Chapter 10

_A Plain Chamber._

_Enter_ DERRIC VAN SLAUS.(46)

DERRIC.

Should the present application fail, I am a ruined man; all my speculations will be frustrated, and my duplicity exposed; yes, the dissipation of my son must inevitably prove his ruin as well as mine. To supply his wants, the public money has been employed; and, if unable to replace it, heaven knows what may be the consequence. But my son is now placed with an able advocate in New York, and should he pursue the right path, there may be still hopes of his reformation.

HERMAN.

[_Without._] My father, you say, is this way?

DERRIC.

What voice is that; my son? What can have recalled him thus suddenly? Some new misadventure.—Oh, my forboding thoughts!

_Enter_ HERMAN.

DERRIC.

Herman, what brings you back? Are all my cautions thus lightly regarded, that they can take no hold upon your conduct?

HERMAN.

You have good cause for warmth, sir, but learn the reason of my disobedience, ere you condemn. Business of importance has urged me hither—such as concerns us both most intimately.

DERRIC.

Some fresh extravagance, no doubt, to drain my little left, and set a host of creditors loose upon me.

HERMAN.

Not so, sir, but the reverse. List! you know our neighbour, Rip Van Winkle?

DERRIC.

Know him? Aye, his idleness is proverbial; you have good cause to recollect him too, since ’twas by his courage your life was preserved, when attacked by the famished wolf.

HERMAN.

He has a daughter scarcely seven years old; now, the attorney whom I serve has been employed to draw up the will and settle the affairs of this girl’s aunt, who, for some slight offered by Van Winkle, has long since discarded the family. At her death, the whole of her immense wealth, in cash and land, is the inheritance of the girl, who is, at this moment, the richest presumptive heiress in the land.

DERRIC.

What connection can Van Winkle’s fortune have with ours?

HERMAN.

Listen! Were it possible to procure his signature to a contract that his daughter, when of age, should be married to me, on this security money might be raised by us to any amount. Now, my good father, am I comprehensible?

DERRIC.

Truly, this seems no visionary dream, like those in which, with fatal pertinacity, you have so oft indulged; and, on recollection, the rent of his tenement is in arrears; ’twill offer favourable opportunity for my calling and sounding him; the contract must be your care.

HERMAN.

’Tis already prepared and lacks only his signature.—[_Presenting it._] Lawyers, who would do justice to their clients, must not pause at conscience; ’tis entirely out of the question when their own interest is concerned.

DERRIC.

Herman, I like not this black-leg manner of proceeding: yet it augurs thou wilt be no pettifogger. I’ll to Van Winkle straight and, though not legalized to act, yet in this case I can do work which honest lawyers would scorn. [_Exit._

HERMAN.

[_Solus._] True; the honest lawyer lives by his reputation, and therefore pauses to undertake a cause he knows unjust: but how easily are some duped. Can my father for a moment suppose that the rank weeds of youth are so easily uprooted? No! what is to be done, good father of mine, but to serve myself? young men of the present generation cannot live without the means of entering into life’s varieties and this supply will henceforth enable me to do so, to the fullest extent of my ambitious wishes. [_Exit._

*Footnotes*

46 “_and_ HERMAN” in K. The scene, which is different, runs as follows:

HERMAN. Lecture me as much as you will, father, if at the close of your sermon you are prepared to supply me with the money that I need. DERRIC. Money! that is eternally your cry. Your extravagances have almost ruined and soon will dishonour me. Oh! I am but justly punished for my mad indulgence of a son who was born only to be my bane and curse. HERMAN. If you could but invent some fresh terms for my reproach! such frequent repetition becomes, I assure you, very wearisome. DERRIC. You have caused me to plunge into debt, and I am now pursued by a host of creditors. HERMAN. We must find a way to quiet them. And for the money I now require— DERRIC. Not another dollar do you obtain from me. Already, to supply your cravings, I have misappropriated some of the public money, and I must replace it soon if I would avert the shame and degradation with which I now am threatened. HERMAN. And from which I will save you. DERRIC. You? HERMAN. Yes. I! Rip van Winkle, your tenant— DERRIC. What has that idle, dissipated fellow to do with the present matter? HERMAN. Much, as I will show you, and his daughter more. DERRIC. His daughter? HERMAN. Now scarcely seven years old, I believe. This girl has an aunt residing in New York, who has long since, in consequence of an affront received from Van Winkle, discarded the whole family. But I have discovered that, of which they have no notion. DERRIC. What do you mean? HERMAN. Why, that the whole of this aunt’s fortune, and she is immensely rich, must of necessity, at the old lady’s death, become the inheritance of the little Lowena. DERRIC. And in what way can that affect us? HERMAN. You shall hear. I have already caused a contract to be prepared, and to which you must obtain Rip Van Winkle’s signature. DERRIC. What is that contract? HERMAN. You shall read it presently. Van Winkle is an easy soul, and at present, I believe, your debtor. DERRIC. Yes, considerably in arrears with the rent of the tenement, which he holds from me. HERMAN. Obtain his signature to the contract I am about to give you, and ’twill be a security on which money may be raised to any amount. DERRIC. You amaze me, I— HERMAN. You must have cash, father, to relieve you from your unpleasant difficulties, and I, for those delights of youth without which there is no advantage in being young. [_Exeunt._]