Lord Kilgobbin. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ versions that had got abroad of the incident in the press; and cautiously feeling his way, went on to tell how Dick Kearney had started from town full of the most fiery intentions towards that visitor whom the newspapers called a ‘noted profligate’ of London celebrity. ‘If you had not been shot before, we were to have managed it for you now,’ said he.

      ‘Surely these fellows who wrote this had never heard of me.’

      ‘Of course they had not, further than you were on the Viceroy’s staff; but is not that ample warranty for profligacy? Besides, the real intention was not to assail you, but the people here who admitted you.’ Thus talking, he led Walpole to own that he had no acquaintanceship with the Kearneys, that a mere passing curiosity to see the interesting house had provoked his request, to which the answer, coming from an old friend, led to his visit. Through this channel Atlee drew him on to the subject of the Greek girl and her parentage. As Walpole sketched the society of Rome, Atlee, who had cultivated the gift of listening fully as much as that of talking, knew where to seem interested by the views of life thrown out, and where to show a racy enjoyment of the little humoristic bits of description which the other was rather proud of his skill in deploying; and as Atlee always appeared so conversant with the family history of the people they were discussing, Walpole spoke with unbounded freedom and openness.

      ‘You must have been astonished to meet the “Titian Girl” in Ireland?’ said Joe at last, for he had caught up the epithet dropped accidentally in the other’s narrative, and kept it for use.

      ‘Was I not! but if my memory had been clearer, I should have remembered she had Irish connections. I had heard of Lord Kilgobbin on the other side of the Alps.’

      ‘I don’t doubt that the title would meet a readier acceptance there than here.’

      ‘Ah, you think so!’ cried Walpole. ‘What is the meaning of a rank that people acknowledge or deny at pleasure? Is this peculiar to Ireland?’

      ‘If you had asked whether persons anywhere else would like to maintain such a strange pretension, I might perhaps have answered you.’

      ‘For the few minutes of this visit to me, I liked him; he seemed frank, hearty, and genial.’

      ‘I suppose he is, and I suspect this folly of the lordship is no fancy of his own.’

      ‘Nor the daughter’s, then, I’ll be bound?’

      ‘No; the son, I take it, has all the ambition of the house.’

      ‘Do you know them well?’

      ‘No, I never saw them till yesterday. The son and I are chums: we live together, and have done so these three years.’

      ‘You like your visit here, however?’

      ‘Yes. It’s rather good fun on the whole. I was afraid of the indoor life when I was coming down, but it’s pleasanter than I looked for.’

      ‘When I asked you the question, it was not out of idle curiosity. I had a strong personal interest in your answer. In fact, it was another way of inquiring whether it would be a great sacrifice to tear yourself away from this.’

      ‘No, inasmuch as the tearing-away process must take place in a couple of days – three at farthest.’

      ‘That makes what I have to propose all the easier. It is a matter of great urgency for me to reach Dublin at once. This unlucky incident has been so represented by the newspapers as to give considerable uneasiness to the Government, and they are even threatened with a discussion on it in the House. Now, I’d start to-morrow, if I thought I could travel with safety. You have so impressed me with your skill, that, if I dared, I’d ask you to convoy me up. Of course I mean as my physician.’

      ‘But I’m not one, nor ever intend to be.’

      ‘You studied, however?’

      ‘As I have done scores of things. I know a little bit of criminal law, have done some shipbuilding, rode haute école in Cooke’s circus, and, after M. Dumas, I am considered the best amateur macaroni-maker in Europe.’

      ‘And which of these careers do you intend to abide by?’

      ‘None, not one of them. “Financing” is the only pursuit that pays largely. I intend to go in for money.’

      ‘I should like to hear your ideas on that subject.’

      ‘So you shall, as we travel up to town.’

      ‘You accept my offer, then?’

      ‘Of course I do. I am delighted to have so many hours in your company. I believe I can safely say I have that amount of skill to be of service to you. One begins his medical experience with fractures. They are the pothooks and hangers of surgery, and I have gone that far. Now, what are your plans?’

      ‘My plans are to leave this early to-morrow, so as to rest during the hot hours of the day, and reach Dublin by nightfall. Why do you smile?’

      ‘I smile at your notion of climate; but I never knew any man who had been once in Italy able to disabuse himself of the idea that there were three or four hours every summer day to be passed with closed shutters and iced drinks.’

      ‘Well, I believe I was thinking of a fiercer sun and a hotter soil than these. To return to my project: we can find means of posting, carriage and horses, in the village. I forget its name.’

      ‘I’ll take care of all that. At what hour will you start?’

      ‘I should say by six or seven. I shall not sleep; and I shall be all impatience till we are away.’

      ‘Well, is there anything else to be thought of?’

      ‘There is – that is, I have something on my mind, and I am debating with myself how far, on a half-hour’s acquaintance, I can make you a partner in it.’

      ‘I cannot help you by my advice. I can only say that if you like to trust me, I’ll know how to respect the confidence.’

      Walpole looked steadily and steadfastly at him, and the examination seemed to satisfy him, for he said, ‘I will trust you – not that the matter is a secret in any sense that involves consequences; but it is a thing that needs a little tact and discretion, a slight exercise of a light hand, which is what my friend Lockwood fails in. Now you could do it.’

      ‘If I can, I will. What is it?’

      ‘Well, the matter is this. I have written a few lines here, very illegibly and badly, as you may believe, for they were with my left hand; and besides having the letter conveyed to its address, I need a few words of explanation.’

      ‘The Titian Girl,’ muttered Joe, as though thinking aloud.

      ‘Why do you say so?’

      ‘Oh, it was easy enough to see her greater anxiety and uneasiness about you. There was an actual flash of jealousy across her features when Miss Kearney proposed coming up to see you.’

      ‘And was this remarked, think you?’

      ‘Only by me. I saw, and let her see I saw it, and we understood each other from that moment.’

      ‘I mustn’t let you mistake me. You are not to suppose that there is anything between Mademoiselle СКАЧАТЬ