’And do you mean to say, Mr. Tudor, that you
will not answer my question?’ said Mrs. Scott.
’I mean to say, most positively, that I will
answer no questions,’ said Alaric.
‘Oh, confound, not do at all; d——,’
said the captain. ’The girl’s money
all gone, and you won’t answer questions!’
‘No!’ shouted Alaric, walking across the
room till he closely confronted the captain.
’No—no—I will answer no
questions that may be asked in your hearing.
But that your wife’s presence protects you,
I would kick you down your own stairs before me.’
Captain Val retreated a step—he could retreat
no more—and wiped his moustache with both
hands at once. Mrs. Val screamed. Victoire
took hold of the back of a chair, as though he thought
it well that he should be armed in the general battle
that was to ensue; and Alaric, without further speech,
walked out of the room, and went away to his office.
‘So you have given up Strathbogy?’ said
Sir Gregory to him, in the course of the day.
‘I think I have,’ said Alaric; ’considering
all things, I believe it will be the best for me to
do so.’
‘Not a doubt of it,’ said Sir Gregory—’not
a doubt of it, my dear fellow;’ and then Sir
Gregory began to evince, by the cordiality of his
official confidence, that he had fully taken Alaric
back into his good graces. It was nothing to him
that Strathbogy had given up Alaric instead of Alaric
giving up Strathbogy. He was sufficiently pleased
at knowing that the danger of his being supplanted
by his own junior was over.
And then Alaric again went into the weary city, again
made inquiries about his shares, and again returned
to his office, and thence to his home.
But on his return to his office, he found lying on
his table a note in Undy’s handwriting, but
not signed, in which he was informed that things would
yet be well, if the required shares should be forthcoming
on the following day.
He crumpled the note tight in his hand, and was about
to fling it among the waste paper, but in a moment
he thought better of it, and smoothing the paper straight,
he folded it, and laid it carefully on his desk.
That day, on his visit into the city, he had found
that the bridge shares had fallen to less than the
value of their original purchase-money; and that evening
he told Gertrude everything. The author does
not dare to describe the telling.
TRIBULATION
We must now return for a short while to Surbiton Cottage.
It was not so gay a place as it once had been; merry
laughter was not so often heard among the shrubbery
walks, nor was a boat to be seen so often glancing
in and out between the lawn and the adjacent island.
The Cottage had become a demure, staid abode, of which
Captain Cuttwater was in general the most vivacious
inmate; and yet there was soon to be marrying, and
giving in marriage.
