Later on,when Civilisation began to lay down and enforce sterner rules for the game of life,and peaceful methods promised to prove more profitable than violent,the Ingerfields became traders and merchants of grave mien and sober life;for their ambition from generation to generation remains ever the same,their various callings being but means to an end.
A hard,stern race of men they would seem to have been,but just--so far as they understood justice.They have the reputation of having been good husbands,fathers,and masters;but one cannot help thinking of them as more respected than loved.
They were men to exact the uttermost farthing due to them,yet not without a sense of the thing due from them,their own duty and responsibility--nay,not altogether without their moments of heroism,which is the duty of great men.History relates how a certain Captain Ingerfield,returning with much treasure from the West Indies--how acquired it were,perhaps,best not to inquire too closely--is overhauled upon the high seas by King's frigate.Captain of King's frigate sends polite message to Captain Ingerfield requesting him to be so kind as to promptly hand over a certain member of his ship's company,who,by some means or another,has made himself objectionable to King's friends,in order that he (the said objectionable person)may be forthwith hanged from the yard-arm.
Captain Ingerfield returns polite answer to Captain of King's frigate that he (Captain Ingerfield)will,with much pleasure,hang any member of his ship's company that needs hanging,but that neither the King of England nor any one else on God Almighty's sea is going to do it for him.Captain of King's frigate sends back word that if objectionable person be not at once given up he shall be compelled with much regret to send Ingerfield and his ship to the bottom of the Atlantic.Replies Captain Ingerfield,"That is just what he will have to do before I give up one of my people,"and fights the big frigate--fights it so fiercely that after three hours Captain of King's frigate thinks it will be good to try argument again,and sends therefore a further message,courteously acknowledging Captain Ingerfield's courage and skill,and suggesting that,he having done sufficient to vindicate his honour and renown,it would be politic to now hand over the unimportant cause of contention,and so escape with his treasure.
"Tell your Captain,"shouts back this Ingerfield,who has discovered there are sweeter things to fight for than even money,"that the Wild Goose has flown the seas with her belly full of treasure before now,and will,if it be God's pleasure,so do again,but that master and man in her sail together,fight together,and die together."Whereupon King's frigate pounds away more vigorously than ever,and succeeds eventually in carrying out her threat.Down goes the Wild Goose,her last chase ended--down she goes with a plunge,spit foremost with her colours flying;and down with her goes every man left standing on her decks;and at the bottom of the Atlantic they lie to this day,master and man side by side,keeping guard upon their treasure.
Which incident,and it is well authenticated,goes far to prove that the Ingerfields,hard men and grasping men though they be--men caring more for the getting of money than for the getting of love--loving more the cold grip of gold than the grip of kith or kin,yet bear buried in their hearts the seeds of a nobler manhood,for which,however,the barren soil of their ambition affords scant nourishment.
The John Ingerfield of this story is a man very typical of his race.
He has discovered that the oil and tallow refining business,though not a pleasant one,is an exceedingly lucrative one.These are the good days when George the Third is king,and London is rapidly becoming a city of bright night.Tallow and oil and all materials akin thereto are in ever-growing request,and young John Ingerfield builds himself a large refining house and warehouse in the growing suburb of Limehouse,which lies between the teeming river and the quiet fields,gathers many people round about him,puts his strong heart into his work,and prospers.
All the days of his youth he labours and garners,and lays out and garners yet again.In early middle age he finds himself a wealthy man.The chief business of life,the getting of money,is practically done;his enterprise is firmly established,and will continue to grow with ever less need of husbandry.It is time for him to think about the secondary business of life,the getting together of a wife and home,for the Ingerfields have ever been good citizens,worthy heads of families,openhanded hosts,making a brave show among friends and neighbours.
John Ingerfield,sitting in his stiff,high-backed chair,in his stiffly,but solidly,furnished dining-room,above his counting-house,sipping slowly his one glass of port,takes counsel with himself.
What shall she be?
He is rich,and can afford a good article.She must be young and handsome,fit to grace the fine house he will take for her in fashionable Bloomsbury,far from the odour and touch of oil and tallow.She must be well bred,with a gracious,noble manner,that will charm his guests and reflect honour and credit upon himself;she must,above all,be of good family,with a genealogical tree sufficiently umbrageous to hide Lavender Wharf from the eyes of Society.
What else she may or may not be he does not very much care.She will,of course,be virtuous and moderately pious,as it is fit and proper that women should be.It will also be well that her disposition be gentle and yielding,but that is of minor importance,at all events so far as he is concerned:the Ingerfield husbands are not the class of men upon whom wives vent their tempers.
Having decided in his mind WHAT she shall be,he proceeds to discuss with himself WHO she shall be.His social circle is small.
