it was twenty-four hours before the brothers met to consult over their darkened prospects. their mother could kiss and weep over them, but she was not the kind of woman to direct or guide her boys. such faint idea as she had in her mind was of a kind which would have entirely defeated their father’s purpose. ‘never mind, my darling boy,’ she had said soothingly to her eldest son, though he was already a bearded man, with the stern renton lines of resolution about his mouth. the poor little woman knew no better than to console him as if he had lost a toy. ‘we can go on living at renton all the same. i shall only have you so much the longer. we shall only want a little more economy, my dear,’ she said. ‘perhaps that was what your dear papa meant. he knew how lonely i would be. why can’t we all live together as we have done? i have enough for you all by my settlement, and i am to keep renton; and when the seven years are past, it will be quite time enough to think of marrying. {33}i should not be against you travelling——or anything, ben, my dear boy,’ the poor mother added faltering, seeing the sternness on his face.

‘no, mother dear,’ said her son. ‘no. what you have is for yourself. we shall all come to see you; but we are not such mean creatures as to live on you. besides, that was not what he meant.’

‘then what did he mean?’ said mrs. renton. ‘oh, boys, that i should be driven to blame your dear papa! what could he mean if it was not to keep you a little longer with me?’

‘he meant to put us on our mettle,’ said laurie; ‘and he was right. we would be a set of sad lazy fellows if we stayed on here. we’ll come and see you, mamma, as ben says. don’t cry. we none of us want to marry, thank heaven!—at least,’ said laurie, thoughtfully, ‘i hope so; that complication is spared at least.’

‘dear boys, it is so much better you should not marry too soon,’ said mrs. renton, drying her soft eyes. ‘he must have been thinking of that. oh, believe me, ben, my own boy, it will turn out all for the best.’

‘yes, mother,’ said ben, with the sigh of submission perforce, and he went away with his own thoughts; laurie followed him after a little interval; and frank, upon whom the shock had fallen more lightly, stayed with his mother to amuse and cheer her. but they all met in the library in the afternoon{34} to have a consultation over their fate. they were brothers in misfortune,—a bond almost as strong as that of nature. it hurt their pride to go over the ground with any other creature, even their mother, who could not refrain from a hundred suggestions as to their father’s meaning. but among themselves they were safe, and could speak freely, with the consciousness of having the same meaning, the same impulse, the same pride. they never discussed the will, but accepted it proudly, owing it to themselves, as their father’s sons, to make no question. already their hearts had risen a little from the blank depression of the previous night. it was frank who was the first to speak.

‘i tell you what i shall do,’ he said with the rapid decision of youth. frank had never been thought clever, though he was reasonable and high-spirited; and, consequently, the decision to him was a less complicated business. ‘i shall exchange into the line, and go to india if i can. more fun,’ said the young soldier, trying hard for his old gaiety, though there was still the gleam of a tear in his eye, ‘and better pay.’

‘well, that is easily settled,’ said laurie; ‘and i think very sensible too. only one thing we ought to think of. whatever the others may decide upon, let one of us always be at hand for the sake of my poor mother. he always took such care of her. she wants{35} to have one of us to refer to. we might take it in turns, you know—’

‘all right,’ said frank, to whom, if he carried out his own plan, such a turn would be simply impossible; but the boy did not think of that. as for ben, he was very hard at work considering his own problem, and knitting his brows.

‘we are like the three princes in the fairy tales,’ said laurie, ‘sent out to find,—what?—a shawl that will pass through a ring, or a little dog in a nutshell. that was to decide which should reign, though. i hope our probation does not include so much.’

‘i have made up my mind it does,’ said ben, with a darker contraction of his brows; ‘it would be unmeaning else. when the seven years are over we shall be judged according to our works. it’s rather a startling realisation, you know.’

‘old fellow,’ said laurie hastily, ‘of course i stand up for my father’s will through thick and thin; but, will or no will, you know frank and me too well to think either of us would ever take your place.’

‘i should hope so,’ said young frank, leaning half over the table in his eagerness. ‘ben can’t think us such cads as that.’

‘i don’t think you cads,’ said ben; ‘but i shall stand by the will, whatever it is. i’ll fight for my birthright, of course; but since we are placed in this{36} position, laurie, it’s of no use talking. he that wins must have. i shall stand by that.’

‘well,’ said laurence, ‘it is easy to tell which is most like to win; so we need not dispute about it beforehand. the thing in the meantime is,—what to do? i wonder how the fellow set to work who had the ten talents. as for me, i am the unlucky soul with one. you need not say psha! so impatiently. we have got into the midst of the parables, and may as well take example——’

‘the question is,’ said ben, ‘not what we have got into the midst of, but what you mean to do?’

laurie shrugged his shoulders. ‘it is a great deal easier to talk than to do anything else,’ he said, ‘for me at least. i suppose i must take to art. you need not tell me i have no genius,’ he added, with a slight flush. ‘i know that well enough. but what else can i take to? moralising is not a trade; or at least if it is, it’s overstocked; and i can’t moralise on paper. i must go in for illustrations and that sort of thing. undignified, perhaps, but how can i help it? there is nothing else i can do.’

‘a fellow with a university education, and as good blood in his veins as any in england,’ said ben, with a little impatience, ‘might surely do better than that.’

‘what good will my blood do me?’ said laurie. ‘get me a few invitations, perhaps. and as for a university education,—i might take pupils, if i had not forgotten most of what i’ve learned; or i might{37} take orders; or i might go and eat my terms at the temple. and what would any of these three things do for me? fellows that have meant it all their lives would, of course, do better than a fellow who never meant it till now. no; i have a little taste for art, if i have not much talent. i might turn picture-dealer, perhaps. don’t look so black, ben. a man must make use of what faculty he has.’

after that there was a pause, for laurie did not care to put the same inquiry which he had just answered, to his elder brother. and ben did not volunteer any information about the part he meant to take. ben could not evaporate in talk, as laurie could. he could not make up his mind to his fate, and adapt himself to circumstances. though his pride had forbidden him any struggle against his father’s will, yet in his heart he was embittered against his father. there was injustice in it. of course, he repeated to himself, fellows who had meant it all their lives must do better than fellows who only began to mean it in necessity. laurie was right so far. and under this frightful disadvantage their father, of his own will, had placed them. frank had a profession, and might be not much the worse. but ben himself had been brought up to be heir of renton. his heart grew hard within him as he thought it all over. it seemed to him that if he had known it from the beginning he would not have cared. he would have gone in for anything,—what{38} did it matter?—professional work, or trade, or anything, so long as he started fair, and had the same advantages as his neighbours. now he must thrust himself into something which was already full of legitimate competitors. he sat and looked into the flame of the lamp, and took no notice of his brothers. but their fate added an aggravation to his own. frank was not so bad; it made less difference to frank than to any of them. an officer in a marching regiment was as good a gentleman as a guardsman. but laurie a poor artist, and himself he could not tell what! the thought galled him to the heart.

‘and, ben, what shall you do?’ said frank. ‘we have told you, and you ought to tell us. i don’t suppose you mean to stay on with mamma. what shall you do?’

‘i don’t know,’ said ben, with a sudden descent into the depths of despondency. he had almost wept as he spoke. one had his profession, the other at least a taste, if nothing more. poor ben, the first-born, had no speciality. he might have been a political man, with a hand in the government of his country, or he might have been a farmer, or he might have gone to calcutta, as dick westbury had done; whereas, now, at five-and-twenty, he could not tell what to do.

‘never mind, you’ll do the best of us all;—you were always the cleverest of us all,’ said frank, shocked at his brother’s dejected looks; and then it{39} flashed across them what their father had said, that it would be most hard upon ben.

‘it is you who have the ten talents,’ said laurie, ‘and frank has the five; and you will go away one to your farm, and the other to your merchandise,—isn’t that how the story runs?—while i am left with one in my napkin. or, if that is too serious for you, let’s take it on the other side. but whatever you do, beware of the old woman whom we are all sure to meet as we set out, who will ask us to help her, and give us three gifts. i shall keep a very sharp look out for that old woman,’ said laurie, breaking the spell of stillness, and getting up, ‘laugh at it? yes, i am trying to laugh a little. would you rather i should cry?’ he said, turning upon his brother, with tears glistening in his eyes. it was a question which it would be. they were all at this point, standing upon the alternative, between such poor laughter as might be possible and bitter tears.

all this sad and wonderful overthrow had come from mrs. westbury’s indiscreet taunts to her brother upon the up-bringing of his sons. if that could have been any comfort to them, their aunt lydia was very miserable. they had never allowed her to finish her confession, and her heart was very sore over the injustice that had been done them. that same night she stole to ben’s door, and would have wept over him had that been possible. she was not an unkind or hard-hearted woman. it had{40} been a kind of pleasure to her to contrast her nephews’ idleness with the renton traditions; but she was a true renton, strong in her sense of justice, and there was nothing she would not have done for them now.

‘ben, let me speak to you,’ she said. ‘i did not mean it,—far from that, heaven knows! i wish my tongue had been cut out first. i know it would go against you to admit such a thing if any one else said it; but, ben, your father could not have been in his right senses. he never could have done it, if he had known.’

‘it is a question i can’t discuss with you, aunt lydia,’ said ben, standing at the open door and barring her entrance. ‘i think you are mistaken. i don’t think it could be anything you said.’

‘ben, i know it!’ said mrs. westbury. ‘i could not be mistaken. let me come in, and i will tell you. it was done on friday, and that unfortunate conversation was on thursday night. he was very snappish to poor laurie when we went back to the lawn;—but, oh, if i could have known what was to follow it! ben, i must come in and speak to you; i have a great deal to say. you know, there is our dick——’

‘yes,’ said ben. he had to let her in, though he did it with an ill grace. he placed his easy-chair for her, and stood leaning against the table, to hear what she had to say. he would not countenance or encourage her to remain by sitting down, but{41} stood with his candle in his hand, a most unwilling host.

‘you are angry with me,’ said aunt lydia, ‘and you have reason. but what i want to say is about dick. if your father had made this move at the right time, it is you who should have gone to calcutta, ben. you have the best right. my boy only went, as it were, to fill your place; and he ought to give it up to you now. of course it was to my brother he owed the appointment. i don’t say dick should come home; but he has made some money and some friends; and, i think he might do something for himself still, in another way, instead of taking your place.’

‘it is nonsense to call it my place,’ said ben.

‘i don’t think it is nonsense; for my part, i think of justice,’ said mrs. westbury. ‘it would have been yours had you been sent off six or seven years ago, as you ought to have been. yes, i say as you ought to have been, ben, like all the rentons. none of us were ever fine gentlemen. the men always worked before they took their ease, and the women always managed and saved in our house; but you should not be turned out now, when you were not brought up to it. ben, my brother was very cross to me that thursday night. it was not him, poor fellow, it was illness that was working on him. he was not in his right mind; and the will ought to be broken.{42}’

‘i can’t have you say this,’ said ben. ‘i can’t let anybody say it. aunt lydia, we had better not discuss the question. we have all made up our minds to my father’s will, such as it is.’

‘then you are very foolish boys,’ said mrs. westbury; ‘when i, who would stand up for him in reason or out of reason, tell you so! your father’s good name is of as much consequence to me as it is to you. there never was a renton like that before; but still if it was to stand in the way of justice——! and about dick. you ought to write to him at once, to tell him he is to look out for something else for himself, and that you mean to take your own place.’

‘i shall never go to calcutta,’ said ben shortly.

‘then what will you do?’ said his aunt. ‘you can’t live on two hundred a-year,—at least you were never meant to live on it,—you know that. and you can’t live on your mother. unless you are going out to india what are you to do?’

‘i shall find something to do,’ said ben briefly; and then he softened a little. ‘i know you mean to be kind,’ he said. ‘i am sure you always meant to be kind; but i can’t do any of the things you propose. i can neither question my father’s will, nor live on my mother, nor turn out dick. let him make the best of it. i should think he had got the worst over now. and don’t blame yourself. i don’t think you were to blame. there must have been{43} some foundation to work on in my father’s thoughts; and it is done; and i will never try to undo it. we must all make the best of it now. will you do one thing to please me, aunt lydia? let mary be with my mother as much as you can spare her. she will feel it when we are all gone.’

‘i will do anything you please,’ said mrs. westbury, melted to tears. ‘oh, to think i should have done you so much harm, and be so powerless to do you any good! but, ben, you have not told me what you are going to do?’

‘because i don’t know,’ said ben abruptly. he could not come to any decision. his aunt left him reluctantly when they had reached this point, thinking, notwithstanding her compunction, or perhaps in consequence of it, that if his petition about mary meant any special regard for her, she would not hesitate to give him her child. ‘he will make his way,’ she said to herself; ‘he will make his way.’ it was because he was a little hard and stern in his downfall that she thought so well of him; and her feelings were very different as she went prowling through the passages in her dressing-gown to knock at laurie’s door. poor laurie! nobody entertained any such confidence about him.

when mrs. westbury paused at laurie’s door he was seated with his head buried in his hands before his table, on which lay the ruins, so to speak, of various youthful hopes. though he had said so con{44}fidently that none of them wanted to marry, yet there were one or two notes on the table before him, in a woman’s hand, which he had been looking over, poor boy, with a certain tightening of his heart. and there were hopes too of another kind; plans for travel, plans for such study as suited his mind, which it had been his delight to form for some time past, and which he had so little doubt of persuading his father to let him carry out. his little maps and calculations lay before him, all huddled together. that chapter of his life was over. he could smile at the change when they were all together, to help the others to bear it; but grief, and disappointment, and downfall, all fell upon him with additional force when he was alone. his eyes were wet when he sprang up at aunt lydia’s summons, and shouted a ‘come in,’ which was as cheerful as he could make it, sweeping his papers away as he did so into the open drawer of his table. he thought it was one of his brothers, perhaps ben, come to get some comfort from his lighter heart. when mrs. westbury came in he was taken aback, poor fellow; but laurie was too tender-hearted to be anything but kind to his aunt. he cast down a heap of books, which were occupying the most comfortable seat in the room, and made a place for her, glad to turn away his face for the moment and conceal the tears in his eyes; but those tears would not be concealed. they kept springing up again, though he kept them from falling;{45} and though he smiled, and began cheerfully, ‘well, aunt lydia?’ there was a sufficiently melancholy tone in both voice and face.

‘we shall be going away to-morrow, laurie,’ said mrs. westbury, ‘and i could not go without speaking to you. oh, what a week this has been! when i think that it was only last thursday night——’

‘don’t speak of it, please,’ said laurie; ‘one has need of all one’s strength. it is bad enough, but we must make the best of it. i wish you were not going away. i thought mary would stay with my mother. how is she to get on when we are all gone?’

‘i might leave mary for a little,’ said mrs. westbury, doubtfully; ‘and then we shall be close by at the cottage, where your mother can send for us when she pleases. ah, laurie, if you had only had a sister of your own!’

‘if we had only had a great many things!’ said laurie, with an attempt at a smile; ‘but, as for that, mary is as good as a sister. i never knew the difference. i think she is the best creature in the world.’

‘yes,’ said aunt lydia, looking at him keenly, with an inspection very different from her manner to ben; ‘she is a good girl; but you always used to quarrel, laurie. i did not think she was so much to you.’

‘she always thought me a good-for-nothing fellow,’ said laurie, with a little laugh, ‘like most other peo{46}ple. i must show you now, if i can, that i’ve got some mettle in me. but, aunt lydia, you have not come to say good-bye?’

‘no,’ said mrs. westbury; and then she made a pause. ‘i can’t rest, laurie; i can’t keep quiet and see you all in trouble,—when it is my fault!’

‘that is nonsense,’ said laurence decidedly. ‘you may be quite sure it had been turning over in his mind for some time; and quite right, too,’ the young man added bravely. ‘how could we ever have known what stuff we were made of else? if there is any good in being a renton, as you have so often told us, now is the time for it to show.’

‘oh, laurie,’ said his aunt, weeping, ‘that is what breaks my heart. ‘you have not a chance now, with the up-bringing you have had, and your poor mother’s soft ways,—not a chance! if my brother had only thought in time. this will could never stand if it was brought into a court of justice. he could not be in his right mind. ben would not listen to me when i said so; but i must speak to you.’

‘you shall speak to me as much as you like,’ said laurie, with his mother’s soft ways, ‘but not on that subject. it is sacred for us, whatever other people may think. and, after all, you know,’ he said, with a smile, ‘it is but for seven years. i shall only be about thirty at the end of the trial;—quite a boy!’

‘quite a boy!’ said aunt lydia, very seriously; ‘but still i can’t bear it. and, laurie, though you{47} are the least like a renton of any of them, i have always been the fondest of you!’

‘thanks, dear aunt,’ said the young man, and he kissed her, and led her half resisting to her own room. ‘all this excitement and want of rest will upset you,’ he said to her tenderly; ‘and, aunt lydia, don’t say anything to frank.’

laurie went back to his musings and his papers when she had made him this promise;—and mrs. westbury had a good cry over the whole miserable business. ‘upset me!’ she said to herself, ‘as if i was a woman like his mother to be upset! oh, if i could but do anything for these poor boys!’

but at the same time she was glad in her heart that laurie thought of mary only as his sister. a mother has to consider everything; and that could never have been,—though it was a different thing with ben.

these preliminaries, being told, and the singular and unexpected nature of this family crisis fully explained, the historian of the renton family feels justified in proceeding with this narrative of the fortunes of the three boys, and their adventures in the big changed world, upon which they were launched so abruptly. they all left the manor together on a sultry september day, just the day on which, under other circumstances, they would have been off to shoot grouse or to climb mont blanc. their mourning prevented such invitations as even in their changed fortune they would{48} certainly have received, and the shock was so fresh on all of them that pleasure-making of any kind would have been impossible. they went out as if they had been put to sea, each man in his own bark, with no very sure compass or chart to rely on, and with minds braced high by resolution, but altogether unprepared for the trial, and unaccustomed to the labour. perhaps it was as well for them that their ideas were so utterly vague and undefined touching the rocks and shoals and dangerous passages that lay in their way.