Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

12 D AND
" Do yon ever think it all through ? " sho said one day to
Prt "
r. Do you ever think how few human attachments
i have any right to, arid what such u state should do for
you?"
" "
I r.m freo to serve God. answered Peter. " 1 Fre: to do a
little good for His dour sake ;
get there very early on a summer morning, he would serve
Mass as it' he had never left the village and was still a young
buy. On such days he would enjoy a ramble down the sands,
staudi: g still for a moment's thought where the pile of rocks
stoo.i, beneath the shelter i f which he had been washed ashore,
tcarred and bruised, but saved for a good lile by the will of
God. He would then visit old friends. He would have tobacco
for one, a packet of ten for a: other, smiles and happy words
for nil. Old Mrs. Koper lived now with Mary Gardener, in
'. th pretty house which had long been Peter's home. James
GarJeuer had prospen d ; prospered wonderf lly. He had
taken a house at Treddingtou, near Mr. Bloomfleld's coal-
stor s he was in partnership with Mr. Bloomfield and his
eiskr, Mrs. Mills, he had placed in his new house to keep it,
and 1 ok after the counting-house; to keep all clean and t^afe,
and be a Useful matronly help to Mr. Bloomfield and his
daughter. Helen Bloomfield was in a dress-maker's house.
She lived there. But when her father could have her at the
hoiue near the coal-stores she went gladly, and many a happy
Lour did she pass with him, Mrs. Mills acting as her friend in
many ways, and growing very fond of Helen. It pleased Mrs.
Willis to lin.l James Gardener prosper so well, and grow rich
so speedily. Her rooms were gay with flowers from Penwarne,
and she made hi r brother's bargains with the fruit-shops at
Treduiuptou, aid proved herself to be a valuab e steward to
him i i such matters. James Gardener lived in the gardener's
c ttage at I'enwarne. He had the gardens in his own hands,
and made money by them.
Penwarne House had been let for the last two years.
T':e heir had come to England and visited Mr. Benuet. He
had looked over Penwarne, and pronounced the mansion to
be too large for his own occupation. He had said that it re-
quired a man of fortune to live in it, and keep up everything
properly. And > it had been kt to a wealthy tenant, who
as Mr. Cleverly disliked all trouble, and wished to make the
term of his tenancy easy and c >mf ortable, he let the first arrangement
go on with James Gardener, and himself purchased the
fruit and ! vegetab es required for the house.
A snia 1 greenhouse a, d g.r en were kept apart for Mrs.
Cle verly's pleasure, and James was paid for keeping them ia
order. It turned out to be a very profitable arrangement.
James Gardener enter* d into many very paying speculations
; not o. ly in pl.nts, shrubs, and trees, but in buying
ai.d selling timber. He had built some small houses, bought
land, 1. 1 it cut at high rents as cottage gardens, and, being liberal
wi:h labor, gilts of s.eds, and valuable advice, he became
a very popular landlord. It was evident that he was growi'ig
rapi )y rich, and people began to wonder where the money
came from.
Then it was said that James Gardener had been a saving
man all his life, and had wisely kept his money safe till he
: i f >:m t i:iv stments making sure, speedy and rica returns.
Aad James was happy. He loved money with all his soul.
CHAPTER H.
Peter Sands did not lead a dull life at Treddington. The la-
free to be thankful, a id to count
"
dies in whose house he lodged saw many fr: i (hey t.11
got to know and like Peter. Mr. Breward.
so thoroughly well conducted, and so entirely to be depended
upon, introduced him to many persons whose acquaintance was
a credit to him.
He had another and d very powerful reason for making Pe-
up His gifts, mid tn s y after "
every reckoning, God alone !
Such was Pet. r Hands t f .IT these three years. And now let
ns look fit cur other friends a; d acquaintances.
Fa. her Joseph's hair was grayer, and ho stooped a little-
In all other thin s to outward eyes he was just the same.
Pete* used to get to Penwarne, occasionally, and if he could
ter known to persons whom he valued : he did it for the sake of
Frederick Drake. He wished Peter to influenced his nephew.
Though Drake was not a Catholic he was one to acknowledge
merit, and to distinguish good from evil, and he liked Peter.
They had become close friends befoio this three years of Peter's
residence in Treddington had run out ;
but th:s friendship
bore sorrowful fruit often, and Peter was often sad about Fred
Drake. The young man was in Mr. Bennet's office. He was
clever enough, oi' a lively disposition, and fond of socie'.y. In
fact he was too fond of company, and he liked the society of
those who flatttred him. This evil had taken deep root in
Fred's heart before he knew Peter. On knowing him he felt a
longing f r his praise ; but though he found his new acquaintance
a cheerful educated companion, he did not get from him
that wordy praise which his heart hungered after.
It was not a good youth's real heartfelt approbation that
Drake craved after ; what he enjoyed was praise; the incense of
flattery was dear to him ; he would do anything to get it. He
was the victim of self-love.
But there was, nevertheless, a great deal of good in Frederick
Drake.
Talking, boastful, conceited, worldly company
had made
him what he was. He knew that he should be what his small
world called quite a rich man in a few years' time, and so he
worked only just enough to keep his place and avoid Mr. BLII-
net's displeasure ; and he put no heart into his work at all.
Peter was too modest a youth to be over ready with advice ;
but even Peter took Fred to task at last. And, in fact, up in
that glass-roofed bower which Peter had on the roof of Miss
Lance's house, they once got quite angry over it. Frederick
said that he was then twenty-two, and that he had been a petted
boy, and had begun life late that he had ; very large expectations
from the coal company, in which his late father's shuie
was of considerable value, and he thought that he t.) ought
have been placed in the office of the coal business, and not at
Mr. Bennet's. Also, he thoug .t that there had been a great
injustice in postponing his coming of age till he was twentyfive.
'
I ought to have had it all now," he said angrily. T^is
was equally kind to Catholics
to Father Joseph.
and Protestants, and very civil
Mrs. Kop.r and Mary Gardener wash' d for the mansion, and
was Fred Drake's view of his position.
On the other side, Peter pleaded in this way
that he had
bern brought up to the profession of a gentleman ; that the
coal-merchants, in whose firm his father had been, had made
their own bargain when Fred was an infant in his mother's
arms, and that they had not wanted his services as -a boy.
That, ever since his father's death, three hundred a year had
been received from the firm, of which two hundred a year had
been used to pay off the principal and interest of money borrowed
on that security to pay off
these debts would be paid in
his father's d^bts, and that
three years' time, when Fred
wou'd either go into the business himself or receive s ven
thousand pounds, at the option of the members of the firm.
"You will," concluded Peter, "be, at twenty-five, a member
of a go:id profession, with a fortune of seven thousand pounds,
no one having lost a farthing by your father, and yourself be-
ing uninjured."
When Peter, on this memorable snmmer evening, said this,
Fred
"
laughed Which is all you know about it," said Fred.
But Peter reminded Fred that he could not help knowing
the truth ; in his posi.ion, trusted in various ways by Mr.
Breward, lie h:.dlieeu told the circumstances, and made familiar
"
with the accounts. You know this," he said.
" And do you suppose I have lived on the beggarly allow-