Part 64 (2/2)
”You have bound yourself to help her to find the man. Your one hope of persuading her to become your wife rests on your success in finding him.
And you are the man. There is your situation! You can't submit to it.
How can you escape from it?”
”You are trying to frighten me, Agatha.”
”I am trying to encourage you to face your position boldly.”
”I am doing my best,” Mirabel said, with sullen resignation. ”Fortune has favored me so far. I have, really and truly, been unable to satisfy Emily by discovering Miss Jethro. She has left the place at which I saw her last--there is no trace to be found of her--and Emily knows it.”
”Don't forget,” Mrs. Delvin replied, ”that there is a trace to be found of Mrs. Rook, and that Emily expects you to follow it.”
Mirabel shuddered. ”I am surrounded by dangers, whichever way I look,”
he said. ”Do what I may, it turns out to be wrong. I was wrong, perhaps, when I brought Emily here.”
”No!”
”I could easily make an excuse,” Mirabel persisted ”and take her back to London.”
”And for all you know to the contrary,” his wiser sister replied, ”Mrs.
Rook may go to London; and you may take Emily back in time to receive her at the cottage. In every way you are safer in my old tower.
And--don't forget--you have got my money to help you, if you want it. In my belief, Miles, you _will_ want it.”
”You are the dearest and best of sisters! What do you recommend me to do?”
”What you would have been obliged to do,” Mrs. Delvin answered, ”if you had remained in London. You must go to Redwood Hall tomorrow, as Emily has arranged it. If Mrs. Rook is not there, you must ask for her address in Scotland. If n.o.body knows the address, you must still bestir yourself in trying to find it. And, when you do fall in with Mrs. Rook--”
”Well?”
”Take care, wherever it may be, that you see her privately.”
Mirabel was alarmed. ”Don't keep me in suspense,” he burst out. ”Tell me what you propose.”
”Never mind what I propose, to-night. Before I can tell you what I have in my mind, I must know whether Mrs. Rook is in England or Scotland.
Bring me that information to-morrow, and I shall have something to say to you. Hark! The wind is rising, the rain is falling. There is a chance of sleep for me--I shall soon hear the sea. Good-night.”
”Good-night, dearest--and thank you again, and again!”
CHAPTER LIX. THE ACCIDENT AT BELFORD.
Early in the morning Mirabel set forth for Redwood Hall, in one of the vehicles which Mrs. Delvin still kept at ”The Clink” for the convenience of visitors. He returned soon after noon; having obtained information of the whereabout of Mrs. Rook and her husband. When they had last been heard of, they were at La.s.swade, near Edinburgh. Whether they had, or had not, obtained the situation of which they were in search, neither Miss Redwood nor any one else at the Hall could tell.
In half an hour more, another horse was harnessed, and Mirabel was on his way to the railway station at Belford, to follow Mrs. Rook at Emily's urgent request. Before his departure, he had an interview with his sister.
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