town was getting empty, and business of every kind was getting slack, so that it chanced one day that mr. yeldham found himself writing letters at abnormal hours, and with no very pressing engagements on hand. he was just thinking what a pleasant thing a little leisure, not too pronounced, was, when his clerk rushed in, and announced "mr. thacker."
"you're surprised to see me, mr. yeldham," said thacker, as, after a quick survey of the apartment, he sat himself calmly down in a chair by yeldham's desk.
"well--if you ask the question--yes," said charley with perfect coolness.
"and not too well pleased, perhaps?"
"i should have left you to say that, in any case, mr. thacker. i presume you come to me on business. have the goodness to explain its nature."
charley yeldham had not been gifted by nature with great powers of making himself disagreeable, but on this occasion he exerted all he possessed.
"i always heard you were a cool hand, mr. yeldham," said thacker, in admiration, "and i find they did not say a bit too much. you don't mind my smoking a cigar, do you, while i stop?"
"not in the least," replied mr. yeldham, with immovable gravity, "if you find smoking conducive to the despatch of business."
mr. thacker looked at him with an unmoved expression of countenance, and yeldham began to experience a strong inclination to kick him. he restrained it, however, and kept his seat and his countenance, while mr. thacker lighted a peculiarly fine cigar by the aid of a peculiarly fine light-box which hung from his prodigious watch-chain.
"i allow all that," said mr. yeldham; "so, mr. thacker, fire away."
"you wonder what brings me here," said thacker, settling himself into his chair; "but you'll wonder a great deal more when i tell you. i suppose you think i'm not particularly friendly to your friend streightley, eh?"
"i didn't think about it one way or the other," said the imperturbable yeldham.
"but you knew that i held the mortgages on most part of his property--that place down in the country where the freres are living, and his town-house--you knew i held those, and that it was i who mainly helped to sell him up?"
"yes, i knew that; but as i also knew that gentlemen in your profession were men of business, and not usually swayed by sentiment, i did not see much to wonder at in the proceeding. i imagine any one else would have done the same."
"you're complimentary to what you call my profession--you are, by george! but that's neither here nor there. suppose--i only say suppose--that i've had little or nothing to do with any of streightley's money transactions; that though i've conducted them and carried them out; though he has had my cheques for the cash, and i've had his signature to the deeds--suppose all the time that i've not been acting for myself, but merely as agent to a third party, who wanted to lay their claws on r.s. what do you think of that? ah! i thought i'd make you look interested at last."
"this is true, mr. thacker? you're not romancing, or trying to trot me out in any way, are you?"
"as true as that i'm sitting before you at this present moment."
"then i must ask why, having kept up the delusion so long, you come here now to disclose it? the motive requires a little elucidation, mr. thacker. it's not spontaneous penitence, i suppose?"
"of course i know you'll want to know the motive," replied mr. thacker, daintily removing the cigar from his full red lips, and as daintily replacing it, wholly unmoved by yeldham's observation; "and i'll tell you. because i've been badly treated by my principal--ah, you smile and shrug your shoulders! the usual 'discharged servant's' tactics, you think. only understand, i discharged myself."
"i must ask you to be more explicit, mr. thacker. i have no time for circumlocution. in the first place, who is your principal?"
"that's coming home at once," said mr. thacker; "but i don't mind. miss hester gould that was--mrs. gordon frere that is."
even charles yeldham's placid equanimity--placid by nature, more placid by training--gave way under his astonishment at this revelation, and thacker's quick ears heard him mutter "the devil!" under his breath.
"ah! i thought that would astonish you," he said triumphantly. "you're not one of those that have much to learn, mr. yeldham; but there are very few people of my acquaintance that i couldn't wake up one way or another, i fancy. yes, sir, that lady is my principal. her husband don't know or care much about business, i daresay, and so much the better--a good fellow, i daresay; but soft, sir--soft."
"and so mrs. frere is your principal, mr. thacker," said yeldham, after a moment's pause, to recover his equanimity, "and was her friend's principal creditor, eh? well, well, that's strange enough. and you and she don't put your horses together now? what can have made you agree to differ?"
"you've a very insinuating manner, mr. yeldham. it's a pity you're not in the courts instead of in chamber practice. you'd get it out of them wonderfully there. but it's only due to myself to tell you that i see your every move, and that i should not tumble to it in the least if i had not previously made up my mind to have it all out."
charles yeldham smiled and bowed, and mr. thacker proceeded.
"you know these women don't understand business; and because it had suited my book, for other than mere monetary reasons"--and here he settled his cravat and looked conscious--"to do work for miss gould, she began to look upon me as a mere clerk. she forgot, tins young woman, that while she was a poor governess, glad enough to come up to hampstead and have tea with my sisters, i was one of the leading financiers of the west-end. she forgot that in my bureau i had the names of half the peerage on stamped paper; that i dined here, and lunched there; and was hand-and-glove with some of the best men in london. she forgot that--i see you grinning, yeldham; and all this time that i'm swaggering you're waiting to get at the story. well, i'll tell it you as shortly as i can. you're too well posted up in these matters not to know that a tremendous smash like that in the city two years ago could not have passed over without touching most of us at the west-end. we've been all of us under the harrow, more or less, ever since; and i found it hard work to pull up the losses of that time. i just did that, however, and no more. but there are two or three affairs in which i'm largely interested, which have been excellent, and which will be better still, only just at this particular moment they want a little bolstering. all i could do for them i have done; but a lot of my money was still locked up, and i knew that these things only wanted backing to be splendid investments. so, a short time ago, i went to our friend mrs. f., and told her all about it; took her a sheet of paper full of figures--women always like that; most of 'em can't understand 'em, but she can--and went thoroughly into it with her; proved that it would be a good thing for her, and urged it as a personal favour to myself. damme, sir, she refused to have any thing to do with it!"
mr. thacker brought down his fist upon the table with a bang. then, seeing mr. yeldham was not particularly moved, he went on. "i was not to be beaten at the first go off; so, after she had spoken, i asked her, if she would not go into the matter herself, whether she would let me have the money--of course on unexceptionable security. she refused point-blank; and when pressed to give her reasons, said she did not want to go into any more speculations. i never saw a woman so altered in my life. i don't know what the devil has come over her--gone mad on her money, i suppose. i don't know what induced me to say it,--i can generally manage to take these things quietly enough,--but i was a little bit annoyed, i suppose; but, at all events, i did say, 'this is not quite the manner in which you answered me when i proposed to you to take that mortgage on middlemeads, mrs. frere.' the words were hardly out of my mouth when she turned round on me as quick as lightning, and said, 'you think of nothing but the interest on your money. i had another motive in that investment.' 'and that was--?' i asked. 'to serve my--my own purposes,' she replied. 'i had a long-standing account to settle with robert streightley, and that was the method i chose of doing it.' you would not have liked the expression of my lady's face when she said this. for the first time in her life she seemed to drop the mask. i saw her eyes glowing, her lips livid; and then i felt certain of what i had always suspected."
"and that was--?"
"that when she was down on her luck, and intimate with his people, she had really intended to make robert streightley marry her; and that when she found he did not care for her, and eventually married miss guyon, she determined to be revenged on them both."
"certainly, mr. thacker, your boast of being able to tell strange things is fulfilled in the present instance. i had no idea of this."
"how should you have? but it's fact, nevertheless; take my word for it. i suppose i let on by the expression of my face--for she is as downy as a cat--that i had spotted her game; for she tried in every possible way to wriggle out of what she had said. 'middlemeads was such a good investment.' 'money wasn't so scarce then.' 'in these times one ought to be particularly careful,' &c. &c. but i wasn't to be put off with any such humbug as that; i just asked her plainly once more, whether she would make the advances i suggested, on the security i offered; and when she again decidedly refused, i took up my hat and wished her good morning. and i took my oath, as i crossed her hall-mat, that i'd go out of my way to do her a bad turn; and, as luck would have it, now i'm able to do it without going out of my way."
"that is splendid! we're really coming to it!"
"you're still chaffing me, mr. yeldham. i might have told you that interest in streightley was the sole motive for my coming here to tell you what i am going to tell you presently, whereas i don't disguise for a minute that the hope of doing mrs. frere a bad turn entirely governs me in the matter. i thought at first that what would annoy her most would be to see streightley's business doing well again. and, mind you, that could be very easily managed. he came out of his troubles with a high character, and money is getting plenty. there are heaps of fellows who, from old respect and friendship, would come forward to help to put robert streightley on his legs again. i'd do my little share--from another motive. i thought of that plan; i've got it all down in detail at home; it may be of use some day; but in the mean time something else has turned up which looks infinitely more promising, in the way of sticking a dagger into my lady's breast."
"don't soar into metaphor again, mr. thacker, please. it delays your point most confoundedly."
"that streightley is ruined--partly by her act--is nuts to her, but nothing like such nuts as that his wife has left him. she and that old cat lady what-do-you-call her--marsh something--have talked that poor girl over ever since,--regular old tabby that lady thingammy,--and so i changed my mind, and thought to myself, 'no; nothing would make mrs. frere so wild as to see mrs. streightley restored to, and happy with, her husband;' and i determined i'd do my best to carry that idea into effect."
"my good fellow, you only determined what all of us have determined and tried, but without the smallest possible result."
mr. thacker settled his elbows comfortably on the table, and replied in a tone of easy confidence:
"ye-es; that's exactly the difference between me and 'all of us.' but listen to me, and i will show you i have come here on no fool's errand. you know that, pending the great gathering together of all of us at jerusalem, our people are spread over the whole face of the earth. thus those among us who are well known, or who take a leading part, have ramifications and correspondents in every large city in the world. i myself am in this position; and it was my intention to have set the whole of the machinery in motion, with the view of discovering where mrs. streightley lay hidden, when, by a most fortunate accident, i believe i have been spared the trouble, and have at once accomplished my end."
"god grant it!" said yeldham earnestly. "but how? how?"
"you must let me tell my story in my own way, and this part of it involves rather a lengthened explanation. when i was a lad, my bosom-friend was a boy of my own age named hartmann. he was of german origin; but his family had been for a long time settled in this country, and he and i were sworn chums. i do not know why; i never could make out why, except perhaps"--and here mr. thacker set his teeth, while the colour mounted into his cheeks--"except perhaps that we were both jews; and the other boys stood aloof from us, and used to chaff and call us names. d--n 'em! i've made some of 'em pay for that fun since. there was nothing else in common between young hartmann and me. i was always pushing and energetic, looking to the main chance, and doing all i could to make something out of every body; while he was a dreamy, quiet kind of fellow, with no interest for any thing in the world but music. he was a wonderful musician. by george! sometimes even now, when i'm in a quiet mood, and get thinking of him, i fancy i hear the sounds that he used to draw out of his violin. there he would sit, scraping away hour after hour in play-time; so that when we left school, which we did about the same time, he'd had great practice for such a young chap, and was quite a proficient. his friends talked about getting him into a house of business; but i knew how much that would do. when you've got what your friends call artistic, and your enemies bohemian tendencies, you had better give way to 'em at once, for they'll prevent your settling down to any thing else, and they're sure to claim you in the end. poor nat hartmann prayed so hard to be allowed to follow his bent, that his friends never attempted to struggle with him; and he went off, very soon after leaving school, to some connections of his family at vienna, where he was to finish his musical education. he was not long absent before we had news of him. he was in the highest spirits, making excellent progress. then he wrote that he had been noticed by the emperor, and taken into the imperial private band, of which, in about three years, he became leader. his name began to be known in musical circles, and his arrival in england was announced for the approaching season. then suddenly there came a rumour that he was under a cloud--how or why we could never ascertain. i wrote to him twice or thrice; but my letters were unanswered, and i gave it up in despair.
"it must have been ten years after this, that, one night as i was coming out of the opera, i felt a gentle pull at my coat, and, turning round, i saw nat hartmann. i knew him in an instant, though he was utterly changed from my friend of years before. all his colour was gone; his face was thin and pinched and haggard; his eyes sunk deep in his head; his lips, which had been so full and ruddy, were now thin and pallid. i stepped aside to satisfy myself that it was he; then i made him get into my brougham, and drove him to my rooms. to my dying day i shall never forget that man's appearance as he stood in his thin, wretched clothes, under the lamplight; i shall never forget the manner in which he rushed to the fireplace, knelt down on the rug, and spread out his transparent hands to the blaze; i shall never forget the manner in which he gulped down the wine which i handed to him, or the ravenous way in which he tore at the food. when he had eaten and drank, had warmed himself, and nature seemed revived within him, i talked to him, and bit by bit managed to drag from him his story. he was a long time telling it, and it was disconnected and jerky to a degree, interspersed with loud railing at fortune, with sighs and tears, and dolorous ejaculations, and i had a hard task to follow him; but i gleaned from him this: his first downward step had been caused by his having married a christian girl, a singer at the grand opera in vienna, with whom he fell desperately in love. this had so exasperated his relatives, that after trying, by every means in their power, to prevent the marriage, when they found it had actually taken place, they repudiated him, and did every thing possible to ruin him and his wife. one of the principal jewish bankers, who had originally introduced hartmann to the imperial notice, now became his bitterest enemy, used the influence which had formerly been exerted in the young man's favour to debase him, and finally, under some pretext, got him removed from his position as leader of the emperor's private band. from that time onward misfortune seemed to have seized him; his wife, after a long illness, died in childbirth, leaving him with one little girl. in his misery he took to drinking, and sunk from bad to worse. one night, while drunk, he struck an officer who had mocked his playing, and, to save his life, fled with his little child to england. he had been in london a week, and had haunted the streets in the hope of meeting me; and the meeting was only just in time, by george! for he and his little child were nearly starved.
"this is a long story, but it's pretty nearly over now. of course i did what was possible to be done for this poor fellow; i gave him money and clothes, and sent him to the doctor, and all that; but he was very proud in all his misery, and would not accept what he called 'charity,' but insisted upon working for his living. poor nat, poor fellow! the drink had ruined him, mind and body--all his crisp touch, all his wonderful execution, gone, sir, gone never to return; but he could still play the fiddle very decently, better than most, at any rate; so i spoke to wuff and some operatic people i knew, and got him playing at concerts and theatres, and that sort of thing. but it didn't last long; the drink had done its work, and he could not get on without stimulants; when he got ill again, and broke up suddenly, sending for me when he was on his death-bed, and imploring me to take care of his little girl--his little louise. i promised readily enough, for she was a sweet little child, and i had always been fond of her; and as soon as we had buried the poor fellow, i sent the girl over to a school in paris, intending to have her brought up as a governess; but with a splendid violinist for her father, and a first-rate opera-singer for her mother, it wasn't to be expected that she'd go in for steady respectability, though she's as good a girl as ever breathed; moreover she inherits her mother's voice, and i believe--from what i hear from friends of mine over there, who know all about this kind of thing--that she'll some day be a splendid singer, and astonish the world. so, when all these representations were made to me, i could not hold out any longer; and when louise left school, eighteen months ago, i got her admitted as a pupil at the conservatoire; and there she is working away, and i'm told is getting on gloriously. was getting on gloriously, i should say, up to within the last month; but she has been very ill, poor child, and that has pulled her down, and put her back; and--that's exactly what i'm coming to. i daresay you've been horribly bored up to this point, mr. yeldham; but i think when i've finished, you'll say it was worth your listening to."
"only you carry out the hopes you've raised, mr. thacker, and you may depend upon it i won't complain," said yeldham.
"well, i had been wondering that i had not heard from this girl. she must be sixteen or seventeen now, and she writes most capital letters. i assure you, when i'm regularly dry and stoney with business, feel as if i was stuccoed all over like, one of this girl's letters refreshes me and cheers me up, and makes me remember there is something else in the world to live for besides money-getting. i had been wondering i had not heard from louise, when this morning a letter came. in it she told me that she had been very ill with a fever, which had completely prostrated her, and that--but i may as well read this part out to you."
mr. thacker then produced a letter from his pocket-book, and read the following passage:
"you know, my dear guardian, notwithstanding my foreign extraction and half-foreign bringing-up, the horror i have always had of french doctors; and it is certain i should have been left to the mercy of some of these dreadful creatures, if it had not been for lucy elliott, who is a fellow-pupil of mine at the conservatoire, and who knew dr. hudson, who is our great english physician over here. she came and saw me when i was first taken ill, and promised to send dr. hudson to me. within an hour he was by my bedside; and i can never express to any one his kindness and attention. he asked me, without the smallest impertinent curiosity, about myself; and when i told him that i was all alone in paris, and had no relations on whom i could depend, he shook his head, and said it was absolutely necessary that i should have some one to nurse me. i suggested sister agatha, who used to come and see us so often at the pension, and who, i know, is a skilled and practised nurse; but dr. hudson said he thought he could do better than sister agatha for me, and that he would try to get an english widow lady of his acquaintance to come and nurse me."--("ah, ha! you start, yeldham, my friend! hold on a bit, my boy; the scent's only just warming yet; hold on a bit longer.")--"i went to sleep after dr. hudson left me; and when i woke that evening i found a stranger sitting by my side. a tall elegant young woman, very young still, but looking as though she had seen a great deal of sorrow; for her beautiful face--i can't explain to you how wonderfully beautiful it is, so calm and classical and statuesque--is marked here and there with deep lines, and there is a gravity about her which i am sure has been brought on by mental suffering. she motioned me to keep silent, and then told me, in o such a sweet voice, that i was to be quite quiet, and that she had come to nurse me and attend upon me, and under god's help get me well again. from that night until now--she has only just gone away, and she will be back this evening, though i scarcely require any assistance now--she has been my best and dearest friend, my nurse, my consoler, my sister. in all that dreadful fever i had the sense of her constant presence, knew the touch of her cool hands to my hot head, recognised the cheering tone of her voice, when, in my pain and misery, i could scarcely see her. to her and my kind dr. hudson i owe my life; and as i know, my dear guardian, that you are good enough to prize that life, i am sure you will be grateful to these good friends. and here i come to a point where i require your advice and assistance. i told dr. hudson that though i was only a struggling pupil at the conservatoire, i had connections in england who, i was sure, would take care that his kindness to me was not forgotten. i presumed so much, my dear guardian; for i felt certain that your goodness of heart"--("that's nothing," said mr. thacker abruptly; "hem! hem! here it is")--"but now i don't know what to say about madame sidney. she is evidently not rich, though a thorough lady born and bred; and i'm sure you will think with me that some recompense should be made her, though what it is to be, and how it is to be managed, i must leave to your better sense and knowledge of the world to suggest. one thing i have discovered, and that is, that this is one of the most trying, if not the most trying, occasions on which madame sidney has acted in the capacity of sick nurse; and that discovery i made in this way. when i was first coming into convalescence, when i first had a glimmering of what was passing round me, i heard the doctor say to her, 'well, i knew i was not mistaken; the child owes her recovery, under providence, to your care and ceaseless attention. it's your greatest experience; it's the opportunity which you have so much wished for, of showing that you possessed the patience, the energy, and the long-suffering for which you have so long fervently prayed; but all of which i knew were your attributes, when, under different circumstances, neither you nor i thought you would ever be called upon to employ them, for they were not wanted then for others, but they were wanted for yourself,--i mean during that week's illness at martigny.'"
"stop!" cried charley yeldham, bringing his hand down heavily on the table, and then rising and pacing hurriedly up and down the room; "stop! that seems to me to be conclusive."
"ah, ha!" cried thacker, in exultation; "we're hot at last; we're burning now, ain't we? when i came to that passage in louise's letter, the whole thing flashed across me. i recollected having heard streightley talk of his wife's illness at martigny. i said to myself, 'here's a go; the lost bird's found!' and in an instant i saw my way--i confess it; i don't go in for any high moral dodges--i saw my way to being revenged on mrs. gordon frere, and to shooting a bolt between the joints of her armour, and hitting her in the very place where she was most vulnerable, and would least like to be hit." and mr. thacker looked up in yeldham's face, and rubbed his hands with the greatest glee.
"by jove, thacker, i think there's very little doubt about the co-identity of mrs. streightley and madame sidney," said yeldham, after a few minutes' deliberation. "it will be a wonderful thing if it turns out so. i never thought that--" and yeldham stopped.
"never thought that i should be the means of furnishing you with such pleasant information? never thought that the jew-discounter could ever do a man a good turn without an ulterior view to his own advantage? that's it, eh? don't be bashful; speak out."
"not exactly that," said charley yeldham. "i am in the habit of speaking out, and so i'll say that i never thought--how could i?--that the man whom we have all regarded as the active agent in robert streightley's financial ruin would probably turn out to be the means of securing his domestic happiness."
"i hope to god i may!" said thacker earnestly. "look here. i don't pretend to be a particularly moral or a strait-laced kind of person; and i acknowledge, as i have done from the first, that my promptings in this matter have been to be revenged on hester gould--mrs. frere, i mean. but if by any act of mine i could do a good turn to streightley, whom i believe to be an honourable man and a devilish clever fellow, and to his wife, who is certainly the handsomest woman i know, i--well, it would be a deuced pleasant thing to think over by and by, and i wouldn't let money be any obstacle to my carrying it out."
"you said i didn't like you, and wasn't pleased to see you, when you came in," said yeldham, taking thacker's hand and wringing it. "put that opinion to the test some day--you'll find yourself mistaken."
"that's the ticket," said mr. thacker. "and now good-bye, and god speed you! i swear all the notions of revenge on mrs. f. with which i came here seem to have disappeared, and i can think of nothing now but the chance of having done a good turn to streightley. ah, old shakespeare knew all about it: 'hath not a jew what's-his-names'--you remember the quotation."
and mr. thacker waved his hand jauntily in adieu and left the chambers.
as may be readily supposed, yeldham lost no time in communicating to robert the main points of mr. thacker's valuable information. he kept that gentleman's revelation of the virtuous motives which had animated him strictly to himself; they did not bear upon robert's interests, and a knowledge of them could only tend to distress him.
robert's agitation was extreme when he learned the unmistakably reliable nature of the clue now placed so unexpectedly in their hands. he remembered the english doctor who had attended katharine in her illness at martigny perfectly, and he was desperately vexed and impatient with himself that he had not remembered him sooner. yeldham did not try to stem the tide of his self-reproach, but he did not set himself very seriously in opposition to robert's determination, that the evening of the day then passing should see him en route for paris.
"suppose you find her--and you must remember, robert, that though most probable, it is not certain--and she positively refuses to see you? what are you to do? you cannot force yourself into her presence. suppose she learns your intention, and she is resolved to carry out her purpose, she will fly away again, and then we shall be worse off than before. be guided by me, robert; let me go in your stead. if i am to succeed, the pleasure will not be lessened; if i am to fail, better i than you. you can trust me, i know; and you know, in the best case, i only precede you by a few hours; in the worst--well--we won't talk of that beyond saying that you'll bear it better coming through me."
these arguments and his own secret despondency induced robert to consent. he was immeasurably grateful to yeldham for undertaking the task for him; but he said little. he was "not strong," as he was accustomed to say, and easily upset; so yeldham got up a great deal of unnecessary bustle and discussion to cover his emotion; and, indeed, on this and some other late occasions the lawyer displayed great womanish tact and affectionate cunning. yeldham could not go that same evening, and the little delay tried robert; but he strove to hide his impatience; and his friend seconded the effort, and arranged to leave london on the morrow.
a short note from yeldham to gordon frere had informed the latter that charley was about to start for paris. he had not time to enter into written explanations, and he greatly desired to secure for robert during his absence the comfort of gordon's cheerful companionship and invariably hopeful counsel. so he had merely said, "we have got a clue, a safe one this time, so far as finding the person we want goes, and i am off to follow it up. can you come up for a day or two? i want to see you before i start."
gordon frere announced his intention of going to town for a few days, immediately after he received this note; but gave no explanation of its motive. he had dropped into habits of the sort of late; and he and his wife were quite a fashionable couple, independent of each other in all their arrangements, and models of courtesy.
having reached the temple, he found yeldham in the midst of a vast confusion of books and papers, and, to his great satisfaction, alone. he had rather expected that robert would be there to the last moment, clinging to his emissary, and urging upon him superfluous entreaties concerning speed and earnestness.
yeldham explained to gordon briefly and clearly what had happened, merely suppressing hester's share in thacker's revelation. he had no inclination to make mischief between mrs. frere and her husband, though he could not avoid thinking what a sufficient kind of punishment for her lay ready to his hand, had he chosen to use it. but yeldham disdained to do so; the woman would be punished by the restoration of her innocent rival to her husband, if such a blessed event were indeed to be; and if it were not--he could not waste a thought on her meanness and her malice. he knew gordon would not ask for more information than he was disposed to give, and would not take the trouble of looking beneath the surface of any thing. so he told him as much as he thought proper; and gordon, his first surprise and curiosity abated, questioned him concerning his anticipations of success.
"what are the chances, charley?" he asked, earnestly,--"what do you really think they are?"
"that they are terribly small. small enough as to the finding of the lady, and smaller still as to getting her to return. however, i do think that in all respects it is better that robert streightley should not go himself. his wife would be much more likely to hear of his presence there than of mine."
"and do you think if she did hear of it she would avoid him?"
"she would go off somewhere else like a shot. she is just a temperament difficult to deal with. smarting under the sense of a great wrong, she is capable of any thing.'"
"she was always strong-minded--i mean self-reliant, and that sort of thing," said frere; "but she had plenty of common-sense."
"so i should imagine from what i saw of her. of course i would not have dreamed of hinting such a thing before our poor friend; but the difficulty of arranging the matter will arise not so much from mrs. streightley's want of sense as from her want of heart. a woman who could see her husband suffering from the anxieties which beset robert long before the crash came, and yet persist in a course of thoroughly reckless extravagance, is not very impressionable, you may depend upon it."
"do you imagine that--"
"my dear gordon, it's not a nice thing to say, but i imagine that, though she did not know the terms of the bargain, she felt that she had been purchased by her husband, and she was determined to have the entire price. now, you know, dealing with such a woman as that, where questions of feeling are concerned, is difficult."
"it's but a poor look-out, i'm afraid," said frere, rising from his chair; "and i don't envy you your mission, charley, though i don't know any one who would do it so well; and if honesty and warm feeling are to win the day, you'll be successful. so, god bless you! mind you let me know how you prosper. better write to me at the club, i think," added mr. frere, with a sudden recollection that news of katharine streightley was ever too welcome to the lady who was now his wife.
yeldham shook hands warmly with him, grinning the while. none of these little evidences of character were thrown away on the old bachelor, who may have derived solace and instruction from them.
robert was to accompany him to the station, and the hour of his arrival drew near. yeldham's packing was quickly done, and he had a few minutes' leisure to think of the strangeness of the freak of fortune which was sending him in search of the only woman towards whom his heart had ever been attracted, with the object of winning her back to another. perhaps he had censured her too harshly in talking to gordon frere--to that other man, who had also loved her, after his fashion. then he heard robert's step ascending the stairs, and sighed as he thought that it was hard indeed to look at his suffering face, and acquit katharine of heartlessness and cruelty.
