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'Oh, I won't believe it, cried Dolly, with a last despairing effort to resist the effect his grave pity was producing; 'I can't. Harold, you're trying to frighten me. I'm not frightened a bit. Say you are only in fun! But Caffyn turned away in well-feigned distress.
Caffyn had been lucky enough to impress a business friend of his with a firm conviction of his talents for business and management, and this had led to a proposal that he should leave the stage and join him, with a prospect of a partnership should the alliance prove a success.
Mark felt that in another moment the whole story of his uncle's intervention at Kensington Park Gardens would burst upon Holroyd with the force of a revelation, and he was at the end of his resources. Where was Caffyn all this time? How could he be so careless as to be late? 'I I don't think it's quite fair to tell all that, he expostulated weakly. 'Fair! said Uncle Solomon.
All at once Mark, as he stood at the window with Caffyn, stepped back with a look of helpless terror. 'What the deuce is it now? said the other under his breath. Mark caught Caffyn's elbow with a fierce grip; a carriage had driven up; they could see it plainly still in the afternoon light, which had only just begun to fade. 'Do you see? muttered Mark thickly.
'Wait a bit, my dears, we're a precious awkward lot to fit in Marshall and his wife me and you and Miss Clara and the baby; and then there's Baruch, who's odd man, so to speak; that's three bedrooms. We sha'n't do it Otherwise, I was a-thinking 'What were you thinking? said Marshall. 'I've got it, said Mrs Caffyn, joyously. 'Miss Clara and me will go to Great Oakhurst on the Friday.
Somebody was at the piano again, but as all around were talking, the most confidential conversations could be carried on in perfect security, and Caffyn, seating himself next to Mark, set himself to remove all prejudices. He put his case very well, without obsequiousness or temper, appealing to Mark as a fellow man-of-the-world against a girl's rash judgment.
Holroyd, that the speech you find such fault with happens to be just the one I took entire from the book itself! And it was in fact one of Mark's improvements. Vincent then saw for the first time that Mabel had joined the group, and he was angry with himself for his folly. 'Where has Ashburn got to? We must tell him that! cried Caffyn.
He told the story of the letter, suppressed to all appearances out of gratuitous malice, and of the cruel terrorism exercised over little Dolly; he showed how Caffyn had tried to profit by his supposed discovery of the fraud, and how Mark had studiously refrained from undeceiving him, and gave a damaging description of the sordid threats and proposals he had himself received that evening.
'Good God! groaned Mark, losing all control as the truth flashed upon him while the grey grass heaved under his unstable feet. Caffyn was watching him, with a certain curiosity which was not without a malicious amusement. 'You didn't expect that, he said. 'It's capital, isn't it? 'Capital! murmured Mark. 'He'll be in time for your wedding, pursued Caffyn.
Whenever Mrs Caffyn talked about the labourers at Great Oakhurst, whom she knew so well, Clara always felt as if all her reading had been a farce, and, indeed, if we come into close contact with actual life, art, poetry and philosophy seem little better than trifling.
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