Part 59 (2/2)
”Don't talk to me,” he said hoa.r.s.ely, ”I'm thinking.”
”But, Harry, I laugh at Aunt Marguerite's follies about descent and our degradation; but it is your duty to make a stand for our father's sake.
Who has dared to accuse you of all this?”
”Don't talk to me,” he said in an angry whisper, as he ran to the window and listened, crossing the room directly after to try the door.
Louise gazed at him in a horrified way, and her heart sank down, down, as her brother's acts suggested the possibility of his guilt. Then, like a flash of light, a thought irradiated her darkening soul, and she caught her brother's arm.
”I know!” she cried.
”You--you know?”
”Yes, I see it all now; and why this charge has been made. It was Mr Pradelle.”
”Pradelle!”
”And that is why he left so suddenly. Harry, my poor brother!”
”Let Pradelle be,” he said huskily. ”I'm not going to hide behind another man.”
”Oh! But, Harry!”
”Look here,” he said uneasily; ”I want your help, and you do nothing but talk.”
”I will be silent; but tell me it is not true.”
”Do you want me to make matters worse by telling some paltry lie?” he said. ”Yes; it is true.”
”Harry!”
”No: not all true. I did not steal that money.”
”Ah!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Louise; and she reeled to her bed, and would have fallen but for the post she grasped.
”I've no time to explain, but you must know. Yes; I did knock old Van Heldre down.”
”Harry!” she groaned.
”And Crampton saw me come away; he has sent for the London police; and, unless I can get off, I shall be taken and tried.”
Louise literally tottered towards him.
”No, no,” he said angrily. ”You are going to talk and preach. You don't want to see me disgracing you all by being cast in gaol?”
Disgracing them! Louise's first thought was of Duncan Leslie, and a pang of agony shot through her. How could she ever look him in the face again? A chill that seemed to paralyse shot through her. The hope that she had nursed was cast out, and her brother's word seemed to open out a future so desolate and blank that she turned upon him angrily.
”Harry!” she cried, ”this is not--cannot be true.” He paid no heed to her words, but stood biting his nails, evidently thinking, and at last he turned upon her like one at bay, as she said, after a painful pause, ”You do not answer. Am I to believe all this? No, I cannot--will not believe it, Harry. It can't--it can't be true.”
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