Martin stared at the speaker for some seconds, and it was evident how difficult he found it to believe that the words he had just listened to were uttered in deliberate seriousness.

"If you have read that letter, you certainly have not understood it,"

said he at last, in a voice full of melancholy meaning.

"Egad, it's only too easy of comprehension," replied the Captain; "of all things in life, there's no mistaking a demand for money."

"Just take it with you to your own room, Harry," said Martin, with a manner of more affection than he had yet employed. "It is my firm persuasion that when you have re-read and thought over it, your impression will be a different one. Con it over in solitude, and then come back and give me your advice."

The Captain was not sorry to adopt a plan which relieved him so speedily from a very embarra.s.sing situation, and, folding up the note, he turned and left the room.

There are a great number of excellent people in this world who believe that "Thought," like "ecarte," is a game which requires two people to play. The Captain was one of these; nor was it within his comprehension to imagine how any one individual could suffice to raise the doubts he was called on to canva.s.s or decide. "Who should he now have recourse to?" was his first question; and he had scarcely proposed it to himself when a soft low voice said, "What is puzzling Captain Martin?--can I be of any service to him?" He turned and saw Kate Henderson.

"Only think how fortunate!" exclaimed he. "Just come in here to this drawing-room, and give me your advice."

"Willingly," said she, with a courtesy the more marked because his manner indicated a seriousness that betokened trouble.

"My father has just dismissed me to cogitate over this epistle; as if, after all, when one has read a letter, that any secret or mystical interpretation is to come by all the reconsideration and reflection in the world."

"Am I to read it?" asked Kate, as he placed it in her hand.

"Of course you are," said he.

"There is nothing confidential or private in it which I ought not to see?"

"Nothing; and if there were," added he, warmly, "_you_ are one of ourselves, I trust,--at least _I_ think you so."

Kate's lips closed with almost stern % impressiveness, but her color never changed at this speech, and she opened the letter in silence. For some minutes she continued to read with the same impa.s.sive expression; but gradually her cheek became paler, and a haughty, almost scornful, expression settled on her lips. "So patient are they in their trials,"

said she, reading aloud the expression of Mary's note. "Is it not possible, Captain Martin, that patience may be pushed a little beyond a virtue, and become something very like cowardice,--abject cowardice?

And then," cried she impetuously, and not waiting for his reply, "to say that now is the time to show these poor people the saving care and protection that the rich owe them, as if the duty dated from the hour of their being struck down by famine, laid low by pestilence, or that the debt could ever be acquitted by the relief accorded to pauperism! Why not have taught these same famished creatures self-dependence, elevated them to the rank of civilized beings by the enjoyment of rights that give men self-esteem as well as liberty? What do you mean to do, sir?--or is that your difficulty?" cried she, hastily changing her tone to one of less energy.

"Exactly,--that is _my difficulty_. My father, I suspect, wishes me to concur in the pleasant project struck out by Mary, and that, by way of helping _them_, we should ruin _ourselves_."

"And _you_ are for--" She stopped, as if to let him finish her question for her.

"Egad, I don't know well what I'm for, except it be self-preservation.

I mean," said he, correcting himself, as a sudden glance of almost insolent scorn shot from Kate's eyes towards him,--"I mean that I 'm certain more than half of this account is sheer exaggeration. Mary is frightened,--as well she may be,--finding herself all alone, and hearing nothing but the high-colored stories the people brings her, and listening to calamities from morning to night."

"But still it _may_ be all true," said Kate, solemnly. "It may be--as Miss Martin writes--that 'there is a blight on the land.'"

"What's to be done, then?" asked he, in deep embarra.s.sment.

"The first step is to ascertain what is fact,--the real extent of the misfortune."

"And how is that to be accomplished?" asked he.

"Can you not think of some means?" said she, with a scarcely perceptible approach to a smile.

"No, by Jove! that I cannot, except by going over there one's self."

"And why not that?" asked she, more boldly, while she fixed her large full eyes directly upon him.

"If _you_ thought that I ought to go,--if you advised it and would actually say 'Go'--"

"Well, if I should?"

"Then I'd set off to-night; though, to say truth, neither the journey nor the business are much to my fancy."

"Were they ten times less so, sir, I'd say, 'Go,'" said she, resolutely.

"Then go I will," cried the Captain; "and I'll start within two hours."

CHAPTER VI. MR. MERL'S DEPARTURE

Worthy reader, you are neither weak of purpose nor undecided in action; as little are you easily moved by soft influences, when aided by long eyelashes. But had you been so, it would have been no difficult effort for you to comprehend the state of mind in which Captain Martin repaired to his room to make preparation for his journey. There was a kind of half chivalry in his present purpose that nerved and supported him. It was like a knight-errant of old setting out to confront a peril at the behest of his lady-love; but against this animating conviction there arose that besetting sin of small minds,--a sense of distrust,--a lurking suspicion that he might be, all this while, nothing but the dupe of a very artful woman.

"Who can tell," said he to himself, "what plan she may have in all this, or what object she may propose to herself in getting _me_ out of the way? I don't think she really cares one farthing about the distress of these people, supposing it all to be true; and as to the typhus fever and cholera, egad! if they be there, one ought to think twice before rushing into the midst of them. And then, again, what do I know about the country or its habits? I have no means of judging if it be poorer or sicklier or; more wretched than usual. To _my_ eyes, it always seemed at the lowest depth of want and misery; every one went half starved and more than half naked. I 'm sure there is no necessity for my going some few hundred and odd miles to refresh my memory on this pleasant fact; and yet this is precisely what I 'm about to do. Is it by way of trying her power over me? By Jove, I 've hit it!" cried he, suddenly, as he stopped arranging a ma.s.s of letters which he was reducing to order before his departure. "That's her game; there's no doubt of it! She has said to herself, 'This will prove him. If he do this at my bidding, he'll do more.' Ay, but will he, mademoiselle? that's the question. A young hussar may turn out to be a very old soldier. What if I were just to tell her so. Girls of her stamp like a man all the better when he shows himself to be wide-awake. I 'd lay a fifty on it she 'll care more for me when she sees I 'm her own equal in shrewdness. And, after all, why should _I_ go? I could send my valet, Fletcher,--just the kind of fellow for such a mission,--never knew the secret he could n't worm out; there never was a bit of barrack scandal he did n't get to the bottom of. He 'd be back here within a fortnight, with the whole state of the case, and I'll be bound there will be no humbugging _him_."

This bright idea was not, however, without its share of detracting reflections, for what became of all that personal heroism on which he reposed such hope, if the danger were to be encountered by deputy? This was a puzzle, not the less that he had not yet made up his mind whether he 'd really be in love with Kate Henderson, or only involve _her_ in an unfortunate attachment for _him_. While he thus pondered and hesitated, strewing his room with the contents of drawers and cabinets, by way of aiding the labor of preparation, his door was suddenly opened, and Mr.

Merl made his appearance. Although dressed with all his habitual regard to effect, and more than an ordinary display of chains and trinkets, that gentleman's aspect betokened trouble and anxiety; at least, there was a certain restlessness in his eye that Martin well understood as an evidence of something wrong within.

"Are you getting ready for a journey, Captain?" asked he, as he entered.

"I was thinking of it; but I believe I shall not go. I 'm undecided."

"Up the Rhine?"

"No; not in that direction."

"South,--towards Italy, perhaps?"

"Nor there, either. I was meditating a trip to England."

"We should be on the road together," said Merl. "I'm off by four o'clock."

"How so? What's the reason of this sudden start?"

"There's going to be a crash here," said Merl, speaking in a lower tone.

"The Government have been doing the thing with too high a hand, and there's mischief brewing."

"Are you sure of this?" asked Martin.

"Only too sure, that's all. I bought in, on Tuesday last, at sixty-four and an eighth, and the same stock is now fifty-one and a quarter, and will be forty to-morrow. The day after--" Here Mr. Merl made a motion with his outstretched arm, to indicate utter extinction.

"You're a heavy loser, then?" asked Martin, eagerly.

"I shall be, to the tune of some thirteen thousand pounds. It was just on that account I came in here. I shall need money within the week, and must turn those Irish securities of yours into cash,--some of them at least,--and I want a hint from you as to which I ought to dispose of and which hold over. You told me one day, I remember, that there was a portion of the property likely to rise greatly in value--"