BOOK SECOND. A LIFE DRAMA: LINKS IN THE MYSTERY.

CHAPTER XXII.
THE HALF-BROTHERS.

"It is better to be born lucky than rich" is one of the few proverbs to which the lie cannot be given by a proverb in the opposite direction. If Gerald Paget had had the choice, and had he been blessed with wisdom, he would have chosen luck in the place of riches, but he could not be credited with either of these conditions. He was born to riches, and he was too amiable and easy-natured to ripen into wisdom. When he first met Emilia Braham he was twenty-four years of age; she was eighteen, and in a position of dependence; Gerald was wealthy, and to a certain extent his own master. His father had died three months before this meeting with the beautiful young girl, whose association was to bring into his life both happiness and woe. He had only one close relative, a half-brother, a few years older than himself, who was then absent in Australia; the name of this brother was Leonard, and it was he who was destined to hold in his hands the skeins of Gerald's fate.

Their father had been twice married, and Leonard was the son of his first wife. She brought him no fortune, and he himself had but little. Shortly after Leonard was born she died, and the widowed husband went with his child to Switzerland, where he met with the lady who was to replace the wife he had lost. She possessed a large fortune in her own right, of which with her husband's full approval, she kept control. Although they had met and were married in Switzerland, they were both English, and to England they returned, and set up their home there. One child blessed their union, Gerald, whom they idolized and did their best to spoil. They did not neglect their duty to Leonard; they performed it cheerfully and lovingly, but it was nevertheless the fact that Gerald was the magnet to which their hearts more constantly turned. The difference between the ages of the half-brothers was a bar to that close and sympathetic association of interests which frequently exists between children of equal age. The child of six and the child of fourteen have little in common; still less when one is twelve and the other twenty. But despite this disparity and these unfavorable conditions, Gerald adored his big brother, and bowed down before him as a being of a very superior order. Leonard's tastes was for travel, and as a young man he spent much of his time on the Continent, picking up foreign ways, and also foreign vices, which he kept very carefully concealed from the knowledge of his father and step-mother. When he came home from these Continental jaunts he always brought with him remembrances for little Gerald, whose affectionate, grateful heart magnified their value, and invested with rare qualities the spirit which animated the giver. Leonard was supplied with ample funds to indulge in his whims and pleasures, and he took life easily, accepting it as his right that his purse should be always well filled. Presently, however, a change came over the spirit of his dream, a change which caused the evil forces within him to spring into active life. His stepmother died, and left a will. Its terms were as follows:

To her stepson, Leonard, she left an income of four hundred pounds, and expressed a hope that he would adopt some profession or pursuit in which he might attain fortune and distinction. His father was empowered to further in a practical way any step in this direction. To her son Gerald she also left an income of four hundred pounds, but there was this difference between the bequests. Leonard's remained always the same--four hundred pounds, no more and no less; whereas Gerald's, when he reached the age of twenty-one, was increased to one thousand pounds. Moreover, upon the death of his father, all that Mrs. Paget devised to her husband was to revert to her son, whose income would then amount to nearly four thousand pounds. Leonard, studying the will, reckoned this up, and said, "I am the elder son, and I have exactly one-tenth of the younger son's fortune." There was another clause in the will. As upon the death of the father the income that was left to him was to fall to Gerald, so, should it happen that both Gerald and his father died before Leonard, the entire fortune would fall to the elder son. In the event of Gerald marrying this would not be the case; Gerald could devise to his wife and children, if he had any, all that he possessed, thus, as it were, disbarring Leonard. For the soured and disappointed young man there were, then, these chances: First, that his father should die. Second, that Gerald should die. Third, that he should die unmarried. These conditions fulfilled, Leonard would become the master of four thousand pounds a year. It occurred to Leonard that the sooner all this occurred the better, and the thought having obtained lodgement in his mind, remained there.

Safely hidden, safely concealed. He was not a man who wore his heart upon his sleeve. He was one who could present a smiling face while he was concocting the cunningest of schemes. He had but one view of life, the pursuit of pleasure. There was a certain similarity between him and Gerald; they were both easy-natured outwardly, but there was no guile in Gerald's disposition, while guile was the very essence of Leonard's.

"I can't very well live on four hundred a year," he said to his father, after the death of his step-mother. "You never led me to expect that I should have to do so."

"I will double it, Len," said the indulgent father; "but you are a man now, and understand things. The fortune which has enabled us to maintain our position was strictly my wife's and she had a right to do what she pleased with it. Had it not been for her money you and I would have been poor gentlemen."

"That is all very well," said Leonard, "but the reflection comes too late, father. To bring up a person in the expectation of fortune, and then to suddenly let him down to poverty, is not what I call just or fair. That is all I want--justice, and I have a right to it."

"Every person has a right to it."

"Then you agree with me that I am hardly treated."

"Eight hundred a year is not a bad income, Len."

"But, if you will forgive me for mentioning it, father--I am a man, as you say, and can't help thinking of things--that is only during your lifetime. Heaven forbid that anything should happen to you, but we are all mortal, and down I should drop to a miserable seven or eight pounds a week."

"Gerald has the sweetest disposition in the world," said Mr. Paget; "you can always depend upon him."

"Depend upon him, depend upon him!" repeated Leonard, fretfully. "Is it right, is it just, that the elder should depend upon the younger?"

Mr. Paget sighed; he was not strong in argument.

"I will make it a thousand," he said, "and you must look out for a profession which will treble it."

"I'll see what Gerald will do toward it," said Leonard; and he actually went to the lad, who ran to his father, and said that poor Len must have two hundred a year more; so that subtle Leonard managed to obtain an income of twelve hundred pounds, a very fair slice of the fortune left by Mrs. Paget. He did not trouble himself to look for a profession, but carried out his view of life with zeal and ability. He spent his money on himself, but he did not squander it. He generally managed to obtain his money's worth, and he was wise in his liberality. Nevertheless, pleasure ran ahead of him, and in racing after it he came to grief, and had to mortgage his own private income of four hundred pounds to such an extent that it presently passed out of his hands and became the property of the money-lenders. His father and half-brother never failed him; they were living quietly and modestly in England, and every appeal Leonard made to them was promptly and affectionately responded to. He was not thankful for the assistance; there gathers upon some natures a crust of selfishness so thick as to deaden the sentiment of gratitude for kindness rendered.

Thus matters went on till the father died. Leonard, as has been stated, was in Australia at the time. It was not a spirit of enterprise that took him there, nor any idea of business; he was enamoured of a pretty face, and he followed, or accompanied it, to the antipodes--it matters not which. When he received news of his father's death, the enchantment was over, and another chapter in his book of selfish pleasures was closed. He cabled home for money. Gerald cabled him back a thousand pounds. "By jove," thought Leonard; "he must be richer than I thought." It was so. Mr. Paget had saved half his income and had invested it well, so that, upon his death, Gerald found himself in possession of a handsome sum of money in addition to the income which now fell to his share. Leonard remained in Australia long enough to spend three-fourths of the thousand pounds--it did not take long--and then he took ship to England, with the firm resolve to milk his cow, his half-brother Gerald, who received him with open arms. But between the day of Mr. Paget's death and the day of Leonard's return to England, Gerald met Emilia Braham. That made all the difference.