Part 86 (1/2)
Concealing all the delight he felt at this unlooked-for success, Ladarelle retired to the window to read the letter; nor did he at once break the seal. Some scruple--there were not many left him--did still linger amidst the wreck of his nature, and he felt that what he was about to do was a step lower in baseness than he had hitherto encountered. ”After all,” muttered he, ”if I hesitate about this, how am I to meet what is before me?” And so he broke the seal and tore open the envelope. ”The old fool! the infatuated old fool!” broke from him, in an accent of bitter scorn, as he ran over the three lines which a trembling hand had traced. ”I knew it would come to this. I said so all long.
Here's an order to pay Miss Luttrell or bearer two hundred pounds!” said he, turning to O'Rorke. ”We must not cash this, or we should get into a precious sc.r.a.pe.”
”And what's in the letter?” asked O'Rorke, carelessly.
”Nothing beyond his readiness to be of use, and all that. He writes with difficulty, he says, and that's not hard to believe--an infernal scrawl it is--and he promises to send a long letter by the post tomorrow. By the way, how do they get the letters at Arran?”
”They send for them once a week to the mainland; on Sat.u.r.days, if I remember aright.”
”We must arrest this correspondence then, or we shall be discovered at once. How can we obtain her letters?”
”Easy enough. I know the boy that comes for them, and he can't read, though he can tell the number of letters that he should have. I'll have one ready to subst.i.tute for any that should be to her address.”
”Well thought of. I see, O'Rorke, you _are_ the man I wanted; now listen to me attentively, and hear my plan. I must return to the Castle, and pretend that I have pressing business in town. Instead of taking the London mail, however, I shall proceed to Holyhead, where you must wait for me at the inn, the Watkins' Arms. I hope to be there tomorrow morning early, but it may be evening before I can arrive. Wait, at all events, for my coming.”
”Remember that I promised to be back in Arran, with the answer to her letter, by Sat.u.r.day.”
”So you shall. It is fully as important for _me_ that you should keep your word.”
”Does he want her back again?” said O'Rorke, not fully satisfied that he had not seen Sir Within's note.
”No, not exactly; at least, it is evasive, and very short. It is simply to this purport: 'I conclude you have made a mistake by leaving me, and think you might have humility enough to acknowledge it; meanwhile, I send you a cheque for two hundred. I shall write to-morrow more fully.'”
O'Rorke was thoroughly aware, by the stammering confusion of the other's manner, that these were not the terms of the note; but it was a matter which interested him very little, and he let it pa.s.s unchallenged. His calculation--and he had given a whole night to it--was briefly this: ”If I serve Sir Within, I may possibly be well and handsomely rewarded, but I shall obtain no power of pressure upon him; under no circ.u.mstances can I extort from him one s.h.i.+lling beyond what he may be disposed to give me. If, on the other hand, I stand by Ladarelle, his whole character is in my hands. He is too unscrupulous not to compromise himself, and though his accomplice, I shall do everything in such a way that one day, if I need it, I may appear to have been his dupe. And such a position as this can be the source of untold money.”
Nor was it a small inducement to him to think that the side he adopted was adverse to Kate. Why he disliked her he knew not--that is, he would not have been well able to say why. Perhaps he might not readily have admitted the fact, though he well knew that to see her great, and prosperous, and high placed, a winner in that great lottery of life where he had failed so egregiously, would be to him the most intense misery, and he would have done much to prevent it.
Along with these thoughts were others, speculating on Ladarelle himself, and whom he was sorely puzzled whether to regard more as knave or fool, or an equal mixture of the two. ”He'll soon see that whatever he does he mustn't try to cheat Tim O'Rorke,” muttered he; ”and when he gets that far, I'll not trouble myself more about his education.”
CHAPTER LII. THE NIGHT AT SEA
The Sat.u.r.day--the eventful day on which Kate was to have her answer from Sir Within--came at last. It was a dark, lowering morning, and though there was scarcely an air of wind, the sea rolled heavily in, and broke in great showers of spray over the rocks, sure sign that a storm was raging at a distance.
From an early hour she had been down to the sh.o.r.e to watch if any boat could be seen, but not a sail could be descried, and the fishermen told her that though the wind had a faint sound in it, there were few Westport men would like to venture out in such a sea.
”If you cannot see a boat before noon, Tim Hennesy,” said she to one of the boatmen, ”you'll have to man the yawl, for I mean to go over myself.”
”It will be a hard beat against the wind, Miss,” said the man. ”It will take you an hour to get out of the bay here.”
”I suppose we shall reach Westport before morning?”
”It will be no bad job if we get in by this time to-morrow.”
She turned angrily away; she hated opposition in every shape, and even the semblance of anything like discouragement chafed and irritated her.
”No sign of your messenger?” said Luttrell, from the window of the tower, whither he had gone to have a look out over the sea.
”It is early yet, Sir. If they came out on the ebb we should not see them for at least another hour.”
He made no answer, but closed the window and withdrew.