Amos bowed.

"I hope you find your sister well, Mr Huntingdon," he added; "it is very kind of you to visit us in our humble dwelling."

The other replied that he did not find his sister looking as well as he had hoped, but trusted that she might soon be better.

"The better for my absence, I suppose you mean," said his brother-in-law sneeringly.

Amos made no reply.

"Well, sir," continued the wretched stroller, whose swaggering manner was evidently merely a.s.sumed, "every man's house is his castle, and therefore mine must be so too. I haven't much to offer you in the way of welcome just now, but, before we part, I should like a word in private with you.--Is the other room occupied?" he asked of his wife.

"No; Mrs Allison has put it at my service this morning."

"Then, Mr Huntingdon, will you be so good as to follow me?" Saying which, he led the way to the other parlour, and, when they had entered, locked the door, to the surprise and not particular satisfaction of Amos, who gave just one glance at the little window, and thought he saw two eyes peeping through the little holes.

"Pray be seated," said the player.

Amos accepted the invitation and sat.

"You have brought some money, I understand, from my father-in-law for his daughter," began Mr Vivian abruptly.

"I have," said the other, after his questioner had waited a minute or so for a reply.

"Would you have the goodness to hand it to me?" continued the player.

"I brought it," replied Amos, "for my sister's own private use and benefit, and cannot therefore give it to you."

"Ah, indeed!" said the other sarcastically; "but you know, sir, that a wife's goods belong to her husband, who, as I think the Bible has it, is the head of the wife, so that what is hers is his, and indeed his more than hers."

"Perhaps so, under ordinary circ.u.mstances," replied Amos; "but this is a free gift from a father to a daughter, and I am sure no kind or reasonable husband would wish to deprive her of it."

"Deprive, sir? No,--deprive is not the word. Husband and wife are one, you know: the wife is the weaker vessel, and the husband the stronger; and it is only right and natural that the stronger should have the money, that he may use it for the benefit of the weaker."

"Mr Vivian," said Amos firmly, "all this, and you must know it, is mere idle talk. I cannot give you the money."

"And I on my part say, sir," replied the other, "that I must have it. I want it. I cannot do without it."

"I have told you my decision," said Amos.

"Indeed," said the other. "Then I am driven to an unpleasant line of persuasion, though very reluctantly."

He rose, and Amos did the same.

"Do you see this?" he said, taking from his pocket a revolver.

"I do," said Amos.

"Should I be disposed to use this by way of compulsion, what would you say?"

"That I am in G.o.d's hands and not in yours," replied Amos, looking Vivian full in the face, who quailed before the calm, steady gaze of the young man.

Neither spoke for half a minute; then the unhappy stroller stepped back, and began to raise his right arm. The next instant the disused door was dashed open, and Walter sprang upon his astounded brother-in-law with the fury of a tiger. The pistol flew from Vivian's hand, and he fell to the ground. Walter, who was full of vigour and activity, pinned him down, and called to Amos to give him one of the bell ropes. With this, being a.s.sisted by his brother, he pinioned the prostrate man so that he was utterly helpless.

"Now," said Walter, "let us search the villain's pockets." He did so, and discovered a second revolver. "What's to be done now?" he asked; "shall we hand him over at once to the police?"

At this moment his sister, having heard the scuffle, tried the door.

Amos unlocked it. What a sight presented itself! "Oh, what does it all mean?" she cried.

"Why, just this," exclaimed her brother. "This dastardly villain--I must call him so--has been threatening to shoot Amos because he would not give him the money that was sent by my father to you."

"Oh, misery! misery!" cried the unhappy wife, hiding her face with her hands.

"Let me get up; untie the rope," wailed the unhappy Vivian, now utterly crestfallen and abject. "I meant your brother no harm; I only intended to frighten him. The pistols are neither of them loaded."

"It may be so," said Walter. "Well, get up," and he helped him to rise.

"Now sit down in that chair and listen to me. You've behaved like a brute, and worse than a brute, to my poor sister; you have cruelly trapped my dear n.o.ble brother, and would have murdered him if you had dared. The simplest thing would just be to send for a policeman and give you into his charge. But I don't want to do this for my poor sister's sake and the family's sake. But now I've made up my mind--come what may, disgrace or no disgrace, if you show your face amongst any of us again, the constable shall have you, and you shall get your deserts.

We've got a home for our sister at the old place, and Amos has got a home for the children. Now if, after I've set you free, you turn up anywhere near us or the children, we'll make no more bones of the matter; you shall get your deserts, and these will be the deserts of a mean, cowardly, rascally wife-beater, to say the best of you."

Not a word of reply did the guilty man make to this speech. He writhed in his chair, and looked utterly humbled and crushed.

When Walter--who had now, with the tacit consent of Amos, taken the management of matters into his own hands--had examined the pistols, which proved to be unloaded, he approached his brother-in-law once more, and said, with less excitement, "Now, Mr Orlando Vivian, I am going to release you, and you will have the goodness to take yourself out of this town before you are an hour older, else you will have to take the consequences." Having said this, he proceeded to unfasten the cord which bound the degraded and spirit-broken wretch. When this had been accomplished, the baffled stroller rose, and, with head hanging down, and without a word uttered, left the house.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

BACK TO THE OLD HOME AGAIN.

"I shall remain here with poor Julia," said Amos to his brother, when their unhappy sister, completely overcome by the terrible scene she had just witnessed, had retired to her bedroom, where she was lovingly tended by her kind landlady.

"And what is the next move for me?" asked Walter.

"Well," replied Amos, "you have done your part most n.o.bly, and I am so thankful now that you came. Not that I think that wretched man would really have harmed me. He just wanted to frighten the money out of me; but I believe, on finding me firm, and not to be frightened, he would have dropped his pistol, and made some shuffling attempt to turn the matter into a joke, and would then have tried to wheedle the money out of me, when he saw that a show of violence would not do. Still, I am truly glad that you were here, and that things have turned out as they have done. I feel sure now that you have thoroughly humbled this unprincipled scoundrel, and that he has slunk away like a whipped hound, and I have every hope that he will not trouble poor Julia any more with his odious presence. As he knows now that there are two of us keeping watch, and must remember what you have said to him, I fully believe that he will take himself off to a distance, if not go abroad, and that we need not be afraid of his annoying us any more either here or at Flixworth Manor."

"That's pretty much what I think too," replied his brother; "but what am I to say at home?"

"Just what you like. But as to our dear sister, I want you to express to my father her delight and grat.i.tude when I gave her his love, and told her that there was still a place for her in the old home. And then would you find out from him or through our aunt how soon she may come back to us? for I want to get her out of this place. When she is once in her old home again she will be safe out of the clutches of her cruel husband. I will wait here for an answer, which you can send me by post; and, should that answer warrant poor Julia's return at once, I will see all things got ready, and will bring her myself. And, should there be anything in the way of her returning immediately, I can remove her for a time to where her children are, as I shall be better able to keep my eye upon her there."

"All right, Amos; I'm not afraid of leaving you here now, for I am as fully persuaded as you are that Mr Vivian has had such a lesson as he won't forget in a hurry, and that he will make himself pretty scarce for some time to come. You shall hear from me by to-morrow's post.--Ah, but there's another thing: am I to say anything about the children? for if poor Julia is to come back we shall have to make room for the children as well."

"Nay, dear Walter," said his brother, "I think it would be better to say nothing about the children; they are safe and happy where they are. Let us leave the matter to our dear father. When Julia has got her old place in his house and heart back again, I feel sure that it will not be long before he bids her himself send for the children. Don't you think it will be better that it should come from himself?"

"Just so, Amos; you are right, as usual. Well, this is a capital ending to a queer beginning. And what will old Harry say to see 'Miss Julia as was' turning up 'Mistress Julia as is'? Oh, won't it be capital fun to see him welcome her back!" So Walter set off on his homeward journey in high spirits, and in due time reached his destination brimful of news and excitement.

"All well, I hope?" asked his father, who, with his aunt, met him in the hall on his arrival.

"Oh yes, father, it's all well, and a deal better than all well--it's all best." Then the three gathered round the fire in Mr Huntingdon's library, and Walter told his story. Deep was the emotion of Mr Huntingdon and his sister, and deeper still their thankfulness, when they heard of the happy conclusion of the terrible and exciting meeting between Amos and his brother-in-law.