Part 26 (2/2)
”You did!” exclaimed George.
”Who was turned out of doors by your father, the night before last, in consequence, I understood, of some misdeeds of hers having come to light. She came immediately to my house, and offered to give me your direction, on condition of my pa.s.sing my word of honour to deliver you this message: 'that the forgery (500 pounds was the sum mentioned, I think) was discovered, and that the Bank was going to prosecute.' I of course form no judgment as to the truth or falsehood of this: I leave you to take your own measures about it--only I once again ask you whether you will give me an interview with Miss Thornton?”
George had courage enough left to say hoa.r.s.ely and firmly, ”No!”
”Then,” replied the Major, ”I must call you to witness that I have performed my errand to you faithfully. I beg, also, that you will carry all our kindest remembrances to Miss Thornton, and tell her that her poor father was struck with paralysis when he missed her, and that he is not expected to live many weeks. And I wish you good night.”
He pa.s.sed out, and down the stairs; as he pa.s.sed the public parlour-door, he heard a man bawling out a song, two or three lines of which he heard, and which made him blush to the tips of his ears, old soldier as he was.
As he walked up the street, he soliloquised: ”A pretty mess I've made of it--done him all the service I could, and not helped her a bit--I see there is no chance of seeing her, though I shall try. I will go round Hampstead to-morrow, though that is a poor chance. In Paris, now, or Vienna, one could find her directly. What a pity we have no police!”
Chapter XV
THE BRIGHTON RACES, AND WHAT HAPPENED THEREAT.
George Hawker just waited till he heard the retiring footsteps of the Major, and then, leaving the house, held his way rapidly towards Mary's lodgings, which were in Hampstead; but finding he would be too late to gain admittance, altered his course when he was close to the house, and went to his own house, which was not more than a few hundred yards distant. In the morning he went to her, and she ran down the garden to meet him before the servant had time to open the door, looking so pretty and bright. ”Ah, George!” said she, ”you never came last night, after all your promises. I shall be glad when it's all over, George, and we are together for good.”
”It won't be long first, my dear,” he answered; ”we must manage to get through that time as well as we can, and then we'll begin to sound the old folks. You see I am come to breakfast.”
”I expected you,” she said; ”come in and we will have such a pleasant chat, and after that you must take me down the town, George, and we will see the carriages.”
”Now, my love,” said George; ”I've got to tell you something that will vex you; but you must not be down-hearted about it, you know. The fact is, that your friends, as they call themselves, moving heaven and earth to get you back, by getting me out of the way, have hit on the expedient of spreading false reports about me, and issuing scandals against me. They found out my address at the Nag's Head, and came there after me not half an hour after you were gone, and I only got out of their way by good luck. You ought to give me credit for not giving any living soul the secret of our whereabouts, so that all I have got to do is to keep quiet here until our little business is settled, and then I shall be able to face them boldly again, and set everything straight.”
”How cruel!” she said; ”how unjust! I will never believe anything against you, George.”
”I am sure of that, my darling;” he said, kissing her. ”But now, there is another matter I must speak about, though I don't like to,--I am getting short of money, love.”
”I have got nearly a hundred pounds, George,” she said; ”and, as I told you, I have five thousand pounds in the funds, which I can sell out at any time I like.”
”We shall do well, then, my Polly. Now let us go for a walk.”
All that week George stayed with her quietly, till the time of residence necessary before they could be married was expired. He knew that he was treading on a mine, which at any time might burst and blow his clumsy schemes to the wind. But circ.u.mstances were in his favour, and the time came to an end at last. He drank hard all the time without letting Mary suspect it, but afterwards, when it was all over, wondered at his nerve and self-possession through all those trying days, when he was forced eternally to have a smile or a laugh ready, and could not hear a step behind him without thinking of an officer, or look over his head without thinking he saw a gallows in the air.
It was during this time that he nursed in his heart a feeling of desperate hatred and revenge against William Lee, which almost became the leading pa.s.sion of his life. He saw, or thought he saw, that this man was the author of all the troubles that were gathering so thick around his head, and vowed, if chance threw the man in his way again, that he would take ample and fearful vengeance, let it cost what it might. And though this feeling may have sometimes grown cold, yet he never to the last day forgot or forgave the injuries this man had done him.
Mary was as innocent of business as a child, and George found little difficulty in persuading her, that the best thing she could do under present circ.u.mstances, was to sell out the money she had in the funds, and place it in a bank, to be drawn on as occasion should require; saying that they should be so long perhaps, before they had any other fund to depend on, that they might find it necessary to undertake some business for a living, in which case, it would be as well to have their money under command at a moment's notice.
There was, not far from the bank, an old Stockbroker, who had known her father, and herself, for many years, and was well acquainted with all their affairs, though they had but little intercourse by letter. To him she repaired, and, merely informing him that she was going to marry without her father's consent, begged him to manage the business for her; which he, complimenting her upon her good fortune in choosing a time when the funds were so high, immediately undertook; at the same time recommended her to a banker, where she might open an account.
On the same day that this business was concluded, a licence was procured, and their wedding fixed for the next day. ”Now,” thought George, as he leapt into bed on that night, ”let only to-morrow get over safely, and I can begin to see my way out of the wood again.”
And in the morning they were married in Hampstead church. Parson, clerk, pew-opener, and beadle, all remarked what a handsome young couple they were, and how happy they ought to be; and the parson departed, and the beadle shut up the church, and the mice came out again and ate the Bibles, and the happy pair walked away down the road, bound together by a strong chain, which nothing could loose but death.
They went to Brighton. Mary had said she would so like to see the sea; and the morning after they arrived there--the morning after their wedding--Mary wrote an affectionate penitential letter to her father, telling him that she was married, and praying his forgiveness.
They were quite gay at Brighton, and she recovered her spirits wonderfully at first. George soon made acquaintances, who soon got very familiar, after the manner of their kind,--greasy, tawdry, bedizened bucks,--never asleep, always proposing a game of cards, always carrying off her husband. Mary hated them, while she was at times proud to see her husband in such fine company.
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