Part 115 (1/2)
”I guess your meaning--at least, I suspect I do. You intend that your wife should tell me that scandal about the secret marriage, that dark story of her departure from Arran, and her repentant return to it; but I know it all, every word of it, already.”
”And from whom?”
”From herself--from her own lips; confirmed, if I wanted confirmation, by other testimony.”
”I think she did well to tell you,” said Cane, in a half uncertain tone.
”Of course she did right. It was for me to vindicate her, if she had been wronged, and I would have done so, too, if the law had not been before me. You know that the scoundrel is sentenced to the galleys?”
Cane did not know it, and heard the story with astonishment, and so much of what indicated curiosity, that Harry repeated all Kate had told him from the beginning to the end.
”Would you do me the great favour to repeat this to my wife?
She is sincerely attached to Miss Luttrell, and this narrative will give her unspeakable pleasure.”
”Tell her, from me, that her affection is not misplaced--she deserves it all!” muttered Harry, as he laid his head moodily against the window, and stood lost in thought.
”Here comes the postman. I am expecting a letter from the captain of the Australian packet-s.h.i.+p, in answer to some inquiries I had made in Miss Luttrell's behalf.”
The servant entered with a packet of letters as he spoke, from which Cane quickly selected one.
”This is what I looked for. Let us see what it says:
”'Dear Sir,--I find that I shall be able to place the p.o.o.p cabin at Miss L.'s disposal, as my owner's sister will not go out this spring. It is necessary she should come over here at once, if there be any trifling changes she would like made in its interior arrangement. The terms, I believe, are already well understood between us. By the Hamburg packet-s.h.i.+p _Drei Heilige_, we learn that the last outward-bound vessels have met rough weather, and a convict-s.h.i.+p, the _Blast_, was still more unfortunate. Cholera broke out on board, and carried off seventy-three of the prisoners in eleven days.'”
There was a postscript marked confidential, but Cane read it aloud:
”'Can you tell me if a certain Harry Luttrell, who has signed articles with me as second mate, is any relation of Miss L.'s? He has given me a deposit of twenty pounds, but my men think he is no seaman, nor has ever been at sea. Do you know anything of him, what?'”
”Yes!” said Harry, boldly. ”Tell him you know him well; that he was with you when you read aloud that pa.s.sage in his letter; a.s.sure him--as you may with a safe conscience--that he is a good sailor, and add, on my part, that he has no right to make any other inquiries about him.”
”And do you really intend to make this voyage?”
”Of course I do! I told you a while ago I could be as obstinate as my cousin. You'll see if I don't keep my word. Mind me, however; no word of this to Miss Luttrell. I charge you that!”
”And the property, Sir! What are your views respecting the estate?”
”I shall write to you. I'll think of it,” said Harry, carelessly. After a few words more, they parted. Harry had some things to buy in the city, some small preparations for the long voyage before him; but, promising Cane to come back and take a family dinner with him, he went his way. For some hours he walked the streets half unconsciously, a vague impression over him that there was something he had to do, certain people to see, certain places to visit; but so engaged was he with the thought of Kate and her fortunes, his mind had no room for more. ”She shall see,” muttered he to himself, ”that I am not to be shaken off.
My Luttrell obstinacy, if she will call it so, is as fixed as her own.
Country has no tie for _me_. Where she is, there shall be my country.”
Some fears he had lest Cane should tell her of his determination to sail in the same s.h.i.+p with her. She was quite capable of outwitting him if she could only get a clue to this. Would Cane dare to disobey him?
Would he face the consequences of his betrayal? From these thoughts he wandered on to others--as to how Kate would behave when she found he had followed her. Would this proof of attachment move her? Would she resent it as a persecution? Hers was so strange a nature, anything might come of it. ”The same pride that made her refuse me, may urge her to do more.
As she said so haughtily to me at Arran, 'The peasant remedy has failed to cure the Luttrell malady; another cure must be sought for!'”
Harry had scarcely knocked at Cane's door, when it was opened by Cane himself, who hurriedly said, ”I have been waiting for you. Come in here;” and led him into his own room. ”She's above stairs. She has just come,” whispered he.
”Who?” asked Harry, eagerly. ”Who?”
”Your cousin--Miss Luttrell. A letter from the surgeon of the convict-s.h.i.+p has conveyed news of old Malone's death, and she has come up to free herself from her arrangement with the captain. And----”