’RESPECTED SIR,—Since the above i
ave a much to tel mos surprisen, the gentleman you
wer anceous of tiding mister M. W. is cum privet, and
him and master met tonite nere 2 in morning, in the
long pond allee, so is near home then we suposed,
no more at present Sir from your
’i shall go to dolington day arter to-morrow
by eleven o’clock trane if you ere gong, Sir.’
When the attorney returned, between eleven and twelve
o’clock next morning, this letter awaited him.
It did not, of course, surprise him, but it conclusively
corroborated all his inferences.
Here had been Mark Wylder. He had stopped at
Dollington, as the attorney suspected he would, and
he had kept tryst, in the Brandon grounds, with sly
Captain Lake, whose relations with him it became now
more difficult than ever clearly to comprehend.
Wylder was plainly under no physical coercion.
He had come and gone unattended. For one reason
or other he was, at least, as strongly interested
as Lake in maintaining secrecy.
That Mark Wylder was living was the grand fact with
which he had just then to do. How near he had
been to purchasing the vicar’s reversion!
The engrossed deeds lay in the black box there.
And yet it might be all true about Mark’s secret
marriage. At that moment there might be a whole
rosary of sons, small and great, to intercept the inheritance;
and the Reverend William Wylder might have no more
chance of the estates than he had of the crown.
What a deliverance for the good attorney. His
money was quite safe. The excellent man’s
religion was, we know, a little Jewish, and rested
upon temporal rewards and comforts. He thought,
I am sure, that a competent staff of angels were placed
specially in charge of the interests of Jos.
Larkin, Esq., who attended so many services and sermons
on Sundays, and led a life of such ascetic propriety.
He felt quite grateful to them, in his priggish way—their
management in this matter had been so eminently satisfactory.
He regretted that he had not an opportunity of telling
them so personally. I don’t say that he
would have expressed it in these literal terms; but
it was fixed in his mind that the carriage of his
business was supernaturally arranged. Perhaps
he was right, and he was at once elated and purified,
and his looks and manner that afternoon were more
than usually meek and celestial.
SIR HARRY BRACTON’S INVASION OF GYLINGDEN.
Jim Dutton had not turned up since, and his letter
was one of those mares’ nests of which gentlemen
in Mr. Larkin’s line of business have so large
an experience. Of Mark Wylder not a trace was
discoverable. His enquiries on this point were,
of course, conducted with caution and remoteness.
Gylingden, however, was one of those places which,
if it knows anything, is sure to find a way of telling
it, and the attorney was soon satisfied that Mark’s
secret visit had been conducted with sufficient caution
to baffle the eyes and ears of the good folk of the
town.
