Cursed by a Fortune Part 73

"She had you."

"Oh, I don't count, dear; I was only an acquaintance, and it had not had time to ripen into affection on her side. I soon began to love her, but I don't think she cared much for me."

"Ah, it was a great mistake," sighed Leigh.

"What was?" cried Jenny sharply.

"Our going down to Northwood. I lost a thousand pounds by the transaction."

"And gained the dearest girl in the world to love."

"Don't talk absurdly, child," said Leigh, firmly. "I beg that you will not speak to me in that tone about Miss Wilton. Has Claud been again?"

"I beg that you will not speak to me in that tone about Mr Wilton,"

said Jenny, with a mischievous look at her brother, who glanced at her sharply.

"Claud Wilton is not such a bad fellow after all, I begin to think. All that horsey caddishness will, I daresay, wear off."

"I am sorry for the poor woman who has to rub it off," said Jenny.

"You did not tell me if he had called."

"Yes, he did call."

"Jenny!"

"I didn't ask him to call, and he did not come to see me," said the girl demurely. "He wanted you, and left his card. I put it in the surgery.

I think he said he had some news of his cousin."

"Indeed?" said Leigh, starting. "When was this?"

"Yesterday evening. But Pierce, dear, surely it is nothing to you.

Don't go interfering, and perhaps make two poor people unhappy."

Leigh turned upon her angrily.

"What a good little girl you would be, Jenny, if you had been born without a tongue."

"Yes," she said, "but I should not have been half a woman, Pierce, dear."

"Did he say when he would come again?"

"No."

"Did he say more particularly what his news was?"

"No, dear, and I did not ask him, knowing how particular you are about my being at all intimate with him."

He gave her an angry glance, but she ignored it.

"Anyone else been?"

"Yes; there was a message from Mrs Smithers, saying she hoped you would drop in after dinner and see her. Her daughter came--the freckly one.

The buzzing in her mother's head had begun again, and Miss Smithers says she is sure it is the port wine, for it always comes after her mother has been drinking port wine for a month."

"Of course. She eats and drinks twice as much as is good for her.--Did young Wilton say anything about Northwood?"

"Yes," said Jenny, carelessly. "The new doctor has got the parish work, but he isn't worked to death. Oh, by the way, there's a letter on the chimney-piece."

Leigh rose and took it eagerly, frowning as he read it.

"Bad news, Pierce, dear?"

"Eh? Bad? Oh, dear no; I have to meet Dr Clifton in consultation at three to-morrow, at Sir Montague Russell's."

"Oh! I say, Pierce dear, how rapidly you are picking up a practice!"

"Yes," he said, with a sigh; and then with an effort to be cheerful, "How long will dinner be?"

"Half an hour," said Jenny, after a glance at the clock, "and then I hope they will let you have a quiet evening. You have not been at home once this week."

"Ah, yes, a quiet evening would be pleasant."

"Thinking, Pierce dear?" said Jenny, after a pause.

"Yes," he said dreamily, as he sat back with his eyes closed. "I can't make it all fit. He rarely goes to the office, I have found that out; and from what I can learn he must be living in the country. The house I saw him go to has all the front blinds drawn down, and last time I rode by I saw a woman at the gate, but I could not stop to question her--I have no right."

"No, dear, you have no right," said Jenny, gravely. "That was only a fancy of yours. But how strangely things do come to pa.s.s!"

Leigh started, and gazed at his sister wonderingly.

"What do you mean?" he said.

"I was only replying to your remarks, dear, about your suspicions of this Mr Garstang."

"I? My remarks?" he said, looking at her strangely. "I said nothing."

"Why, Pierce dear, you did just now."

"No, not a word. I was asleep when you spoke."

"Asleep?"

"Yes. What is there strange in that? A man must have rest, and I have been out for the last three nights with anxious cases. Was I talking?"

"Yes, dear," said Jenny, rising, to go behind the chair and lay her soft little hands upon her brother's head. "Talking about that shut-up house, and this Mr Garstang. I thought it was not possible, and that it was very wild of you to take a house in this street so as to be near and watch him, but nothing could have been better. You are getting as busy as you used to be in Westminster. But Pierce, dear," she whispered softly, "don't you think we should be happier if we were in full confidence with one another--as we were once?"

"No," he said, gloomily, "I shall never be happy again."