Volume I Part 27 (1/2)

”What month are we in now?” asked I, timidly.

”July, of course!” said she, laughing.

”June, July, August, September,” said I, counting on my fingers; ”that will be four months!”

”What do you mean?” asked she.

”I mean,” said I, ”it will be four months since I saw Mrs. D. and the family.”

She pressed her handkerchief to her face, and I thought I heard her sob; indeed I am certain I did. Nothing was further from my thoughts than to say a rude thing, or even an unfeeling one, and so I a.s.sured her over and over. I protested that it was the very first time since I came away that I ever as much as remembered one belonging to me; that it was impossible for a man to feel less the ties of family; that I looked upon myself--and, indeed, I hoped she also looked upon me in a way--in fact, regarded me in a light--I'm not exactly clear, Tom, what light I said; of course, you can imagine what I intended to say, if I did n't say it.

”Is this really true?” said she, without uncovering her face, while she extended her other hand towards me.

”True!” repeated I. ”If it were not true, why am I here? Why have I left--” I just caught myself in time, Tom. I was nearly ”in it” again, with an allusion to Mrs. D.; but I changed it, and said, ”Why am I your slave,--why am I at your feet--” Just as I said that, suiting the action to the words, the door of the room was jerked violently open, and a tall man, with a tremendous bushy pair of whiskers, poked his head in.

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”Oh, heavens!” cried she; ”mined and undone!” and fled before I could see her; while the stranger, fastening the door behind him with the key, advanced towards me with an air at once so menacing and warlike that I seized the poker, an instrument about four feet six long, and stood on the defensive.

”Mr. Kenny Dodd, I believe,” said he, solemnly.

”The same!” said I.

”And not Lord Harvey Bruce, at least, on this occasion,” said he, with a kind of sneer.

”No,” said I, ”and who are you?”

”I am Lord Harvey Bruce, sir,” was the answer.

I don't think I said anything in reply; indeed, I am quite sure I did not say a syllable; but I must have made some expressive gesture, or suffered some exclamation to escape me, for he quickly rejoined,--

”Yes, sir, you have, indeed, reason to be thankful; for had it been my wretched, miserable, and injured friend instead, you would now be lying weltering in your blood.”

”Might I make bold to ask the name of the wretched, miserable, and injured gentleman to whom I was about to be so much indebted?”

”The husband of your unhappy victim, sir,” exclaimed he, and with such an energy of voice that I brandished the poker to show I was ready for him. ”Yes, sir, Mr. Gore Hampton is now in this village,--to a mere accident you owe it that he is not in this hotel,--ay, in this very room.”

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And he gave a shudder at the words, as though the thoughts they suggested were enough to curdle a man's blood.

”I'll tell you what, my Lord,” said I, getting the table between us, to prevent any sudden attack on his part, ”all your anger and high-down indignation are clean thrown away. There is no victim here at all,--there is no villain; and, so far as I am concerned, your friend is not either miserable or injured. The circ.u.mstances under which I accompanied that lady to this place are all easy of explanation, and such as require a very different acknowledgment from what you seem disposed to make for them.”

”If you think you are dealing with a schoolboy, sir, you are somewhat mistaken,” broke he in. ”I am a man of the world, and it will save us a deal of time, sir, if you will please to bear this plain fact in your memory.”

”You may be that, or anything else you like, my Lord,” said I; ”but I 'd have you to know that I am a man well respected in the world, the father of a grown-up family. There is no occasion for that heavy groan at all, my Lord; the case is not what you suspect. I came here purely out of friends.h.i.+p--”

”Come, come, sir, this is sheer trifling; or, it is worse,--it is outrageous insult. The man who elopes with a woman, pa.s.ses under a false name, retires with her into one of the most remote and unvisited towns of Germany, is discovered--as I lately discovered you,--only insults the understanding of him who listens to such excuses. We have tracked you, sir,--it is but fair to tell you,--from the Rhine to this village. We are prepared, when the proper time comes, to bring a host of evidence against you. In all probability, a more scandalous case has not come before the public these last twenty years. Rest a.s.sured, then, that denial, no matter how well sustained, will avail you little; and when you have arrived at this palpable conviction, it will greatly facilitate our progress towards the termination of this unhappy business.”

”Well, my Lord, let us suppose, for argument's sake,--'without prejudice,' however, as the attorneys say,--that I see everything with your eyes, what is the nature of the termination you allude to?”