On this occasion he had arrived in very bad plight indeed: he had brought away from Cork nothing but what he could carry on his body, and had been forced to p.a.w.n what he could p.a.w.n in order that he might subsist And then he had been taken with ague, and with the fit strong on him had crawled away to Spinny Lane, and had there been nursed by the mother and daughter whom he had ill used, deserted, and betrayed.

"When the devil was sick the devil a monk would be;" and now his wife, credulous as all women are in such matters, believed the devil's protestations. A time may perhaps come when even-- But stop!--or I may chance to tread on the corns of orthodoxy. What I mean to insinuate is this; that it was on the cards that Mr. Mollett would now at last turn over a new leaf.

"How do you do, Mr. Mollett?" said Mr. Prendergast. "I am sorry to see you looking so poorly."

"Yes, sir. I am poorly enough certainly. I have been very ill since I last had the pleasure of seeing you, sir."

"Ah, yes, that was at Castle Richmond; was it not? Well, you have done the best thing that a man can do; you have come home to your wife and family now that you are ill and require their attendance."

Mr. Mollett looked up at him with a countenance full of unutterable woe and weakness. What was he to say on such a subject in such a company? There sat his wife and daughter, his veritable wife and true-born daughter, on whom he was now dependent, and in whose hands he lay, as a sick man does lie in the hands of women: could he deny them? And there sat the awful Mr. Prendergast, the representative of all that Fitzgerald interest which he had so wronged, and who up to this morning had at any rate believed the story with which he, Mollett, had pushed his fortunes in county Cork. Could he in his presence acknowledge that Lady Fitzgerald had never been his wife? It must be confessed that he was in a sore plight. And then remember his ague!

"You feel yourself tolerably comfortable, I suppose, now that you are with your wife and daughter," continued Mr. Prendergast, most inhumanly.

Mr. Mollett continued to look at him so piteously from beneath his nightcap. "I am better than I was, thank you, sir," said he.

"There is nothing like the bosom of one's family for restoring one to health; is there, Mrs. Mollett;--or for keeping one in health?"

"I wish you gentlemen would think so," said she, drily.

"As for me, I never was blessed with a wife. When I am sick I have to trust to hired attendance. In that respect I am not so fortunate as your husband; I am only an old bachelor."

"Oh, ain't you, sir?" said Mrs. Mollett; "and perhaps it's best so.

It ain't all married people that are the happiest."

The daughter during this time was sitting intent on her work, not lifting her face from the shirt she was sewing. But an observer might have seen from her forehead and eye that she was not only listening to what was said, but thinking and meditating on the scene before her.

"Well, Mr. Mollett," said Mr. Prendergast, "you at any rate are not an old bachelor." Mr. Mollett still looked piteously at him, but said nothing. It may be thought that in all this Mr. Prendergast was more cruel than necessary, but it must be remembered that it was inc.u.mbent on him to bring the poor wretch before him down absolutely on his marrow-bones. Mollett must be made to confess his sin, and own that this woman before him was his real wife; and the time for mercy had not commenced till that had been done.

And then his daughter spoke, seeing how things were going with him.

"Father," said she, "this gentleman has called because he has had a letter from Abraham Mollett; and he was speaking about what Abraham has been doing in Ireland."

"Oh dear, oh dear!" said poor Mollett. "The unfortunate young man; that wretched, unfortunate, young man! He will bring me to the grave at last--to the grave at last."

"Come, Mr. Mollett," said Mr. Prendergast, now getting up and standing with his back to the fire, "I do not know that you and I need beat about the bush much longer. I suppose I may speak openly before these ladies as to what has been taking place in county Cork."

"Sir!" said Mr. Mollett, with a look of deprecation about his mouth that ought to have moved the lawyer's heart.

"I know nothing about it," said Mrs. Mollett, very stiffly.

"Yes, mother, we do know something about it; and the gentleman may speak out if it so pleases him. It will be better, father, for you that he should do so."

"Very well, my dear," said Mr. Mollett, in the lowest possible voice; "whatever the gentleman likes--only I do hope--" and he uttered a deep sigh, and gave no further expression to his hopes or wishes.

"I presume, in the first place," began Mr. Prendergast, "that this lady here is your legal wife, and this younger lady your legitimate daughter? There is no doubt I take it as to that?"

"Not--any--doubt--in the world, sir," said the Mrs. Mollett, who claimed to be so de jure. "I have got my marriage lines to show, sir.

Abraham's mother was dead just six months before we came together; and then we were married just six months after that."

"Well, Mr. Mollett; I suppose you do not wish to contradict that?"

"He can't, sir, whether he wish it or not," said Mrs. Mollett.

"Could you show me that--that marriage certificate?" asked Mr.

Prendergast.

Mrs. Mollett looked rather doubtful as to this. It may be, that much as she trusted in her husband's reform, she did not wish to let him know where she kept this important palladium of her rights.

"It can be forthcoming, sir, whenever it may be wanted," said Mary Mollett the younger; and then Mr. Prendergast, seeing what was pa.s.sing through the minds of the two women, did not press that matter any further.

"But I should be glad to hear from your own lips, Mr. Mollett, that you acknowledge the marriage, which took place at--at Fulham, I think you said, ma'am?"

"At Putney, sir; at Putney parish church, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fourteen."

"Ah, that was the year before Mr. Mollett went into Dorsetshire."

"Yes, sir. He didn't stay with me long, not at that time. He went away and left me; and then all that happened, that you know of--down in Dorsetshire, as they told me. And afterwards when he went away on his keeping, leaving Aby behind, I took the child, and said that I was his aunt. There were reasons then; and I feared-- But never mind about that, sir; for anything that I was wrong enough to say then to the contrary, I am his lawful wedded wife, and before my face he won't deny it. And then when he was sore pressed and in trouble he came back to me, and after that Mary here was born; and one other, a boy, who, G.o.d rest him, has gone from these troubles. And since that it is not often that he has been with me. But now, now that he is here, you should have pity on us, and give him another chance."

But still Mr. Mollett had said nothing himself. He sat during all this time, wearily moving his head to and fro, as though the conversation were anything but comfortable to him. And, indeed, it cannot be presumed to have been very pleasant. He moved his head slowly and wearily to and fro; every now and then lifting up one hand weakly, as though deprecating any recurrence to circ.u.mstances so decidedly unpleasant. But Mr. Prendergast was determined that he should speak.

"Mr. Mollett," said he, "I must beg you to say in so many words, whether the statement of this lady is correct or is incorrect. Do you acknowledge her for your lawful wife?"

"He daren't deny me, sir," said the woman, who was, perhaps, a little too eager in the matter.

"Father, why don't you behave like a man and speak?" said his daughter, now turning upon him. "You have done ill to all of us;--to so many; but now--"

"And are you going to turn against me, Mary?" he whined out, almost crying.

"Turn against you! no, I have never done that. But look at mother.

Would you let that gentleman think that she is--what I won't name before him? Will you say that I am not your honest-born child? You have done very wickedly, and you must now make what amends is in your power. If you do not answer him here he will make you answer in some worse place than this."

"What is it I am to say, sir?" he whined out again.

"Is this lady here your legal wife?"

"Yes, sir," said the poor man, whimpering.

"And that marriage ceremony which you went through in Dorsetshire with Miss Wainwright was not a legal marriage?"

"I suppose not, sir."

"You were well aware at the time that you were committing bigamy?"

"Sir!"

"You knew, I say, that you were committing bigamy; that the child whom you were professing to marry would not become your wife through that ceremony. I say that you knew all this at the time? Come, Mr.

Mollett, answer me, if you do not wish me to have you dragged out of this by a policeman and taken at once before a magistrate."

"Oh, sir! be merciful to us; pray be merciful to us," said Mrs.

Mollett, holding up her ap.r.o.n to her eyes.