Our American Cousin - Tom Taylor (books for new readers txt) 📗

wiper. Exit, L. 1 E. Mr. Coyle And now to show this pompous baronet the precipice on which he stands. Enter Murcott, with green bag and papers. Mr. Coyle Are you sober, sirrah? Murcott Yes, Mr. Coyle. Mr. Coyle Then see you keep so. Abel Murcott I’ll do my best, sir. But, oh! do tell them to keep liquor out of my way. I can’t keep from it now, try as I will, and I try hard enough, God help me! Mr. Coyle Pshaw! Get out those mortgages and the letters from my London agent. Murcott takes papers from bag and places them on table. Mr. Coyle looks off, R. 1 E. So; here comes Sir Edward. Go, but be within call. I may want you to witness a signature. Abel Murcott I will sir. Aside. I must have brandy, or my hand will not be steady enough to write. Exit, L. 1 E. Enter Sir Edward Trenchard, R. 1 E. Mr. Coyle bows. Sir Edward Trenchard Good morning, Mr. Coyle, good morning. With affected ease. There is a chair, Mr. Coyle. They sit. So you see those infernal tradespeople are pretty troublesome. Mr. Coyle My agent’s letter this morning announces that Walter and Brass have got judgement and execution on their amount for repairing your town house last season. Refers to papers. Boquet and Barker announce their intention of taking this same course with the wine account. Handmarth is preparing for a settlement of his heavy demand for the stables. Then there is Temper for pictures and other things and Miss Florence Trenchard’s account with Madame Pompon, and⁠— Sir Edward Trenchard Confound it, why harass me with details, these infernal particulars? Have you made out the total? Mr. Coyle Four thousand, eight hundred and thirty pounds, nine shillings and sixpence. Sir Edward Trenchard Well, of course we must find means of settling this extortion. Mr. Coyle Yes, Sir Edward, if possible. Sir Edward Trenchard If possible? Mr. Coyle I, as your agent, must stoop to detail, you must allow me to repeat, if possible. Sir Edward Trenchard Why, you don’t say there will be any difficulty in raising the money? Mr. Coyle What means would you suggest, Sir Edward. Sir Edward Trenchard That, sir, is your business. Mr. Coyle A foretaste in the interest on the Fanhille and Ellenthrope mortgages, you are aware both are in the arrears, the mortgagees in fact, write here to announce their intentions to foreclose. Shows papers. Sir Edward Trenchard Curse your impudence, pay them off. Mr. Coyle How, Sir Edward? Sir Edward Trenchard Confound it, sir, which of us is the agent? Am I to find you brains for your own business? Mr. Coyle No, Sir Edward, I can furnish the brains, but what I ask of you is to furnish the money. Sir Edward Trenchard There must be money somewhere, I came into possession of one of the finest properties in Hampshire only twenty-six years ago, and now you mean to tell me I cannot raise 4,000 pounds? Mr. Coyle The fact is distressing, Sir Edward, but so it is. Sir Edward Trenchard There’s the Ravensdale property unencumbered. Mr. Coyle There, Sir Edward, you are under a mistake. The Ravensdale property is deeply encumbered, to nearly its full value. Sir Edward Trenchard Springing up. Good heavens. Mr. Coyle I have found among my father’s papers a mortgage of that very property to him. Sir Edward Trenchard To your father! My father’s agent? Mr. Coyle Yes, bearing date the year after the great contested election for the county, on which the late Sir Edward patriotically spent sixty thousand pounds for the honor of not being returned to Parliament. Sir Edward Trenchard A mortgage on the Ravensdale estate. But it must have been paid off, Mr. Coyle, Anxiously have you looked for the release or the receipt? Mr. Coyle Neither exists. My father’s sudden death explains sufficiently. I was left in ignorance of the transaction, but the seals on the deed and the stamps are intact, here it is, sir. Shows it. Sir Edward Trenchard Sir, do you know that if this be true I am something like a beggar, and your father something like a thief. Mr. Coyle I see the first plainly, Sir Edward, but not the second. Sir Edward Trenchard Do you forget sir, that your father was a charity boy, fed, clothed by my father? Mr. Coyle Well, Sir Edward? Sir Edward Trenchard And do you mean to tell me, sir, that your father repaid that kindness by robbing his benefactor? Mr. Coyle Certainly not, but by advancing money to that benefactor when he wanted it, and by taking the security of one of his benefactor’s estates, as any prudent man would under the circumstances. Sir Edward Trenchard Why, then, sir, the benefactor’s property is yours. Mr. Coyle Pardon me, the legal estate you have your equity of redemption. You have only to pay the money and the estate is yours as before. Sir Edward Trenchard How dare you, sir, when you have just shown me that I cannot raise five hundred pounds in the world. Oh! Florence, why did I not listen to you when you warned me against this man? Mr. Coyle Aside. Oh! she warned you, did she? Aloud. I see one means, at least, of keeping the Ravensdale estate in the family. Sir Edward Trenchard What is it? Mr. Coyle By marrying your daughter to the mortgagee. Sir Edward Trenchard To you? Mr. Coyle I am prepared to settle the estate on Miss Trenchard the day she becomes Mrs. Richard Coyle. Sir Edward Trenchard Springing up. You insolent scoundrel, how dare you insult me in my own house, sir. Leave it, sir, or I will have you kicked out by my servants. Mr. Coyle I never take an angry man at his word, Sir Edward. Give a few moments reflection to my offer, you can have me kicked out afterwards. Sir Edward Trenchard Pacing stage. A beggar, Sir Edward Trenchard a beggar, see my children reduced to labor for their bread, to misery perhaps; but the alternative, Florence detests him, still the match would save her, at least, from ruin. He might take the family name, I might retrench, retire, to the continent for a few years. Florence’s health might serve as a pretence. Repugnant as the alternative is, yet it deserves consideration. Mr. Coyle