Chapter 11

_Enter_ Sir Rowland _and_ O'Dedimus.

_Sir R._ You have betrayed me then!--Did not I caution you to keep secret from my nephew this accursed loss.

_O'Ded._ And so you did sure enough, but somehow it slipt out before I said a word about it; but I told him it was a secret, and I dare say he wont mention it.

_Sir R._ But you say, that he demands the immediate liquidation.

_O'Ded._ Ay, sir, and has given me orders to proceed against you.

_Sir R._ Is it possible! in a moment could I arrest his impious progress; but I will probe him to the quick, did he threaten me, say you?--There is however one way to save _him_ from this public avowal of his baseness, and _me_ from his intended persecution--a marriage between Charles and Mrs. Richland.

_O'Ded._ The widow's as rich as the Wicklow mines!

_Sir R._ The boy refuses to comply with my wishes; we may find means, however, to compel him.

_O'Ded._ He's a sailor; and gentlemen of his kidney are generally pretty tough when they take a notion in their heads.

_Sir R._ I am resolved to carry my point. I have reason to believe you advanced him a sum of money.

_O'Ded._ I did that thing--he's a brave fellow; I'd do that thing again.

_Sir R._ You did wrong, sir, to encourage a young spendthrift in disobedience to his father.

_O'Ded._ I did right, sir, to assist the son of a client and the nephew of a benefactor, especially when his father hadn't the civility to do it.

_Sir R._ Mr. O'Dedimus, you grow impertinent.

_O'Ded._ Sir Rowland, I grow old; and 'tis one privilege of age to grow blunt. I advanced your son a sum of money, because I esteemed him. I tack'd no usurious obligation to the bond he gave me, and I never came to ask you for security.

_Sir R._ You _have_ his bond then--

_O'Ded._ I have, sir; his bond and judgment for two hundred pounds.

_Sir R._ It is enough: then you can indeed assist my views,--the dread of confinement will, no doubt, alter his resolution: you must enter up judgment, and proceed on your bond.

_O'Ded._ If I proceed upon my bond, it will be very much against my judgment.

_Sir R._ In order to alarm him, you must arrest him immediately.

_O'Ded._ Sir Rowland, I wish to treat you with respect--but when without a blush on your cheek you ask me to make myself a rascal, I must either be a scoundrel ready-made to your hands, for respecting you, or a damn'd hypocrite for pretending to do it--I see you are angry, sir, and I can't help that; and so, having delivered my message, for fear I should say any thing uncivil or ungenteel, I wish you a most beautiful good morning. [_Exit._

_Sir R._ Then I have but one way left--my fatal secret must be publicly revealed--oh horror! ruin irretrievable is preferable--never--never--that secret shall die with _me_--(_Enter Falkner_) as 'tis probably already buried in the grave with Falkner.

_Falk._ 'Tis false--'tis buried only in his heart!

_Sir R._ Falkner!

_Falk._ 'Tis eighteen years since last we met. You have not, I find, forgotten the theme on which we parted.

_Sir R._ Oh, no! my heart's reproaches never would allow me! Oh Falkner--I and the world for many years have thought you numbered with the dead.

_Falk._ To the world I was so--I have returned to it to do an act of justice.

_Sir R._ Will you then betray me?

_Falk._ During eighteen years, sir, I have been the depositary of a secret, which, if it does not actually affect your life, affects what should be dearer than life, your honor. If, in the moment that your ill-judged confidence avowed you as the man you are, and robbed me of that friendship which I held sacred as my being--If in that bitter moment I concealed my knowledge of your guilt from an imperious principle of honor, it is not likely, that the years which time has added to my life, should have taught me perfidy--your secret still is safe.

_Sir R._ Oh, Falkner--you have snatched a load of misery from my heart; I breathe, I live again.

_Falk._ Your exultation flows from a polluted source--I return to the world to seek you, to warm and to expostulate; I come to urge you to brave the infamy you have deserved; to court disgrace as the punishment you merit: briefly to avow your guilty secret.

_Sir R._ Name it not for mercy's sake! It is impossible! How shall I sustain the world's contempt, its scorn, revilings and reproaches?

_Falk._ Can he, who has sustained so long the reproaches of his conscience, fear the world's revilings?--Oh, Austencourt! Once you had a heart.

_Sir R._ Sir, it is callous now to every thing but shame; when it lost _you_, its dearest only friend, its noblest feelings were extinguished: my crime has been my punishment, for it has brought on me nothing but remorse and misery: still is my fame untainted by the world, and I will never court its contumely.

_Falk._ You are determined--

_Sir R._ I am!

_Falk._ Have you no fear from me?

_Sir R._ None! You have renewed your promise, and I am safe.

_Falk._ Nothing then remains for me but to return to that obscurity from whence I have emerged--had I found you barely leaning to the side of virtue, I had arguments to urge that might have fixed a wavering purpose; but I find you resolute, hardened and determined in guilt, and I leave you to your fate.

_Sir R._ Stay, Falkner, there is a meaning in your words.

_Falk._ A dreadful precipice lies before you: be wary how you tread! there is a being injured by your----by lord Austencourt, see that he makes her reparation by an immediate marriage--look first to that.

_Sir R._ To such a degradation could _I_ forget my noble ancestry, _he_ never will consent.

_Falk._ Look next to yourself: he is not a half villain, and it is not the ties of consanguinity will save you from a jail. Beware how you proceed with Charles--you see I am acquainted with more than you suspected; look to it, sir; for the day is not yet passed that by restoring you to virtue, may restore to you a friend; or should you persevere in guilty silence, that may draw down unexpected vengeance on your head-- [_Exit._

_Sir R._ Mysterious man! a moment stay! I cannot live in this dreadful uncertainty! whatever is my fate, it shall be decided quickly. [_Exit._