Chapter L

Next morning Fane wrote a note to Orelia, to say that he wished to hear from her how Lady Lee had borne the restoration of Julius to her arms--for that he would not commit the sacrilege of intruding upon her on a day that ought to be sacred to other feelings than those his presence could inspire.

“I slept so little, and so lightly, last night” (wrote Orelia, in reply, after describing how she had deposited Julius, undiscovered, by his mother’s side), “that I was easily roused by what I thought was a cry from Hester. I sat up in bed and listened in silence--then I stole to her door, and heard such a kind of murmuring within as a dove might make over its young. I entered. Hester was hanging over Julius, apparently not quite certain whether she waked or slept--indeed, she seemed to think it a vivid dream, for she stared at me as I entered, and passed her hand confusedly across her eyes. I sat down on the bed, and whispered to her that ’twas all real, and if she would lie quite still and composed, I would tell her the whole of the story as far as I knew it.

“You did right not to come to-day. She is still a little bewildered--and was quite so till she had a good cry. For some little time she did what I’m sure you never heard her do--she talked nonsense. As for the cause of all these tears, he seems tolerably unconcerned. He submitted to our embraces this morning as coolly as if he had only been away a week, and is now busy, dressed in his Highland costume (for there are no clothes of his here), in making acquaintance with Moloch. This helps to compose Hester, and she is now able to comprehend her happiness--to-morrow she will be radiant.

“Come to-morrow as early as you like.”

This note was brought by Mr Payne; and Fane, after he had read it, told that gentleman he had seen Langley, and was persuaded of his innocence in the matter of the forgery. He mentioned Seager as the person who had received the check, and Mr Payne at once remembered that to be the name of the person who had presented it, and who had excited no suspicion of anything irregular, as this was not the first that had been paid to him. Fane also told what he had learnt from Lady Lee of the charge of swindling now pending against Seager, and of the additional probability thus afforded that he was the delinquent. Mr Payne promptly adopted this view of the case, and proposed that he should go instantly to town to consult a legal adviser on the matter, and, if necessary, have an interview with Seager himself. “You see,” he said, “that what we want, in this instance, is, not to prosecute or recover, but simply to establish Langley’s innocence; and if, by confessing, he can avoid a prosecution, perhaps we may, without difficulty, get Seager to admit his guilt.”

After Mr Payne had departed, Fane spent the rest of the day in investigating Mr Holmes’s account of the abduction of Julius. It really appeared that Bagot was the instigator of it--and, moreover, that the Colonel had intended to restore Julius so soon as the conclusion of the trial should have removed the original inducement for concealing him, which was to obtain funds wherewith to meet the trial.

Lady Lee was, as Orelia had prophesied, all radiant when Fane next saw her, and looked altogether so cheerful and charming that he experienced a sudden impulse to embrace her; and, not seeing any just cause or impediment, had already, with that view, put his arm round her waist, when she stooped, and, snatching Julius from the ground, held him before her as a shield. Julius, being fond of Fane, immediately clung round his neck, and thus covered any little discomfiture he might naturally have felt at having his intention defeated.

This placing of Julius between the lovers involved a kind of metaphor; for Lady Lee reminded Fane that, though they might have dispensed with Bagot’s consent on mere pecuniary grounds, yet now, when Julius’s interests were again at stake, it was imperative to obtain it.

Fane, who had in fact come rushing into Lady Lee’s presence with the full intention of pressing for immediate union, now that her mourning was thus happily at an end, was fairly staggered by this consideration, which he had in his eagerness quite overlooked. But though he could have found resolution to submit to what was inevitable, it was not in his nature to be patient while any alternative remained. First, he would go instantly, seek out Bagot, and demand the consent--would go down on his knees for it, if necessary, professing himself ready for any amount of baseness and sycophancy to propitiate the potent Colonel. But Lady Lee, feeling that Bagot might possibly vent the anger she knew him to entertain against Fane in some coarse insult, told the latter her reasons for thinking the Colonel was not to be propitiated. Then he urged that if Bagot could not be cajoled, he might be threatened or bought--that a hint of exposure in the business of the abduction might bring him to terms.

This certainly seemed feasible; but this hope was put to flight by a letter from Mr Payne, announcing that, arriving in town on the last day of the trial, with the intention of seeing Seager, he found both him and Bagot fled, and the latter had been traced to France. This was a terrible stroke, affecting so powerfully as it did the interests both of Fane and Langley. And as this brings us to the point of Mr Seager’s flight from town, we will now follow that gentleman in his career.