Cursed by a Fortune Part 29

"Silence, sir! No. Women are not such weak double-faced creatures as you think. No, it is as I say; and oh! Pierce, dear, he was out late last night, and when he got back found her going away and followed her."

"Fiction--imagination," he said bitterly. "You are inventing all this to try and comfort me, little woman, but your woven basket will not hold water. It leaks at the very beginning. How could you know that he was out late last night?"

Jenny's cheeks were scarlet, and she turned away her face.

"There, you see, you are beaten at once, Jenny, and that I have some reason for what I have said about women; but there are exceptions to every rule, and my little sister is one of them. I did not include her among the weak ones."

To his astonishment she burst into a pa.s.sionate storm of sobs and tears, and in words confused and only half audible, she accused herself of being as weak and foolish as the rest, and, as he made out, quite unworthy of his trust.

"Oh! Pierce, darling," she cried wildly, as she sank upon her knees in front of his chair; "I'm a wicked, wicked girl, and not deserving of all you think about me. Believe in poor Kate, and not in me, for indeed, indeed, she is all that is good and true."

"A man cannot govern his feelings, Sissy," he said, half alarmed now at the violence of her grief. "I must believe in you always, as my own little girl. How could I do otherwise, when you have been everything to me for so long, ever since you were quite a little girl and I told you not to cry for I would be father and mother to you, both."

"And so you have been, Pierce, dear," she sobbed, "but I don't deserve it--I don't deserve it."

"I don't deserve to have such a loving little companion," he said, kissing her tenderly. "Haven't I let my fancy stray from you, and am I not being sharply punished for my weal mess?"

She suddenly hung back from him and pressed her hair from her temples, as he held her by the waist.

"Pierce!" she said sharply, and there was a look of anger in her eyes, "he is a horrid wretch."

"People do not give him much of a character," said Leigh bitterly, "but that would be no excuse for my following him to wring his neck."

"I believe he would be guilty of any wickedness. Tell me, dear; do you think it possible--such things have been done?"

"What things?" he said, wondering at her excited manner.

"It is to get her money, of course; for it would be his then. Do you think he has taken her away by force?"

Leigh started violently now in turn, and a light seemed to flash into his understanding, but it died out directly, and he said half pityingly, as he drew her to him once again:

"Poor little inventor of fiction," he said, with a harsh laugh. "But let it rest, Sissy; it will not do. These things only occur in a romance. No, I do not think anything of the kind; and what do you say to London now?"

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

"What are you going to do, James, dear?" said Mrs Wilton.

"Eh?"

"What are you going to do, dear? Oh, you don't know what a relief it is to me. I was going to beg you to have the pike pond dragged."

James Wilton's strong desire was to do nothing, and give his son plenty of time; but there was a Mrs Grundy even at Northwood, and she had to be studied.

"Do? Errum!" He cleared his throat with a long imposing, rolling sound. "Well, search must be made for them directly, and they must be brought back. It is disgraceful I did mean to sit down and do nothing, but it will not do. I am very angry and indignant with them both, for Kate is as bad as Claud. It must not be said that we connived at the-- the--the--what's the word?--escapade."

"Of course not, my dear; and it is such a pity. Such a nice wedding as she might have had, and made it a regular 'at home,' to pay off all the people round I'd quite made up my mind about my dress."

"Oh, I'm glad of that," said Wilton, with a grim smile. "Nothing like being well prepared for the future. Have you quite made up your mind about your dress when I pop off? c.r.a.pe, of course?"

"James, my darling, you shouldn't. How can you say such dreadful things?"

"You make me--being such a fool."

"James!"

"Hold your tongue, do. Yes, I must have inquiries made."

"But do you feel quite sure that they have eloped like that?"

"Oh, yes," he said, thoughtfully; "there's no doubt about it."

"I don't know, my dear," said Mrs Wilton, plaintively. "It seems so strange, when she was so ill and in such trouble."

"Bah! Sham! Like all women, kicking up a row about the first kiss, and wanting it all the time."

"James, my dear, you shouldn't say such things. It was no sham. She was in dreadful trouble, I'm sure, and I cannot help thinking about the pike pond. It haunts me--it does indeed. Don't you think that in her agony she may have gone and drowned herself?"

"Yes, that's it," said Wilton, with a scowl at his wife.

"Oh! Horrible! I was having dreadful dreams all last night. You do think so, then?"

"Yes, you've hit it now, old lady. She must have jumped down from her window on to the soft flower-bed, and then gone and fetched the ladder, and put it up there, and afterwards gone and called Claud to come down and go hand in hand with her, so as to have company."

"Jumped down--the ladder--what did she want a ladder for, James, dear?"

"What do people want ladders for? Why, to come down by."

"But she was down, dear. I--I really don't know what you mean. You confuse me so. But, oh, James, dear, you don't mean that about Claud?"

"Why not? Depend upon it, they're at the bottom of that hole where the pig was drowned, and the pike are eating bits out of them."

"James!--Oh, what a shame! You're laughing at me."

"Laughing at you? You'd make a horse laugh at you. Such idiocy. Be quiet if you can. Don't you see how worried and busy I am? And look here--if anyone calls out of curiosity, you don't know anything. Refer 'em to me."

"Yes, my dear. But really it is very shocking of the young people.

It's almost immoral. But you think they will get married directly?"

"Trust Claud for that. Fancy the jade going off in that way. Ah, they're all alike."

"No, James; I would sooner have died than consented to such a proceeding."

"Not you. Now be quiet."

"Going out, dear?"

"Only round the house for a few minutes. By the way, have you examined Eliza--asked her what Kate has taken with her?"