“I feel for your disappointment, madam; but I think you are hasty.”
“Who will believe the statement of a common tramp?”
“You relied upon it before, madam. But we have other evidence,” continued the lawyer.
“The striking resemblance of my young friend to the family.”
“Was—was he at the Haymarket Theater last evening?” asked the lady.
“I saw the boy I suppose you mean. He had a slight resemblance to Mr. Middleton.”
“Suppose—suppose this story to be true, what do you offer me?” asked Mrs. Middleton, sullenly.
“An income of three hundred pounds from the estate,” said the lawyer. “If the matter comes to court, this Rugg, I am bound to tell you, has an ugly story to tell, in which you are implicated.”
Mrs. Middleton knew well enough what it meant. If the conspiracy should be disclosed, she would be ostracized socially. She rapidly made up her mind.
“Mr. Barry,” she said, “I will accept your terms, on a single condition.”
“That you will give me six weeks’ undisturbed possession of the estate, keeping this matter secret meanwhile.”
“I will tell you in confidence. Within that time I am to be married. The abrupt disclosure of this matter might break off the marriage.”
The lawyer smiled. He knew of Capt. Lovell, and owed him a grudge. He suspected that the captain was mercenary in his wooing, and he thought that it would be a fitting revenge to let matters go on.
“I consent, upon my own responsibility,” he said.
“Thank you,” said Mrs. Middleton, with real gratitude.
She would not lose the man she loved after all.
A month later the marriage of Capt. Gregory Lovell, of her majesty’s service, and Mrs. Harvey Middleton, of Middleton Hall, was celebrated. There was a long paragraph in the morning _Post_, and Mrs. Lovell was happy.
When, a week later, at Paris, the gallant captain was informed of the trick that had been played upon him, there was a terrible scene. He cursed his wife, and threatened to leave her.
“But, Gregory, I have three hundred pounds income,” she pleaded. “We can live abroad.”
“And I have sold myself for that paltry sum!” he said, bitterly.
But he concluded to make the best of a bad bargain. Between them they had an income of five hundred pounds, and on this they made shift abroad, where living is cheap. But the marriage was not happy. He was brutal at times, and his wife realized sadly that he had never loved her. But she has all the happiness she deserves, and so has he.