Part 31 (2/2)
”You cannot refuse to do as I suggest, Jocelyn I shall make you the fullest amends for the harm that I have done you, if you but obey my directions You must quit this place as soon as possible, and proceed on your way to London There you must find a boat to carry you to France, and you will await reed, Jocelyn?”
There was a slight pause, and Jocelyn took his resolution Yet there was still a sullen look in the eyes he lifted to his father's face
”I have little choice, sir,” he ree If you accomplish what you promise, I own that you will have ht's want of faith I shall await you at Calais”
Crispin sighed, and for a second his face hardened It was not the answer to which he held himself entitled, and for a moment it rose to the lips of this man of fierce and sudden an to detest, go his ohich assuredly would lead hiht sufficed to quell that mood of his
”I shall not fail you,” he said coldly ”Have you money for the journey?”
The boy flushed as he reiven hi, he drew fro, and placed it quietly upon the table ”There are fifty Caroluses in that bag That should suffice to carry you to France Fare you well until wethe boy ti, he quickly left the room
Within the hour he was in the saddle, and his horse's head was turned northwards once h Newport so rein By the door of the Raven Inn stood a travelling carriage, upon which he did not so s at times the whole of a man's future life, the destinies even of lance, that had not Crispin kept his eyes that rey road before him, had he chanced to look sideways as he passed the Raven Inn at Newport, and seen the Ashburn arms displayed upon the panels of that coach, he would of a certainty have paused And had he done so, his whole destiny would assuredly have shaped a different course fro
CHAPTER XXIII GREGORY'S ATTRITION
Joseph's journey to London was occasioned by his very natural anxiety to assure hiht in the toils of the net he had so cunningly baited for hih he would trouble theham on the day after Crispin's departure
Not a little perplexed was Cynthia at the topsy-turvydo she had found her father's house Kenneth was gone; he had left in the dead of night, and see there had been no talk of his departing Her father was abed with a wound that rooms were all sick, and wandered in a dazed and witless fashi+on about the castle, their faces deadly pale and their eyes lustreless In the hall she had found a chaotic disorder upon descending, and one of the panels of the wainscot she saas freshly cracked
Slowly the idea forced itself upon her ht before, yet was she far fro the motives that could have led to it The conclusion she came to in the end was that the men had drunk deep, that in their cups they had waxed quarrelsome, and that swords had been drawn
Of Joseph then she sought enlightenht handsomely, like the ready-witted knave he was A wondrously plausible story had he for her ear; a story that played cunningly upon her knowledge of the compact that existed between Kenneth and Sir Crispin
”You may not know,” said he--full well aware that she did know--”that when Galliard saved Kenneth's life at Worcester he exacted from the lad the proeful business he had on hand”
Cynthia nodded that she understood or that she knew, and glibly Joseph pursued:
”Last night, when on the point of departing, Crispin, who had drunk over-freely, as is his custohted word, and deo forth with hi out upon a journey, and he requested Galliard to wait until to-day, when he would be ready to fulfil what he had promised But Crispin retorted that Kenneth was bound by his oath to go with hiain he bade the boy make ready at once Words ensued between the until to-day, and Crispin insisting upon his getting his boots and cloak and cou put out of temper, snatched at his sword, and would assuredly have spitted the boy had not your father interposed, thereby getting himself wounded
Thereafter, in his drunken lust Sir Crispin went the length of wantonly cracking that panel with his sword by way of showing Kenneth what he had to expect unless he obeyed hi o with Galliard as he demanded
To this, for all his reluctance, Kenneth ended by consenting, and so they are gone”
By that lib and specious explanation Cynthia was convinced True, she added a question touching the arooms, in reply to which Joseph afforded her a part of the truth
”Sir Crispin sent them some wine, and they drank to his departure so heartily that they are not rightly sober yet”
Satisfied with this explanation Cynthia repaired to her father
Now Gregory had not agreed with Joseph what narrative they were to offer Cynthia, for it had never crossed his dull mind that the disorder of the hall and the absence of Kenneth ht cause her astonishment And so when she touched upon thefool he was, heupon a tale which, if no less iinative than Joseph's, was vastly its inferior in plausibility and had yet the quality of differing from it totally in substance