"And so you punish him by refusing your countenance to this--what shall I call it?--gala."

"Oh! of course you take the Verneys' part against me; they are swells, and I am a n.o.body."

He thought Miss Agnes coloured a little at this remark. The blood grows sensitive and capricious when people are ailing, and a hint is enough to send it to and fro; but she said only,--

"I never heard of the feud before. I thought that you and Mr. Verney were very good friends."

"So we were; so we _are_--Cleve and I. Of course, I was speaking of the old lord. Cleve, of course, no one ever hears anything but praises of Cleve. I suppose I ought to beg your pardon for having talked as I did of old Lord Verney; it's petty treason, isn't it, to talk lightly of a Verney, in Cardyllian or its neighbourhood?" said Sedley, a little sourly.

"I don't know _that_; but I dare say, if you mean to ask leave to fish or shoot, it might be as well not to attack them."

"Well, I shan't in your hearing."

And with this speech came a silence.

"I don't think, somehow, that Cleve is as frank with me as he used to be. Can you imagine any reason?" said Tom, after an interval.

"_I?_ No, upon my word--unless you are as frank to him about his uncle, as you have been with me."

"Well, I'm _not_. I never spoke to him about his uncle. But Shrapnell, who tells me all the news of Cardyllian while I'm away"--this was pointedly spoken--"said, I thought, that he had not been down here ever since the Malory people left, and I find that he was here for a week--at least at Ware--last autumn, for a fortnight; and he never told me, though he knew, for I said so to him, that I thought that he had stayed away; and I think that was very odd."

"He may have thought that he was not bound to account to you for his time and movements," said Miss Agnes.

"Well, he _was_ here; Mrs. Jones was good enough to tell me so, though other people make a secret of it. _You_ saw him here, I dare say."

"Yes, he _was_ here, for a few days. I think in October, or the end of September."

"Oh! thank you. But, as I said, I had heard that already from Mrs.

Jones, who is a most inconvenient gossip upon nearly _all_ subjects."

"I rather like Mrs. Jones; you mean the 'draper,' as we call her? and if Mr. Verney is not as communicative as you would have him, I really can't help it. I can only a.s.sure you, for your comfort, that the mysterious tenants of Malory had disappeared long before that visit."

"I know perfectly well when they went away," said Sedley, drily.

Miss Agnes nodded with a scarcely perceptible smile.

"And I know--that is, I found out afterwards--that he admired her, I mean the young lady--Margaret, they called her--awfully. He never let me know it himself, though. I hate fellows being so close and dark about everything, and I've found out other things; and, in short, if people don't like to tell me their--_secrets_ I won't call them, for everyone in Cardyllian knows all about them--I'm hanged if I ask them. All I know is, that Cleve is going to live a good deal at Ware, which means at Cardyllian, which will be a charming thing, a positive blessing,--won't it?--for the inhabitants and neighbours; and that I shall trouble them very little henceforward with my presence. There's Charity beckoning to me; would you mind my going to see what she wants?"

So, dismissed, away he ran like a "fielder" after a "by," as he had often run over the same ground before.

"Thomas Sedley, I want you to tell Lyster, the apothecary, to send a small bottle of _sal volatile_ to Miss Christian immediately. I'd go myself--it's only round the corner--but I'm afraid of the crowd. If he can give it to you now, perhaps you'd bring it, and I'll wait here."

When he brought back the phial, and Miss Charity had given it with a message at Miss Christian's trelliced door, she took Tom's arm, and said,--

"She has not been looking well."

"You mean Agnes?" conjectured he.

"Yes, of course. She's not herself. She does not tell me, but I _know_ the cause, and, as an old friend of ours, and a friend, beside, of Mr.

Cleve Verney, I must tell you that I think he is using her _disgracefully_."

"Really?"

"Yes, _most flagitiously_."

"How do you mean? Shrapnell wrote me word that he was very attentive, and used to join her in her walks; and afterwards he said that he had been mistaken, and discovered that he was awfully in love with the young lady at Malory."

"_Don't_ believe a _word_ of it. I _wonder_ at Captain Shrapnell circulating such _insanity_. He must _know_ how it really was, and _is_.

I look upon it as _perfectly wicked_, the way that Captain Shrapnell talks. You're not to mention it, _of course_, to anyone. It would be _scandalous_ of you, Thomas Sedley, to _think_ of breathing a _word_ to _mortal_--_mind that_; but I'm certain you _wouldn't_."

"What a beast Cleve Verney has turned out!" exclaimed Tom Sedley. "Do you think she still cares for him?"

"Why, of course she does. If he had been paying his addresses to _me_, and that _I_ had grown by his perseverance and _devotion_ to like him, do you think, Thomas Sedley, that although I might give him up in consequence of his misconduct, that I could ever cease to feel the same kind of feeling about him?" And as she put this incongruous case, she held Tom Sedley's arm firmly, showing her bony wrist above her glove; and with her gaunt brown face and saucer eyes turned full upon him, rather fiercely, Tom felt an inward convulsion at the picture of Cleve's adorations at this shrine, and the melting of the nymph, which by a miracle he repressed.

"But _you_ may have more constancy than Agnes," he suggested.

"Don't talk like a _fool_, Thomas Sedley. _Every nice girl_ is the _same_."

"May I talk to Cleve about it?"

"On _no account_. No _nice_ girl could marry him _now_, and an apology would be simply _ridiculous_. _I_ have not spoken to him on the subject, and though I had intended cutting him, my friend Mrs. Splayfoot was so clear that I should meet him just as usual, that I do control the _expression_ of my feelings, and endeavour to talk to him indifferently, though I should like _uncommonly_ to tell him how _odious_ I shall always think him."

"Yes, I remember," said Tom, who had been pondering. "Cleve _did_ tell me, that time--it's more than a year ago now--it was a year in autumn--that he admired Agnes, and used to walk with you on the green every day; he _did_ certainly. I must do him that justice. But suppose Agnes did not show that she liked him, he might not have seen any harm."

"That's the way you men always take one another's parts. I must say, I think it is _odious_!" exclaimed Charity, with a flush in her thin cheeks, and a terrible emphasis.

"But, I say, _did_ she let him see that she liked him?"

"_No_, of _course_ she didn't. No _nice_ girl _would_. But of course he _saw_ it," argued Charity.

"Oh, then she _showed_ it?"

"No, she did _not_ show it; there was _nothing_ in _any_thing she _said_ or _did_, that _could_ lead _any_one, by look, or word, or act, to imagine that she liked him. How _can_ you be so _perverse_ and _ridiculous_, Thomas Sedley, to think she'd _show_ her liking? Why, even _I_ don't know it. I never _saw_ it. She's a _great_ deal _too nice_. You don't _know_ Agnes. I should not venture to _hint_ at it myself. Gracious goodness! What a _fool_ you are, Thomas Sedley! Hush."

The concluding caution was administered in consequence of their having got very near the seat where Agnes was sitting.

"Miss Christian is only nervous, poor old thing! and Thomas Sedley has been getting _sal volatile_ for her, and she'll be quite well in a day or two. Hadn't we better walk a little up and down; it's growing too cold for you to sit any longer, Agnes, dear. Come."

And up got obedient Agnes, and the party of three walked up and down the green, conversing upon all sorts of subjects but the one so ably handled by Charity and Tom Sedley in their two or three minutes' private talk.

And now the n.o.ble lord and his party, and the mayor, and the corporation, and Mr. Larkin, and Captain Shrapnell, and many other celebrities, were seen slowly emerging from the lane that pa.s.ses the George Inn, upon the green; and the peer having said a word or two to the mayor, and also to Lady Wimbledon, and bowed and pointed toward the jetty, the main body proceeded slowly toward that point, while Lord Verney, accompanied by Cleve, walked grandly towards the young ladies who were to be presented.

Tom Sedley, observing this movement, took his leave hastily, and, in rather a marked way, walked off at right angles with Lord Verney's line of march, twirling his cane.

CHAPTER XIX.