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Knowing nothing of the resolution to live apart which had latterly separated the doctor and his wife, Mountjoy decided on putting his idea to the test by applying for information to Mrs. Vimpany at her husband's house. In the nature of a sensitive man the bare idea of delay, under these circumstances, was unendurable. Hugh called the first cab that passed him, and drove to Hampstead.
If I had been by myself, I daresay I should have sent for medical help. What do you think dear Mrs. Vimpany offered to do? 'Your maid is only faint, she said. 'Give her rest and some iced wine, and she will be well enough to go on by the slow train. Don't be frightened about her; I will wait with you. And she did wait.
When may we expect to hear from her?" "If Mrs. Vimpany can put what she has to say to us into few words," Fanny replied, "we shall hear from her to-morrow by telegraph." As she answered her mistress in those cheering words, they were startled by a heavy knock at the door of the room. Under similar circumstances, Lord Harry's delicate hand would have been just loud enough to be heard, and no more.
Released from the man's presence, Hugh found himself strangely associating the interests of Iris with the language otherwise beneath notice which Mr. Vimpany had used on leaving the room. In desperate straits for want of money, how would the audacious bankrupt next attempt to fill his empty purse?
He was still at the window, but he had turned his back on the view of the garden; his eyes were fixed, in furtive expectation, on his wife. Was he waiting to hear her say something more? She ran the risk and said it. "I don't quite understand the sacrifice you seem to be making to Mr. Vimpany," she confessed. "Will you tell me, dear, what it means?"
Well, the correspondence relating to the sick man continued every day; and every day oh, Vimpany, another concession to my jealousy! she handed the letters to me to read. One morning, when she opened the letter of that day, there passed over her a change which is likely to remain in my memory as long as I live.
Convinced that her mistress was in danger, after what she had already heard, the maid's anxiety and alarm had so completely absorbed her that she had forgotten to play her part. Instead of still busying herself at the sideboard, she stood with her back to it, palpably listening. Cunning Mr. Vimpany, possessing himself of the brandy, made a request too entirely appropriate to excite suspicion.
At the later time, however, when the gentlemen had taken leave of each other, Mr. Vimpany finding himself alone with Lord Harry had no hesitation in introducing the subject, on which delicacy had prevented the Frenchmen from entering. "Did you look at the Dane?" he began abruptly. "Of course I did!" "And you noticed the likeness?" "Not I!"
Perhaps you will even promise to write to me?" Iris instantly gave her promise, and wrote down her address in London. Mountjoy made no attempt to interfere: it was needless. If the maid had not fallen ill on the journey, and if Mrs. Vimpany had followed Miss Henley to London, there would have been little to fear in the discovery of her address and there was little to fear now.
At the time of his death he left a small sum of money only. I am, as a matter of fact, greatly inconvenienced." "Your ladyship shall be inconvenienced no longer. You must draw upon us. As regards Lord Harry's death, we are informed by Dr. Vimpany, who seems to have been his friend as well as his medical adviser " "Dr. Vimpany had been living with him for some time."
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