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Updated: May 5, 2025
"I see they are talking to each other." "They are talking confidentially; talking so that Mrs. Linley can't hear them. Look again." Randal fixed his eyes on Mrs. Presty, with an expression which showed his dislike of that lady a little too plainly. Before he could answer what she had just said to him, his lively little niece hit on a new idea.
Presty opened the table-drawer, threw it in, and closed the drawer with a bang. Discovering the two ladies, Randal stopped in the doorway, and stared at them in astonishment. "Didn't you expect to see us?" Mrs. Presty inquired. "I heard you were here, from our friend Sarrazin," Randal said; "but I expected to see Captain Bennydeck. Have I mistaken the number? Surely these are his rooms?"
Presty whispered to Randal: "I knew she would come back again! The Evil Genius of the family that's what I call Miss Westerfield. The name exactly fits her!" The idea in Randal's mind was that the name exactly fitted Mrs. Presty. He made no reply; his eyes rested in sympathy on his sister-in-law. She saw, and felt, his kindness at a time when kindness was doubly precious.
"You wouldn't say that," he urged, speaking with marked restraint of tone and manner, "if you knew what I have had to endure " Mrs. Presty suddenly looked toward the door. "Wait a minute," she said; "I think I hear somebody coming in." In the silence that followed, footsteps were audible outside not approaching the door, however, but retiring from it. Mrs. Presty had apparently been mistaken.
I'll explain myself when you come back." There was a wildness in her eyes, and a tone of stern command in her voice, which warned her mother to set dignity aside, and submit. "I don't ask what has happened," Mrs. Presty resumed on her return. "That letter, that fatal letter to the Captain, has justified my worst fears. What in Heaven's name are we to do now?"
Presty, when they called her widow. I know now why my brother, who never deceived me before, has deceived me about this. I understand the part that your daughter has been playing and I am as certain as if I had heard it, of the devilish lie that one of you perhaps both of you must have told my poor child. No, no; I had better not see Catherine.
"May I ask what her name is?" "Sydney Westerfield." Mrs. Presty looked at her daughter and smiled satirically. Mrs. Linley remonstrated. "Surely," she said, "you don't object to the young lady's name!" "I have no opinion to offer, Catherine. I don't believe in the name." "Oh, mamma, do you suspect that it's an assumed name?" "My dear, I haven't a doubt that it is.
He took leave of Mrs. Presty with the formality due to a stranger he merely bowed. That incorrigible old woman treated him with affectionate familiarity in return. "Good-by, dear Randal. One moment before you go! Will it be of any use if we invite you to the marriage?" Arrived at the station, Randal found that he must wait for the train.
"You have an excellent heart, Catherine," she remarked; "but as for your head " "Well, and what of my head?" "It's always beautifully dressed, my dear, by your maid." With that parting shot, Mrs. Presty took her departure by way of the library. Almost at the same moment, the door of the breakfast-room was opened. A young man advanced, and shook hands cordially with Mrs. Linley.
Presty made mischief, nevertheless. Observing that her daughter was in tears, and feeling sincerely distressed by the discovery, she was eager to administer consolation. "Make your mind easy, my dear, if you have any doubt about Herbert's movements when he is away from home. I followed him myself the day before yesterday when he went out.
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