25. CHAPTER XXV.
On returning that night to his lodgings, Claude
found a letter from Denham. By a mischance it
had miscarried, it having been committed to the hand
of a gentleman who, on leaving London, had intended
to come directly to Berlin, but who had so altered
his route as to avoid visiting that city. The letter
reached Claude at last by the post from Vienna.
It was in reply to the one written in the commencement
of the winter, requesting information respecting
Elkington. It threw a new aspect over Claude's
affairs.
“As for Elkington,” thus the letter proceeds, “by
a peculiar chance I have been made acquainted with
some circumstances concerning him which ought to
be communicated to Count Carolan, and which I
beg you to do on my behalf, if you are reluctant to
do it on your own. You may then tell Count Carolan
that, if I had a daughter, a sister, or a young
female friend in the greatest destitution, I should
rather see her perish from the effects of want, than
to see her the wife of Lord Elkington. His father,
the Earl of Beverly, will scarcely admit him into
his presence, although he has but a partial knowledge
of his vices. He is a desperate gambler, and
there is a circumstance which happened between
him, two other gentlemen, and myself, which enables
me to assure you he is a cheat at cards. The cards
were sealed when he left the table, and examined
the next morning. It was clear, to the satisfaction
of all present, that he had marked them. We taxed
him with it. He was at first disposed to fight, and
made several attempts; but he had to deal with cool
and determined men, and he went abroad, and will
probably remain there till the affair has blown over.
This immunity was allowed him at the earnest entreaties
of the Earl of Beverly, who was informed
of the affair, and who declared to us, during an interview
which we had with him on the subject, that he
would disinherit him, if the estates were not entailed
to descend to the eldest son. He is also deeply
in debt, principally to gamblers and usurers.
“There is yet another circumstance. He won
the affections of a young girl, the daughter of a poor
officer, and a person of the purest character and extreme
loveliness. He only succeeded in obtaining
her confidence by a marriage which, I assure you,
was a real one, so that this interesting fellow has in
reality already a wife. On learning the affair, the
father called upon him, and demanded that his
daughter should be publicly acknowledged. Elkington
evaded him as long as he could; but the father—a
high-tempered old man—demanded satisfaction,
although his friends advised him to pursue legal
measures. Elkington met him, and at the first
shot the unhappy father fell. The daughter lost
her senses, and is now in a madhouse, where it is
probable she will not long survive. They had no
money, no friends; and the affair is hushed up, no
other notice being taken of it than the usual flippant
announcement in the newspaper, that `an affair
of honour had taken place yesterday morning
between Lord Elkington and Captain Atwood,
which, unfortunately, had a fatal termination; the
ball of his lordship, at the first fire, passing through
his opponent's head. We learn that the quarrel
originated in some attentions which his lordship had
paid to a young lady, a near relative of the deceased.
It is said that his lordship went reluctantly
into the field, and behaved with great coolness; and
that he felt the deepest regret that the choleric rashness
of his former friend rendered such a course inevitable.
His lordship, it is said, has started on a
tour to the Continent.'
“You may tell your friend Count Carolan these
circumstances, and he may give my name, if he
pleases, to Elkington, who knows well I do not fear
him, and that I have but to open my lips to blast
his name. This I would not do, except in a circumstance
like that you have informed me of; and
where he is about to marry into a family so distinguished
and so little acquainted with him, I readily
consent to put them on their guard.
“And now, having disposed of the profligate of
whom you inquire, let me add a few words respecting
myself. Since you left London I have become
a married man. You know the young lady; she
has no rank nor fortune, but she is all beauty and
sweetness, and looks up to me with respect and gratitude,
as well as affection. She has nothing on earth.
Her father is a poor clergyman—one of the best and
most delightful of men. He has given her a perfect
education. You know I have no property but the
life annuity bequeathed to me by my eccentric uncle,
who hated the marriage state so much, because
he happened to be afflicted with a bad wife himself,
that he wished, by this manner of bequeathing his
fortune, to discourage me from forming any matrimonial
alliance. I am worth, therefore, £1000 a
year till the day of my death, when my beloved wife,
and whatever family Providence may bless us with,
will be left with only the amount of savings which
we can put by from our current expenses. Notwithstanding
these inducements to economy, we are
coming abroad in the spring, and we mean to take
Berlin in our way.”
