An answer arrived without undue delay, and Mrs. Clover
went apart to read it, her breath quicker than usual,
and her fingers tremulous. Mr. Gammon wrote with
unfeigned cordiality, just like himself. He hoped
to call very soon, though it might still be a few weeks.
There was nothing to forgive on his part; he wasn’t
such a fool as to be angry with an old friend for
a few hasty words. But the truth was he had a
lot of business on his hands; he was doing his best
to get into a permanency at Quodlings’ of Norton
Folgate, and he knew Mrs. Clover would be glad to
hear that. Let her give his kind regards to Miss
Minnie, and believe him when he said that he was just
as friendly disposed as ever.
Beneath these words Mrs. Clover naturally enough detected
nothing of the strange experiences in which Mr. Gammon
was involved. “Kind regards to Minnie.”
Yes, there was the explanation of his silence.
He called her his “old friend,” a phrase
of double meaning. Mrs. Clover, in spite of her
good sense, was vexed, and wished he had not said
“old.” Why, had she not a year or
two the advantage of him in youthfulness?
CHAPTER XX
THE HUSBAND’S RETURN
Gammon would gladly have answered in person Mrs. Clover’s
letter, but he had promised Polly that he would neither
visit the china shop nor in any way communicate with
her aunt. Polly had made a great point of this,
and he thought the reason was not far to seek; she
still harboured jealousy of her cousin, and no doubt
it would be delightful to make known, just how and
when she herself saw fit, her triumph over Minnie.
So he kept away from Battersea Park Road, though often
wishing to spend an evening there in the old way, with
Mrs. Clover’s bright face on one side of him
and Minnie’s modestly bent head on the other.
It would have been so restful after all this excitement,
for however he tried to grasp the facts, Mrs. Clover
and Minnie still seemed remote from the world of wealth
and titles; he could not change their names or see
them in any other position than that which was familiar
and natural. In talk with Polly he always rose
to hilarious anticipations, partly the result of amorous
fervour; but this mood did not survive their parting.
Alone he was frequently troubled with uneasiness,
with misgiving, more so as the days went by without
bringing any news from Greenacre. Under the cover
of night he visited Lowndes Mansions and hung about
there for half an hour, like unto one with sinister
intentions; but his trouble profited him nothing.
Polly was growing impatient. After the manner
of her kind she brooded on suspicions, and hatched
numerous more or less wild conjectures. What
if Greenacre had spirited Lord Polperro away for some
dark purpose of his own? Gammon himself could
not help suspecting the mysterious man of deep projects
which would tend to the disadvantage of Lord Polperro’s
forsaken wife and child. At the end of a fortnight
he wrote to Greenacre at the Bilboes pressing for
information. To his surprise and satisfaction
this brought about an interview on the following day.
Greenacre seemed radiant with a good conscience.
