The captain took it with a little nod, and a peevish
side-glance. It said—
’MY DEAR CAPTAIN BRANDON LAKE,—Imperative
business calls me to London by the early train to-morrow.
Will you therefore favour me, if convenient, by
the bearer, with the small note of consent, which
must accompany the articles agreeing to sell.
‘I remain, &c. &c. &c.’
Larkin’s groom was waiting for an answer.
‘Tell him I shall probably see Mr. Larkin myself,’
said the captain, snappishly; and so he walked down
to pretty little Gylingden.
On the steps of the reading-room stood old Tom Ruddle,
who acted as marker in the billiard-room, treasurer,
and book-keeper beside, and swept out the premises
every morning, and went to and fro at the proper hours,
between that literary and sporting institution and
the post-office; and who, though seldom sober, was
always well instructed in the news of the town.
‘How do you do, old Ruddle—quite
well?’ asked the captain with a smile.
‘Who have you got in the rooms?’
Well, Jos. Larkin was not there. Indeed
he seldom showed in those premises, which he considered
decidedly low, dropping in only now and then, like
the great county gentlemen, on sessions days, to glance
at the papers, and gossip on their own high affairs.
But Ruddle had seen Mr. Jos. Larkin on the green,
not five minutes since, and thither the gallant captain
bent his steps.
THE ACE OF HEARTS.
‘So you are going to London—to-morrow,
is not it?’ said Captain Lake, when on the green
of Gylingden where visitors were promenading, and the
militia bands playing lusty polkas, he met Mr. Jos.
Larkin, in lavender trousers and kid gloves, new hat,
metropolitan black frock-coat, and shining French
boots—the most elegant as well as the most
Christian of provincial attorneys.
’Ah, yes—I think—should
my engagements permit—of starting early
to-morrow. The fact is, Captain Lake, our poor
friend the vicar, you know, the Rev. William Wylder,
has pressing occasion for some money, and I can’t
leave him absolutely in the hands of Burlington and
Smith.’
‘No, of course—quite so,’ said
Lake, with that sly smile which made every fellow
on whom it lighted somehow fancy that the captain had
divined his secret. ‘Very honest fellows,
with good looking after—eh?’
The attorney laughed a little awkwardly, with his
pretty pink blush over his long face.
’Well, I’m far from saying that, but it
is their business, you know, to take care of their
client; and it would not do to give them the handling
of mine. Can I do anything, Captain Lake,
for you while in town?’
’Nothing on earth, thank you very much.
But I am thinking of doing something for you.
You’ve interested yourself a great deal about
Mark Wylder’s movements.’
