Part 64 (1/2)

”Do you think it has not been left with Mrs. George G.o.dolphin?”

”I'll ask her,” replied Isaac, getting off his stool. ”I don't think it has: or she would have given it to me when she informed me of Mr. George G.o.dolphin's absence.”

He went into the dining-room: that pleasant room, which it was almost a shame to designate by the name. Maria was listlessly standing against the window-frame, plucking mechanically the fading blossoms of a geranium. She turned her head at the opening of the door, and saw her brother.

”Isaac, what time does the first train come in?”

”From what place?” inquired Isaac.

”Oh--from the Portsmouth direction. It was Portsmouth that Captain St.

Aubyn was to embark from, was it not?”

”I don't know anything about it,” replied Isaac. ”Neither can I tell at what hours trains arrive from that direction. Maria, has Mr. George G.o.dolphin left the key of the book-safe with you?”

”No,” was Maria's answer. ”I suppose he must have forgotten to do so. He has left it with me when he has gone away unexpectedly before, after banking-hours.”

Isaac returned to the rest of the clerks. The key was wanted badly, and it was decided that he should go up to Ashlydyat for Mr. G.o.dolphin's.

He took the nearest road to it. Down Crosse Street, and through the Ash-tree Walk. It was a place, as you have heard, especially shunned at night: it was not much frequented by day. Therefore, it was no surprise to Isaac Hastings that he did not, all through it, meet a single thing, either man or ghost. At the very end, however, on that same broken bench where Thomas G.o.dolphin and his bodily agony had come to an anchor the previous night, sat Charlotte Pain.

She was in deep thought: deep perplexity; there was no mistaking that her countenance betrayed both: some might have fancied in deep pain, either bodily or mental. Pale she was not. Charlotte's complexion was made up too fas.h.i.+onably for either red or white, born of emotion, to affect it, unless it might be emotion of a most extraordinary nature.

Hands clenched, brow knit, lips drawn from her teeth, eyes staring on vacancy--Isaac Hastings could not avoid reading the signs, and he read them with surprise.

”Good morning, Mrs. Pain!”

Charlotte started from the seat with a half scream. ”What's the use of startling one like that!” she fiercely exclaimed.

”I did not startle you intentionally,” replied Isaac. ”You might have heard my footsteps had you not been so preoccupied. Did you think it was the ghost arriving?” he added, jestingly.

”Of course I did,” returned Charlotte, laughing, as she made an effort, and a successful one, to recover herself. ”What do you do here this morning? Did you come to look after the ghost, or after me?”

”After neither,” replied Isaac, with more truth than gallantry. ”Mr.

George G.o.dolphin has sent me up here.”

Now, in saying this, what Isaac meant to express was nothing more than that his coming up was _caused_ by George G.o.dolphin. Alluding of course to George's forgetfulness in carrying off the key. Charlotte, however, took the words literally, and her eyes opened.

”Did George G.o.dolphin not go last night?”

”Yes, he went. He forgot----”

”Then what can have brought him back so soon?” was her vehement interruption, not allowing Isaac time to conclude. ”There's no day train in from London yet.”

”Is there not?” was Isaac's rejoinder, looking keenly at her.

”Why, of course there's not: as you know, or ought to know. Besides, he could not get through the business he has gone upon and be back yet, unless he came by telegraph. He intended to leave by the eleven o'clock train from Paddington.”

She spoke rapidly, thoughtlessly, in her surprise. Her inward thought was, that to have gone to London, and returned again since the hour at which she parted from him the previous night, one way, at least, must have been accomplished on the telegraph wires. Had she taken a moment for reflection, she would not have so spoken. However familiar she might be with the affairs of Mr. George G.o.dolphin, so much the more reason was there for her shunning open allusion to them.

”Who told you Mr. George G.o.dolphin had gone to London, Mrs. Pain?” asked Isaac, after a pause.

”Do you think I did not know it? Better than you, Mr. Isaac, clever and wise as you deem yourself.”