed that assault upon him, did so with a full knowledge of the worth of the picture, which he believes contained within its extra lining, bank notes to a large amount.”
“And which,” said Henry, “after all, is but a supposition, and Varney, after such an attempt to possess himself of such a treasure, if it was he that made it, may be actually now a houseless wanderer; but I consider that such has been the notoriety of his proceedings, that if he now attempts any vampyre tricks, he very soon will be discovered, and we shall hear of him.”
“From his own account,” said Charles Holland, “he has not been the most scrupulous person in the world with regard to the means by which he has, from time to time, recruited an exhausted exchequer; and we can easily imagine that this vampyre business of his would so terrify and paralyse people, that he would have little difficulty in robbing a house under such circumstances.”
“You may depend,” added Charles, “that he has done one of two things. He has either commenced a much more reckless career than ever he has yet attempted, or he has gone away completely into obscurity, and will never be heard of again. I sincerely myself hope that the latter is the case, for it will be better for him, and better for everybody connected with him.”
“Hang the fellow,” said the admiral; “I should not like him to starve, although he has given us so much trouble; and I hope that if anything very queer happens to him, he will not scruple to let us know, and he shall not positively want. But come, is it to be another tumbler a-piece, or to bed?”
Bed was voted, for such they knew was the admiral’s wish, or he never would have mentioned the alternative; and in the course of another half hour the whole of these persons, in whose fate we profess to have so profound an interest, were wrapped in repose.
We will now turn to a consideration of what this singular and mysterious Baron Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh was about, for that he has some ulterior objects in view, which, by no means, at present, shew themselves, we cannot doubt; and, likewise, there can be no question but that very shortly some of his views and projects will develop themselves.
