Then he went away. Elizabeth tried to see him from the window, but
the night was dark, and he kept among the shrubbery. At such hours
the soul apprehends and has presentiments and feelings which it obeys
without analyzing them. She paced the long corridor, feeling no chill
and no fear, and seeming to see clearly the pictured faces around her.
She was praying; and among them she did not feel as if she was praying
aloud. She remembered in that hour many things that her father had
said to her about Antony. She knew then the meaning of that strange
cry on her mother's dying lips--"A far country! Bring my son home!"
For an hour or two it was only Antony's danger and shame, only Antony's
crime, she could think of. But when the reaction came she perceived
that she must work as well as pray. Two questions first suggested
themselves for her solution.
Should she go to Whaley for advice, or act entirely on her own
responsibility?
Would she be able to influence Page and Thorley, the bankers who held
her brother's forged notes, by a personal visit?
She dismissed all efforts at reasoning, she determined to let herself
be guided by those impressions which we call "instinct." She could
not reason, but she tried to feel. And she felt most decidedly that
she would have no counselor but her own heart. She, would doubtless
do what any lawyer would call "foolish things;" but that was a case
where "foolishness" might be the highest wisdom. She said to herself,
"My intellect is often at fault, but where Antony and Hallam are
concerned I am sure that I can trust my heart."
As to Page and Thorley, she knew that they had had frequently business
transactions with her father. Mr. Thorley had once been at the hall;
he would know thoroughly the value of the proposal she intended making
them; and, upon the whole, it appeared to be the wisest plan to see
them personally. In fact, she did not feel as if she could endure the
delay and the uncertainty of a correspondence on the subject.
The morning of the second day after Antony's flight she was in London.
In business an Englishman throws over politeness. He says, "How do
you do?" very much as if he was saying, "Leave me alone;" and he is
not inclined to answer questions, save, by "yes" or "no." Elizabeth
perceived at once that tears or weakness would damage her cause, and
that the only way to meet Antony's wrong was to repair it, and to do
this in the plainest and simplest manner possible.
"I am Miss Hallam."
"Take a seat, Miss Hallam."
"You hold two notes of my brothers, one purporting to be drawn by Lord
Eltham for L9,000; the other by Squire Francis Horton for L9,600."
"Yes; why 'purporting?'"
"They are forgeries."
"My--! Miss Hallam, do you know what you are saying?"
"I do. My brother has left England. He is ruined."
"I told you, Page!" said Thorley, with much irritation; "but you would
believe the rascal."
Elizabeth colored painfully, and Mr. Thorley said, "You must excuse
me, Miss Hallam--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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