Sprig Muslin

Chapter 16

Sir Gareth, slowly winning back to strength, knew very well that it behoved him to send word to his household that he had not been kidnapped, or snatched up into thin air, but he preferred to let the world slide for just a little longer. It would never do, he told himself, to let his servants get wind of his whereabouts, for ten to one they would allow their tongues to wag; or, worse, Trotton, already strongly suspecting him of having taken leave of his senses, might arrive at the Bull, in an excess of zeal, and the unshakeable belief that his services would not be dispensed with. It was really quite impossible to explain to them what had happened; to tell them not to mention his whereabouts to anyone would be to invite an extremely undesirable curiosity. After all, he was known to have gone into the country for several days, and it would probably be thought that he had prolonged his visit, or perhaps formed the sudden resolve to go from Brancaster to stay with one of his numerous friends. Trotton, of course, would expect to find his master in Berkeley Square when he reached town, and would undoubtedly suppose that Amanda had again given him the slip. Well, that couldn’t be helped, and at least Trotton wouldn’t be anxious. He did toy with the idea of writing to his brother-in-law, to enlist his aid in running a nameless Brigade-Major to earth, and even got as far as starting a letter to him. But it proved to be rather too exhausting a task. One sheet of literary composition was enough to make his head swim; and when he read over what he had written, he tore it up. Warren would undoubtedly think he had run mad. So he told himself that in all likelihood no one was worrying about him at all, and gave himself up to lazy enjoyment.

Hester was similarly unconcerned. The Widmores must believe her to be with her sister Susan; and even if some chance presently revealed to them that she was not at Ancaster she did not flatter herself that they would feel any particular concern. They might wonder, and conjecture, and they would certainly think it odd of her; but the chances were that Almeria at least would assume that having rejected Sir Gareth’s offer she had left Brancaster to escape the recriminations of her family.

But Sir Gareth and Lady Hester underrated their relations. By ill-luck, Lady Ennerdale had occasion to write to her brother, and the contents of her letter made it abundantly plain that her children were all in health and spirits, and that so far from enjoying Hester’s companionship she supposed her to be at Brancaster. Exactly as Hester had foreseen, Lady Widmore instantly informed her lord that Hester had taken a crackbrained notion into her head of setting up house on her own. Not a doubt but that was what she was meaning to do: idiotish, of course, but just like her. All this upset over Ludlow’s offer had irritated her nerves: my lady had thought her manner very strange. But then she was always totty-headed!

Lady Hester had been right, too, in thinking that her brother would not succumb to anxiety; but she had underestimated his dislike of scandal. Lord Widmore, had she gone to live with one of her sisters, would have raised not the smallest objection, for no one would have wondered at it. But people would wonder very much at it if an unattached lady left the shelter of her father’s roof to live alone. To make it worse, she was not yet thirty. What, he asked his wife, would people think, if ever it leaked out that Hetty had tried to escape from her family? She must be found, and brought to her senses—unless she was all the time with Gertrude, or Constance. It would be excessively like her to have said Susan, when she meant Gertrude: he would write immediately to both his other sisters.

In London, a far greater degree of anxiety was felt than Sir Gareth had anticipated. Trotton did indeed assume that he was still chasing Amanda; but he was very far from accepting this solution to the mystery with equanimity. Devotion to the master he had served since his boyhood, coupled with jealousy of Sir Gareth’s butler and his valet, prevented him from taking them one inch into his confidence; he told them that Sir Gareth had said he might break his journey at a friend’s house; but he was deeply perturbed. Sir Gareth was behaving in a way so utterly at variance with his usual calm and well-bred self-possession that Trotton seriously supposed him either to be going out of his mind, or to have fallen desperately in love with a chit of a girl who would make him the worst wife in the world. Trotton had no opinion of Amanda. A bit of muslin, that’s what he had thought she was at first. Then it had seemed that he had been wrong; and although he didn’t believe more than half of the things he had heard her say to Sir Gareth, there was no denying she hadn’t gone with him willingly. Dicked in the nob, Sir Gareth must be, to make off with a girl who was trying all the time to escape from him! High-handed too: he’d never known him act like it before. A nice kick-up there would be, if her father, or maybe her brother, got to know about all this bobbery! It behoved anyone who held Sir Gareth in affection to make a push to rescue him from the consequences of his folly, and Trotton held him in considerable affection.

So, too, did his sister. Mrs. Wetherby saw her adored brother set off for Brancaster, and had very little hope that he would meet with a rebuff there. When, at the end of a week, he had not returned to his house in Berkeley Square, that little died: he would scarcely have remained so long at Brancaster if his suit had not prospered. She expected every day to receive a letter from him, announcing his betrothal, but no letter came. She could scarcely believe that he would not have informed her of it before admitting the rest of the world into his confidence, but she, like Amanda, began to study the columns of the Morning Post,and the Gazette. She found no mention of Sir Gareth’s name; and it was at this point that the conviction that something had happened to him took strong possession of her mind. Mr. Wetherby kindly and patiently proved to her how unlikely it was that any disaster could have befallen Gary of which she would not have been apprized long since, but he might as well have spared his breath. No, she said, she had not the remotest conjecture of the nature of the accident which she supposed to have occurred: she just had a Feeling that all was not well with Gary. Mr. Wetherby, well-acquainted with her Feelings, recommended her not to be on the fidgets, and dismissed the matter from his mind.

But not for long. It was recalled by a chance meeting at his club with an acquaintance who let fall a scrap of information which, the more he considered it, seemed to him of sufficient interest to recount to his wife. It was curious: not alarming—in fact, the inference to be drawn from it would probably do much to banish Trixie’s blue devils—but it did make one wonder a trifle. It was not important enough to occupy a prominent place in his memory; he remembered it when he was in the middle of telling Trixie about young Kendal, whom he had run smash into as he was coming away from White’s.

“Not that I knew who he was, for although I daresay I may have seen him when he was a child I don’t recall it,” he said reflectively. “However, Willingdon was with me, and at once introduced him. You remember Jack Kendal, Trixie? Fellow that was up at Cambridge with me—came in for a neat little place in Northamptonshire, and married some Scotch girl or other. I went to his funeral about five years ago,” he added helpfully, perceiving a slight lack of interest in his wife’s face. “Poor fellow! I didn’t see much of him after he got married, but he used to be a close friend of mine. Well, this boy I was telling you about is his second son. Well set-up young fellow, though he don’t favour Jack much: got sandy hair, like his mother. Queer chance, my meeting him like that. Which reminds me!” he said, digressing suddenly. “Knew I had something to tell you! Cleeve was in the club today, and he happened to mention Brancaster.”

“Brancaster?” said Beatrix quickly, her interest immediately roused. “Did Lord Cleeve know—did he give you any news of Gareth?”

“No, no, nothing like that! But from what he said it seems Brancaster is down at Brighton. He spoke of having dined with him in town the day he came up from Brancaster Park. He went off to join the Regent the next morning. What struck me as odd was that, by what I was able to make out, he must have left Brancaster the day after Gary arrived there. That is, if Gary held by his intention of going first to the Rydes. Said he meant to spend a couple of days with them, didn’t he?”

“Yes, certainly he did, and Gary would never break an engagement of that nature! Then Gary cannot be at Brancaster! Warren, it must surely mean—though I find it hard to credit it!—that Lady Hester rejected him!”

“Looks like it,” agreed Warren. “Brancaster’s a ramshackle fellow, but he wouldn’t go off to Brighton if he had Gary staying with him in Cambridgeshire. I thought you’d be interested.”

“Thankful!”she declared. Her brow creased. “Yes, but—Warren, if Gary left Brancaster over a fortnight ago, what can have become of him?”

“Lord, I don’t know! Daresay he went on to visit some of his friends. To get back to what I was saying to you about young Kendal—”

“He would not have done so without writing to me! He must have known how anxious I should be!”

“Anxious! Why should you be anxious? Gary ain’t a schoolboy, my dear! I own it ain’t like him to go off without telling anyone where he was bound for, or how long he meant to be away—but for anything we know he may have sent word to Berkeley Square.”

“I shall call there tomorrow morning, and ask Sheen whether he has had any news of his master,” said Beatrix in a determined voice.

“No harm in doing that, but mind, now, Trixie!—if he hasn’t written to Sheen, Gary won’t thank you for kicking up a dust, so take care what you say to Sheen! Well, about young Kendal! I invited him to come and take his pot-luck with us tomorrow. Jack’s boy, you know!”

She was frowning over the mystery of her brother’s continued absence from town, but these words successfully diverted her mind. “Invited him to dine with us tomorrow?” she exclaimed. “Good gracious, Warren, could you not have invited him to White’s? Pray, how, at such short notice, am I to arrange a suitable party for his entertainment, with London so thin of company? And Leigh gone off to stay with the Maresfields, too!”

“Leigh? Lord, Trixie, Kendal ain’t a scrubby schoolboy! He’s four or five-and-twenty, and has seen eight years’ service besides! What should he have to say to a whipper-snapper like Leigh? As for company, you need not put yourself about, for I told him he would meet none but ourselves.”

“Oh, very well!” she said. “I must say, though, that I should think he would be heartily bored!”

“Nonsense! He will be mighty glad to sit down to one of your dinners, my love. He has been putting up at an hotel these past few weeks, and I’ll be bound he’ll welcome a change from chops and steaks. He told me that he’s been kept kicking his heels in town by those fellows at the Horse Guards, while the military doctors made up their minds whether he was fit to go back to his duties or not. Got a ball in his shoulder, and was sent home on sick furlough some months ago. He’s a Light Bob: 43rd Regiment.”

The vexed look vanished from her face. It was tiresome to be obliged to entertain a stranger at this season, when she was on the point of shutting up the London house for a couple of months, but no officer for the Peninsula need doubt his welcome in Mount Street. “Oh, was he in Spain? I wonder it he ever met Arthur? Of course he must dine with us!” she said cordially.

Nothing could have been kinder than her greeting, when Captain Kendal was ushered into her drawing-room on the following evening; but what she had learnt at Sir Gareth’s house that morning had destroyed all desire to entertain even a Peninsular veteran who might have been acquainted with her brother Arthur.

Sheen had received no commands from his master, since Trotton, more than a fortnight ago, had delivered a message that Sir Gareth expected to be at home again on the following evening. He had not come, and Trotton had disclosed that when he had parted from him, Sir Gareth had said that he might, perhaps, visit my Lord and the Lady Stowmarket, which was no doubt what he had done.

Two pieces of disquieting intelligence were conveyed to Mrs. Wetherby in this speech. The first was that Sir Gareth should have sent Trotton home; the second, that he should have said he was going to stay with the Stowmarkets. It was very unlike him to prefer post-chaise travel to driving his own horses; and none knew better than he that the Stowmarkets were away from home. There was some mystery attached to his movements, and the more Beatrix thought about it the uneasier did she become. She betrayed nothing to Sheen, however, merely desiring him to tell Trotton, when he should see him, that she wished him to wait on her in Mount Street.

Nor would anyone have guessed, watching her as she sat chatting to Captain Kendal, that at least half her mind was occupied in turning over and over the problem of Sir Gareth’s disappearance.

Captain Kendal was a rather stocky young man, with sandy hair and brows, a square, purposeful countenance, and a pair of very direct blue eyes. His varied career—for he had seen service in South America, before joining Sir John Moore’s expedition to Spain—had given him an assurance which made him appear older than his twenty-four years; and his manner, which, although perfectly unassuming, was very decided, indicated that he was accustomed to command. His private fortune was small, but there seemed to be little doubt that he would succeed in his profession. Young as he was, when he had been wounded he had been Acting Brigade-Major. He was not very talkative, but this seemed to arise from a natural taciturnity rather than from shyness; and from having been with the army abroad ever since he had left school, he had none of the social graces that characterized the young man of fashion. He had not been acquainted with Major Ludlow, but in spite of this Beatrix liked him. The only fault she had to find with him was that his mind was cast in rather too serious a mould for her taste.

It was not easy to draw him out on his personal affairs, but he was ready enough to talk of military matters, or of any interesting things he had seen on his travels. Beatrix, enquiring about billeting arrangements in Spain, won far more from him than Warren, asking questions about his family, or his ambitions.

“It’s several years since I had the pleasure of meeting your mother,” said Warren. “I hope she’s well?”

“Very well, thank you, sir,” responded Captain Kendal. “Does she still live in Northamptonshire?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And—now let me see! How many brothers is it that you have?”

“Only one, sir.”

“Only one, eh? But you have several sisters, I fancy.”

“I have three sisters.”

“Three, is it?” said Warren, persevering. “And your brother—he was married not so long ago, wasn’t he?”

“Two years ago,” said Captain Kendal.

“Is it as much as that? I remember seeing the notice of it. Well, well! I suppose he must have been a schoolboy when I saw him last. I was used frequently to visit your father, you know, and was once pretty familiar with your part of the country. Lately, I don’t know how it may be, but I have very seldom been in Northamptonshire. I daresay, however, that we have several acquaintances in common The Birchingtons, for instance, and Sir Harry Bramber?” Captain Kendal bowed. “Yes, I was sure you must know them. Yes, I’ll tell you who is in town, who is quite a near neighbour of yours! Old Summercourt! But I daresay you knew that.”

“I didn’t know it, sir. I am, of course, acquainted with General Summercourt.”

“Friend of my father’s,” said Warren. “I met him today, at White’s. Breaking up a trifle, I thought. Not like himself. But I only had a couple of words or so with him: he was in the devil of a hurry—only dropped into the club to see if there were any letters for him. Said he couldn’t stay, because he must call at Bow Street. Seemed an odd start to me. Not getting to be a trifle queer in his attic, is he?”

“Not to my knowledge,” said Captain Kendal, staring rather fixedly at him. “Bow Street,did you say?”

“Yes: I couldn’t help wondering what took him there. He was looking a trifle hagged, too. Nothing wrong, is there?”

“To my knowledge, nothing whatsoever,” replied Captain Kendal, a crease between his brows.

Warren began to talk of something else, but after a few minutes the Captain said abruptly: “I beg pardon, sir, but can you furnish me with General Summercourt’s direction?”

“I didn’t ask where he was staying, but I fancy he usually puts up at Grillon’s when he’s in town,” replied Warren, looking an enquiry.

The Captain coloured slightly. “Thank you. If he is in some trouble—I am pretty well acquainted with him—it would be civil to call upon him!”

Nothing more was said on the subject, but Beatrix received the impression that the casual piece of information let fall by her husband had arrested Captain Kendal’s attention more than had anything else that had been said to him.

Not long after dinner, when the gentlemen had joined Beatrix in the drawing-room, the butler came in, and, after hesitating for a moment, went to where his master was sitting, and bent to say, in an apologetic and lowered tone: “I beg your pardon, sir, but Sir Gareth’s head groom is below. I said you was engaged, but he seems very anxious to speak to you.”

The words were intended only for Mr. Wetherby’s ears, but Beatrix’s hearing was sharp, and she heard them. She broke off in the middle of what she was saying to her guest, and demanded: “Did you say Sir Gareth’s head groom? I will come at once.” She nodded to her husband, and got up. “I left a message in Berkeley Square that I wished Trotton to come here. Captain Kendal will excuse me, I am sure, if I run away for a few minutes.”

“I beg pardon, ma’am, but it is the master Trotton has come to see,” interposed the butler, catching Mr. Wetherby’s eye, and exchanging with him a meaning look.

“Nonsense! It is I who want to see Trotton, not your master!” said Beatrix, not blind to this by-play.

“Stay where you are, my dear,” said Warren, going to the door. “I’ll find out what Trotton wants. There’s no occasion for you to put yourself out.”

She was vexed, but to engage in a dispute with him in the presence of a guest did not suit her notions of propriety. She resumed her seat, and said, with rather a forced smile: “Pray forgive us! The thing is that I am in some anxiety about my brother, whose groom it is who has just come here.”

“I am excessively sorry!” he said. “I collect he is ill? Would you like me to go away? You must be wishing me at the devil!”

“Indeed I am not! I beg you won’t think of running away! My brother is not ill—at least, I don’t think so.” She stopped, and then said, with a little laugh: “It is very likely nothing at all, and I am refining too much upon the event. The fact is that my brother went into the country on a visit more than a fortnight ago, and although his servants were in the expectation of his returning four days later, he didn’t return, or send any word, so that I cannot help indulging a great many foolish fancies. But you were telling me about the fiestas in Madrid: do continue! How pretty the candles set on the window-sills must have looked! Were you quartered in the town, Captain Kendal?”

He answered her, and she led him on to describe such features of the Spanish scene as he had thought memorable, an expression on her face of absorbed interest, suitable comments rising mechanically to her lips, and her mind almost wholly divorced from anything he was saying.

The circumstance of Trotton’s asking particularly to speak with Warren rather than with herself was not reassuring; a chilling fear that some dreadful news was presently to be broken gently to her by her husband began to creep into her heart; and only her good breeding kept her from jumping up, and following Warren.

He was gone for what seemed to her to be an ominously long time, and when he at last came back into the room he was wearing the expression of a man who did not wish his wife to suspect that anything was wrong. It was too much; she exclaimed sharply: “What is it? Has some accident befallen Gary?”

“No, no, nothing of the sort! I’ll tell you about it presently, but there’s no need for you to worry your head over it.”

“Where is Gary?” she demanded.

“Well, I can’t tell you that, but you may depend upon it he’s perfectly well and safe wherever he is. Trotton parted from him at Kimbolton, so I daresay he may have gone off to stay with Staplehurst.”

“Kimbolton?”she repeated, astonished. “What in the world took him there, pray?”

“Oh, well, that’s a long story, and of no interest to Kendal, my love!”

“If you’ll allow me, sir, I’ll take my leave,” said the Captain. “Mrs. Wetherby must be very anxious to learn more. I would have gone before, only that she wouldn’t suffer me to!”

“I should rather think not, and nor will I! Sit down, my boy!”

“Oh, yes, pray do!” Beatrix said. “Is Trotton still in the house, Warren?”

“Having a heavy-wet in the pantry, I expect.”

“Then, if Captain Kendal will excuse me, I will go down and speak to him myself!” she said. “I don’t stand on ceremony with you, sir, but I am persuaded you will not care for that.”

“I should rather think not, ma’am!”

She smiled, and hurried out of the room. The Captain looked at his host, and said bluntly: “Bad news, sir?”

“Lord, no!” said Warren, with a chuckle. “But it ain’t the sort of news to blab to his sister! The groom’s a silly clunch, but he had that much sense! From what I can make out, my brother-in-law has picked up a very prime article, and has made off with her the lord knows where! He’s never been much in the petticoat-line, so his groom don’t know what to make of it. Told me he was sure Ludlow had gone out of his mind!”

“Oh, I see!” said the Captain, with a laugh. “No, that’s not a story for Mrs. Wetherby, certainly!”

“Trust Trotton to turn her up sweet!” said Warren confidently. “Catch him giving his master’s secrets away! Devoted to him, you know: been with him since Gareth was a lad. The only wonder is he told me. Don’t suppose he would have, if my wife hadn’t summoned him to come here. The silly fellow’s in the deuce of a pucker: thinks his master’s heading for trouble! Funny thing about these old servants: never can be brought to believe one ain’t still in short coats!”

“No, by Jupiter!” agreed the Captain. “Like my old nurse, who is persuaded I got hit because she wasn’t there to tell me not to get in the way of the nasty guns!”

“Exactly so!” said Warren, laughing heartily. “I told Trotton I never knew a man more able to take care of himself than Ludlow, but I might as well have spared my breath. I shall have to discover what tale he’s fobbed my wife off with, or I shall be bowled out.”

But when Mrs. Wetherby came back into the room he soon found that this would be unnecessary. She was looking so much amused that he was surprised into exclaiming: “What the deuce did Trotton tell you to set you off laughing?”

She threw him a saucy look. “The truth, of course! Did you think I couldn’t get him to tell me the whole? Pooh! How could you be so nonsensical as to suppose I should be shocked, as though I were a schoolroom miss? I was never more enchanted! When I had despaired of ever seeing the old Gary again, doing such daring things, and being so gay, and adventurous! How I wish I could have seen him snatching up this beautiful girl in his curricle, and driving off with her! Of all the absurd starts! Depend upon it, he sent Trotton home because he was off to the Border with his Amanda! Did Trotton tell you that was her name? Isn’t it pretty?”

“What?”ejaculated Captain Kendal.

She was surprised, for he had fairly shot the word at her, but before she could answer Warren intervened, saying in a displeased voice: “You are talking nonsense, my dear, and allowing your romantic notions to run away with you. The Border, indeed! You may be sure there is no question of that!”

“Oh, you are thinking of her trying to escape from him, and his chasing after her, and finding her in a cow-byre, or some such thing!” she said, laughing. “My dear Warren, how can you be so green? No female in her senses would wish to escape from Gary, least of all a girl who was found in a common inn, entirely unattended!”

‘You will be giving Kendal a very odd idea of your brother if you lead him to suppose that Gary would for a moment contemplate marriage with such a girl,” Warren said repressively.

She was aware that her natural liveliness, exaggerated as it was by relief, had betrayed her into raillery that was beyond the line of being pleasing, and coloured, saying: “I was only funning, of course! It cannot be more than a—well, a charmingly romantic interlude!—but it will do Gary a great deal of good, so you must not expect me to pull down my mouth, and preach propriety, if you please!”

After his one startled exclamation, Captain Kendal had not again unclosed his lips. They were indeed tightly gripped together, in a way that suggested to his hostess that he was tiresomely prudish. There was a stern look in his face, and an expression in his eyes which quite startled her. He might disapprove of her vivacity, but why he should look murderous she was at a loss to understand. She stared at him; he lowered his eyes; seemed to make an effort to suppress whatever emotion it was that had him in its clutch; and said curtly that it was time he took his leave. He would not stay for tea, but he said everything that was proper before shaking hands briefly with his hostess. Warren accompanied him to the front-door. “My wife, when she is in funning humour, talks a great deal of flummery,” he said. “I need not ask you not to repeat her nonsense, I know.”

“You need have no fear of that, sir!” said Captain Kendal emphatically. “Goodnight! And thank you for a—very pleasant evening!”

A bow, and he was gone. Warren went upstairs again to scold hiswife for having shocked her guest, and to read her a homily on the evils of a long tongue; but he was himself a little puzzled by the Captain’s behaviour.

Captain Kendal, meanwhile, hailed the first hackney he saw, and bade the jarvey drive him to Grillon’s Hotel. While this aged vehicle lumbered on its way to Albermarle Street, he sat rather rigidly upright, clenching and unclenching one fist, and frowning straight ahead. Arrived at Grillon’s, he demanded General Summercourt in a voice grim enough to make the porter look rather narrowly at him.

The General was discovered, seated at a desk in a small writing-room. There was no one else in the room. The General looked up, and when he saw who had come in, his face hardened, and he said: “You, eh? And just what do you want, young man?”

“I want to know what took you to Bow Street today, sir!” the Captain replied.

“Oh, you do, do you?” snapped the General, exploding into the wrath of a much harassed man. “Then I will tell you, you damned, encroaching jackanapes! Thanks to you my granddaughter has been missing from her home for more than a fortnight. Read that!”

Captain Kendal almost snatched the sheet of writing-paper that was being thrust at him, and rapidly read the lines written in Amanda’s childish hand. When he came to the end, he looked up, and said fiercely: “Thanks to me? Do you imagine, sir, that Amanda took this step with my knowledge? That I would permit her—By God, if that is the opinion you hold of my character I do not wonder at your refusing your consent to our marriage!”

The General glared at him for a moment. “No, I don’t,” he said shortly. “If I had, I should have come to you and choked her whereabouts out of you! But if you hadn’t come making up to her, putting ideas into her head, egging her on to defy me—”

“So far from egging her on to defy you, I have told her that I will not, while she is so young, marry her without your consent, sir! And she knows I mean what I say!”

“Yes! And this is the outcome! I am to be forced to consent! Well, you may be sure of this, Neil Kendal!—I will not! Damme,I will not!”

“I collect, then, that you haven’t put a notice in the Morning Post,sir?”

“No! I have put the matter in the hands of the Runners. They have been searching for her now for a se’enight!”

“And she has been missing above a fortnight!” the Captain flung at him, “Taking it mighty coolly, are you not, sir?”

“Damn your impudence, I made sure she was hiding in the woods! She did so once before, when she couldn’t get her own way, the little puss!”

“Call off the Runners!” said the Captain. “I can tell you more than they appear to have discovered, and pretty hearing it is! Where Amanda is I don’t know, but whom she is with I do know!”

“For God’s sake, Neil, what do you mean?” demanded the General, turning pale. “Out with it!”

“She is with a fellow called Ludlow—Gareth Ludlow—who came upon her in a common inn, where, I know not, and bore her off to Kimbolton. I have been dining tonight with Ludlow’s sister, a Mrs. Wetherby, and what I heard in that house—My God, I don’t know how I contrived to keep my tongue still!”

“Ludlow?” the General said numbly. “Bore her off? My little Amanda? No, no, it isn’t possible! Tell me the whole, damn you!”

He listened in silence to Captain Kendal’s succinct recital, but it seemed as though he had hardly taken it in, for he sat looking blankly at the Captain, repeating uncomprehendingly: “Abducted her—trying to escape from him—found in a cow-byre?”He managed to pull himself together, and said in a firmer voice: “It isn’t possible! She’s nothing but a child! Did you discover from from these Wetherbys—”

“Exactly what I have told you! They knew no more, and you may be sure I asked no questions! They suppose Amanda to belong to the muslin company: a very prime article was the term used by Wetherby! Upon no account would I have said one word that might lead them to the truth!”

“It isn’t possible!” the General said again. “A man of Ludlow’s quality—Good God, in whatever case he met her he must have recognized at a glance that she was a child—a gently-bred child, and as innocent—Why the devil didn’t he restore her to me? Or, if she wouldn’t tell him what her name was, place her in the care of a respectable woman?”

“Yes, why?”said the Captain harshly. “That is a question he will answer to me before he is much older! What kind of a man is he?”

The General made a hopeless gesture. “How should I know? I’m not acquainted with him. A man of fashion: he belongs to the Corinthian set. Handsome fellow, with a fine figure, rich enough to be able to buy an abbey. He’s not married—I fancy there was some sort of a tragedy, years ago. I’ve never heard any ill of him: on the contrary, I believe him to be very well liked. But what’s that to the purpose? If she has been all this time with him—By God, he shall marry her! He has compromised her—my granddaughter!—and if he thinks—”

“He marry her—!” We’ll see that!” interrupted the Captain grimly. “Now, sir! The first thing you must do is to call off the Runners, so that we may get through this damnable business with as little noise as possible. I’m off to Kimbolton in the morning, and if I can get no news of Ludlow there I’ll try a cast or two. But something I must learn: he cannot have passed unnoticed in so small a place. If you like to leave it in my hands, very well! If you prefer to accompany me, better!”

“Accompany you, you insubordinate, insolent young dog?” exploded the General. “What right have you to meddle in my affairs? Don’t think I’ll consent to let you marry Amanda, for I won’t! My granddaughter to throw herself away on a penniless cub in a Line Regiment? No, by God! I am going to Kimbolton, and I desire neither your aid nor your company!”

“As you please!” shrugged Captain Kendal. “I shall be leaving at first light, and no doubt that would not suit you. I beg you will not neglect to send a letter to Bow Street. We shall meet in Kimbolton! Goodnight!”