Tales and Novels — Volume 02 eBook

“Oh, sir!  Oh, Mr. Belton!” cried Ellen, bursting now, for the first time, into tears, “do not speak so harshly to Maurice.”

“To you I shall not speak harshly,” said Mr. Belton, his voice and looks changing; “for I have the greatest compassion for such an excellent wife and mother.  And I shall take care that neither you nor your son, whom you have taken such successful pains to educate, shall suffer by the folly and imprudence in which you had no share.  As to the ready money which your husband has lost and paid to these sharpers, it is, I fear, irrecoverable; but the goods in your shop, and the furniture in your house, I will take care shall not be touched.  I will go immediately to my attorney, and direct him to inquire into the truth of all I have been told, and to prosecute these villains for keeping a gaming-table, and playing at unlawful games.  Finish that inventory which you are making out, George, and give it to me; I will have the furniture in your house, Ellen, valued by an appraiser, and will advance you money to the amount, on which you may continue to live in comfort and credit, trusting to your industry and integrity to repay me in small sums, as you find it convenient, out of the profits of your shop.”

“Oh, sir!” cried Maurice, clasping his hands with a strong expression of joy, “thank you! thank you from the bottom of my soul!  Save her from misery, save the boy, and let me suffer as I ought for my folly.”

Mr. Belton, in spite of his contempt for gamesters, was touched by Maurice’s repentance; but, keeping a steady countenance, replied in a firm tone, “Suffering for folly does nobody any good, unless it makes them wiser in future.”

CHAPTER III.

Mrs. Dolly, who had been unaccountably awed to silence by Mr. Belton’s manner of speaking and looking, broke forth the moment he had left the house.  “Very genteel, indeed; though he might have taken more notice of me.  See what, it is, George, to have the luck of meeting with good friends.”

“See what it is to deserve good friends, George,” said Ellen.

“You’ll all remember, I hope,” said Mrs. Dolly, raising her voice, “that it was I who was the first and foremost cause of all this, by taking George along with me to the tea-drinking at the bowling-green, where he first got acquainted with Mr. Belton.”

“Mr. Belton would never have troubled his head about such a little boy as George,” said Ellen, “if it had not been for—­you know what I mean, Mrs. Dolly.  All I wish to say is, that George’s own good behaviour was the cause of our getting acquainted with this good friend.”

“And I am sure you were the cause, mother,” said George, “of what you call my good behaviour.”

Mrs. Dolly, somewhat vexed at this turn, changed the conversation saying, “Well, ’tis no matter how we made such a good acquaintance; let us make the most of him, and drink his health, as becomes us, after dinner.  And now, I suppose, all will go on as usual:  none of our acquaintance in Paddington need know any thing of what has happened.”