"Well?" says he.
And "Well," I began, but found myself unable to go further.
"You tell me she is here?" said he again, but now with a spice of
impatience that seemed to brace me up.
"She is in this house," said I, "and I knew the circumstance would
be called unusual. But you are to consider how very unusual the
whole business was from the beginning. Here is a young lady landed
on the coast of Europe with two shillings and a penny halfpenny.
She is directed to yon man Sprott in Helvoet. I hear you call him
your agent. All I can say is he could do nothing but damn and
swear at the mere mention of your name, and I must fee him out of
my own pocket even to receive the custody of her effects. You
speak of unusual circumstances, Mr. Drummond, if that be the name
you prefer. Here was a circumstance, if you like, to which it was
barbarity to have exposed her."
"But this is what I cannot understand the least," said James. "My
daughter was placed into the charge of some responsible persons,
whose names I have forgot." "Gebbie was the name," said I; "and
there is no doubt that Mr. Gebbie should have gone ashore with her
at Helvoet. But he did not, Mr. Drummond; and I think you might
praise God that I was there to offer in his place."
"I shall have a word to say to Mr. Gebbie before long," said he.
"As for yourself, I think it might have occurred that you were
somewhat young for such a post."
"But the choice was not between me and somebody else, it was
between me and nobody," cried I. "Nobody offered in my place, and
I must say I think you show a very small degree of gratitude to me
that did."
"I shall wait until I understand my obligation a little more in the
particular," says he.
"Indeed, and I think it stares you in the face, then," said I.
"Your child was deserted, she was clean flung away in the midst of
Europe, with scarce two shillings, and not two words of any
language spoken there: I must say, a bonny business! I brought
her to this place. I gave her the name and the tenderness due to a
sister. All this has not gone without expense, but that I scarce
need to hint at. They were services due to the young lady's
character which I respect; and I think it would be a bonny business
too, if I was to be singing her praises to her father."
"You are a young man," he began.
"So I hear you tell me," said I, with a good deal of heat.
"You are a very young man," he repeated, "or you would have
understood the significancy of the step."
"I think you speak very much at your ease," cried I. "What else
was I to do? It is a fact I might have hired some decent, poor
woman to be a third to us, and I declare I never thought of it
until this moment! But where was I to find her, that am a
foreigner myself? And let me point out to your observation, Mr.
Drummond, that it would have cost me money out of my pocket. For
here is just what it comes to, that I had to pay through the nose
for your neglect; and there is only the one story to it, just that
you were so unloving and so careless as to have lost your
daughter."
"He that lives in a glass house should not be casting stones," says
he; "and we will finish inquiring into the behaviour of Miss
Drummond before we go on to sit in judgment on her father."
"But I will be entrapped into no such attitude," said I. "The
character of Miss Drummond is far above inquiry, as her father
ought to know. So is mine, and I am telling you that. There are
but the two ways of it open. The one is to express your thanks to
me as one gentleman to another, and to say no more. The other (if
you are so difficult as to be still dissatisfied) is to pay me,
that which I have expended and be done."
He seemed to soothe me with a hand in the air. "There, there,"
said he. "You go too fast, you go too fast, Mr. Balfour. It is a
good thing that I have learned to be more patient.