"Oh! I know that. By Jove, my uncle"s looking this way. I hope he"s not coming."
"Would you mind taking me to mamma?"
"No--pray stay for a moment. Here"s Sedley."
And the young man, whom we know pretty well, with the bold blue eyes and golden moustaches, and good frank handsome face, approached smiling.
"How are you, Sedley?" said Cleve, giving him two fingers. "Caroline Oldys says you"ve had an adventure. Where was it?"
"The lady in black, you know, in Wales," reminded Miss Oldys.
"Oh! to be sure," said Sedley, laughing. "A lady in gray, it was. I saw her twice. But that"s more than a year old, and there has been nothing ever since."
"_Do_ go on."
Sedley laughed.
"It was at Cardyllian, in the church. She lived at Malory--that dark old place you went to see with the Verneys, the day you were at Cardyllian--don"t you remember?"
"Oh, yes,--what a romantic place!"
"What an awfully cross old fellow, old enough to be her father, but with the air of her husband, guarding her like a dragon, and eyeing every fellow that came near as if he"d knock him down; a lean, white-whiskered, bald old fellow, with bushy eyebrows, and a fierce face, and eyes jumping out of his head, and lame of one foot, too. Not a beauty, by any means."
"Where did you see _him_?" said Cleve.
"I did not see him--but Christma.s.s Owen the boatman told me."
"Well, and which is your fate--which is to kill you--the husband or wife?" inquired Cleve, looking vaguely among the crowd.
"Oh, the wife, as he calls her, is really quite beautiful, melancholy and that, you know. I"d have found out all about them, but they left before I had time to go back, but Verney was at Cardyllian, when I was there."
"When was that?" asked Cleve.
"I mean when these people were at Malory. Cleve was much more gone about her than I was--at least so I"ve heard," answered Sedley.
"That"s very ungrateful of you, Sedley. I never interfered, upon my honour. I saw her once in church, and accompanied him in his pursuit at his earnest request, and I never saw her again. Are you going on to the Halbury"s, Caroline?"
"Yes; are you?"
"No, quite used up. Haven"t slept since Wednesday night."
Here a partner came to claim Miss Caroline.
"I"ll go with you," said Sedley.
"Very well," answered Cleve, without looking back. "Come to my lodgings, Sedley--we"ll smoke, shall we? I"ve got some capital cigars."
"I don"t care. I"m going on also."
"What a delicious night!" exclaimed Tom Sedley, looking up at the stars.
"Suppose we walk--it isn"t far."
"I don"t care--let us walk," said Cleve.
So walk they did. It was not far to Cleve"s lodgings, in a street off Piccadilly. The young men had walked rather silently; for, as it seemed to Sedley, his companion was not in a temper to talk a great deal, or very pleasantly.
"And what about this gray woman? Did you ever follow it up? Did the romance take fire where it ought? Is it a mutual flame?" asked Cleve, like a tired man who feels he must say something, and does not care what. "I don"t think you mentioned her since the day you showed me that Beatrice Cenci, over your d----d chimney-piece."
"Of course I"d have told you if there had been anything to tell," said Tom.
"They haven"t been at Malory since?"
"Oh! no--frightened away--you"ll never see them there again. There"s nothing absolutely in it, and never was, not even an adventure. Nothing but the little that happened long ago--and you know all about that,"
continued Sedley. "She"s a wonderfully beautiful creature, though; I wish you saw her again, Cleve. You"re such a clever fellow, you"d make a poem of her, or something--she"d bring you back to the days of chivalry, and that style of thing. I"m a sort of fellow, you know, that feels a lot, and I think, I _think_ some too; but I haven"t the knack of saying it, or writing it--I"m not particularly good at anything; but I went that morning, you know, into the Refectory--you know--there are such a lot of stairs, and long places and doors, it makes a fellow quite foolish--and there she was--don"t you remember?--I wish I could describe her to you gardening there with her gloves on."
"Don"t try--you"ve tried so often--there"s a good fellow; but just tell me her name?" said Cleve, looking straight before him, above the lamps and the slanting slates and chimneys, into the deep sky, where brilliantly, spite of London smoke, shone the clear sad moon.
"Her name?--I never found out, except Margaret--I don"t know; but I believe they did not want their name told."
"That did not look well--did it?" suggested Cleve.
"Well, no more it generally does; but it is not her fault. It was--in fact it was--for I _did_ find it out, I may as well tell you--old Sir Booth Fanshawe, you know he"s broken--not worth a guinea--and always running about from place to place to avoid pursuit, in fact. It can"t signify, you know, now that I think of it, mentioning him, because, of course, he"s gone somewhere else long ago."
So said romantic little Sedley, and Cleve sneered.
"I see you can tell a fib on occasion, Tom, like another man. So you found out the name, and knew it all the time you were protesting ignorance. And who told you _that_? People here thought Sir Booth had gone to Italy."
"Well, it was--but you mustn"t tell him I told you. There was a Jew fellow down at Malory, with a writ and a lot of fellows to nab him; but the old fellow was off; and the Jew, thinking that Wynne Williams knew where he was, came to his office and offered him a hatfull of money to tell, and he was going to kick him out; and that"s the way _he_ found out it was old Sir Booth; and he is awfully afraid of getting into a sc.r.a.pe about it, if the old people heard who the tenant was."
"So he would--the worst sc.r.a.pe he ever was in, with my _uncle_, at all events. And that d--d Larkin would get into the management of everything, I suppose. I hope, you have not been telling everyone?"
"Not a soul--not a human being."
"There are some of the Cardyllian people that hardly come under that term; and, by Jove, if you breathe it to one of them, it"s all over the town, and my uncle will be sure to hear it; and poor Wynne Williams!--you"ll be the ruin of him, very likely."
"I tell you, except to you, I _swear_ to you, I haven"t mentioned it to a soul on earth," exclaimed Tom.
"Well, I do think, as a matter of conscience and fairness, you ought to hold your tongue, and keep faith with poor Wynne," said Cleve, rudely, "and I think he was a monstrous fool to tell you. You know I"m interested," continued Cleve, perceiving that his vehemence surprised Tom Sedley; "because I have no faith in Larkin--I think him a sneak and a hypocrite, and a rogue--of course that"s in confidence, and he"s doing all in his power to get a fast hold of my uncle, and to creep into Wynne Williams"s place, and a thing like this, with a hard unreasonable fellow like my uncle, would give him such a lift as you can"t imagine."
"But, I"m not going to tell; unless _you_ tell, or _he_, I don"t know who"s to tell it--_I_ won"t, I know."
"And about Sir Booth--of course he"s not in England now--but neither is he in Italy," said Tom.
"It"s well he has you to keep his "log" for him," said Cleve.
"He"s in France."
"Oh!"