The Forlorn Hope: A Novel (Vol. 2 of 2)Yates, Edmund
General
The Forlorn Hope: A Novel (Vol. 2 of 2)
Yates, Edmund
Fiction
So Wilmot, knowing that there was truth in all the man had said;
feeling that he was not strong, and that what little strength he had
had gone out of him under the ordeal of the morning at the Embassy,
gave way, and consented to remain that night. But the next morning he
started on his journey, and on the evening of the third day he arrived
in London. He drove straight to his house in Charles-street, and saw
at once by the expression of his servant's face that the news of his
inheritance had preceded him. There was a struggle between solemnity
and mirth on the man's countenance that betrayed him at once. The man
said he expected his master back, was not in the least surprised at
his coming; indeed most people seemed to have expected him before.
What did he mean? O, nothing--nothing; only there had been an uncommon
number of callers within the last few days. "Not merely the reg'lars,"
the man added; "them of course; but there have been many people as we
have not seen here these two years past a-rat-tattin', and leavin'
reg'lar packs of cards, with their kind regards, and to know how you
were, sir." The cards were brought, and Wilmot looked through them.
The man was right; scores of his old acquaintance, whom he had not
seen or heard of for years, were there represented; people whom he had
only known professionally, and who had never been near him since he
wrote their last prescription and took their last fee months before,
had sought him out again. To what could this be accredited? Either to
the earnest desire of all who knew him to console him in the
affliction of having lost his friend, or to the information sown
broadcast by that diligent contributor to the _Illustrated News_, who
had given exact particulars of the will of the late John Foljambe,
Esq., banker, of Lombard-street and Portland-place. But there was no
card from any member of the Kilsyth family in the collection. Wilmot
searched eagerly for one, but there was none there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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