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Zoe cast a mortified and rather a haughty glance on him, and Fanny shrugged her shoulders incredulously. These two ladies brushed hair together in Zoe's room. That is a soothing operation, my masters, and famous for stimulating females to friendly gossip; but this time there was, for once, a guarded reserve. Zoe was irritated, puzzled, mortified, and even grieved by Severne's conduct.
Severne's back, but to his face that is, if we ever see his face again, or Zoe's either." "Oh, aunt!" said Fanny, reproachfully. "It is only the rain. La! poor things, they will be wet to the skin. Just see how it is pouring!" "That it is: and let me tell you there is nothing so dangerous as a te'te-'a-te'te in the rain."
This is sir, you can send the men away." "Yes; and, Harris, pack up Mr. Severne's things, and bring them down here this moment." The male servants retired, the women held aloof. Fanny Dover came forward, pale and trembling, and helped to place Ina Klosking in the hall porter's chair. She was insensible still, but moaned faintly. Her moans were echoed: all eyes turned.
Vizard had followed the custom of Oxonians among themselves, which is to knock, and then come in, unless forbidden. "Come," said he, cheerfully, "those bills. I'm in a hurry to cash them now, and end the only difference we have ever had, old fellow." The blood left Severne's cheek and lips for a moment, and he thought swiftly and hard. The blood returned, along with his ready wit.
Here again it was Severne's unlucky day, and Uxmoor's lucky. To carry this same day to a close, Severne tried more than once to get near Zoe and ask if he had offended her, and in what. But no opportunity occurred. So then he sat and gazed at her, and looked unhappy. She saw, and was not unmoved, but would not do more than glance at him. He resigned himself to wait till night. Night came.
"No; it is to bring one here. She comes down from London five minutes before you take the up train." There was a general exclamation: Who was it? Aunt Maitland? "No," said Vizard, tossing a note to Zoe "it is Doctress Gale." Severne's countenance fell.
"I tell you I know I done it!" argued one. "I ketched him between the sights, jest's fair as could be." "G'wan, he flummuxed jest's I cut loose!" "Well, boys," called the leader, impatiently, "get along!" A man came forward, and silently threw a loop about Severne's neck. In Wyoming they hang horse-thieves. Severne realised this, and told them all about everything.
Ah, here's Harris, with the villain's things. Get the lady's boxes out, and put Mr. Severne's into the fly. Give the man two guineas, and let him leave them at the 'Swan, in Taddington." He then beckoned down the women, and had Ina Klosking carried upstairs to the very room Severne had occupied.
Severne then made the revelation which he had been preparing for a day or two past; and, to avoid eternal comments by the author, I must once more call in the artful aid of the printers. The true part of Mr. Severne's revelation is in italics; the false in ordinary type. "When my father died, I inherited an estate in Huntingdonshire. It was not so large as Vizard's, but it was clear.
Severne's reply for one moment with keen anxiety. "My dear Miss Maitland," said that able young man, very respectfully, yet with a sort of cheerful readiness, as if he were delighted at her deigning to question him, "to tell you the truth, I was admiring Miss Vizard's diamond ring." Fanny tittered; Zoe blushed again at such a fib and such aplomb.
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