Mildred Arkell: A Novel. Vol. 2 (of 3)Wood, Henry, Mrs.
General
Mildred Arkell: A Novel. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Wood, Henry, Mrs.
Fiction
Mr. Arkell left him, passed out of the cathedral inclosure, and
continued his way up the town. George Prattleton remained where he was,
wondering what on earth he could do with himself. It was too late to go
in to service, for the bell had ceased, the organ was pealing out, and
he caught a glimpse, across the great body of the cathedral, of the
white surplices of the dean and two of the chapter, as they whisked in
at the cloister door. George Prattleton believed time must be given to
mortals as a punishment for their sins. He had not a sixpence in his
pocket; he owed so much at the billiard-rooms that he did not like to
show his face there; he was in debt to all the tobacconists of the
place; he had borrowed money from private friends; and altogether he
rather wished for an earthquake, or something of that light nature, by
way of a diversion to the general stagnation of the sultry afternoon.
Mr. Arkell meanwhile reached the house of lawyer Fauntleroy, for that
was the place he was bound for. Mr. Fauntleroy was not his solicitor,
but he had a question to ask him on a matter unconnected with
professional business. As he was turning out of the office again, he
nearly ran against a stranger in deep mourning, who was looking up, as
though he wanted to find the number of the house. He was a slight,
delicate-looking young man; and it instantly struck Mr. Arkell that he
had seen his face before, or one like it.
"I beg your pardon," said the stranger, taking his hat more completely
off than an Englishman generally does to one of his own sex, "can you
tell me whether this is Mr. Fauntleroy's?"
"It is Mr. Fauntleroy's. I think--I think you are the son of Robert
Carr!" impulsively cried Mr. Arkell, as the resemblance to the exiled
and now dead friend of his boyhood flashed across his memory.
It was no other. The Reverend Robert Carr had hastened to Westerbury as
soon as family arrangements and his own health permitted him. A few
moments of conversation, and Mr. Arkell turned back with him to
introduce him to Lawyer Fauntleroy, thinking at the same time that he
had rarely seen anyone look so thin, so pale, so shadowy as Robert Carr.
It was a handsome house, this of Lawyer Fauntleroy's--and if you object
to the term "Lawyer Fauntleroy," as old-fashioned, you must not blame me
for using it. Westerbury rarely called him anything else; does not call
him anything else now, if it has occasion to recal him or his doings.
The offices were on either side of the door, as you entered; Mr.
Fauntleroy's private room, a large, well fitted-up apartment, being on
the right; a small ante-room led to it, generally the sanctum of the
managing clerk.
Mr. Fauntleroy was at leisure, and the whole affair in all its details,
past and present, was related to Robert Carr. Mr. Arkell remained also.
It was not a pleasant office to have to seek to convince this young man
of his own illegitimacy, never a doubt of which had arisen in his mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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