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Page 17
"Well, you've asked a good many questions about this Jacobs, and
wondered what had become of him. I fancy you have the answer in that
paragraph."
There was a pause, and Dudley seemed to recollect something. Then he
said:
"Oh, yes, I think I have. The man has fallen upon bad times, evidently.
I--I--I'm sorry for his wife."
"And the man himself--haven't you forgiven him yet?"
Dudley started, and glanced quickly round, as if the simple words had
been an accusation.
"Forgiven him? Oh, yes, long ago. At least--" He paused a moment, and
then added, inquiringly: "What had I to forgive?"
"Well, to tell the truth, Horne, that's just what I have often asked
myself, when you have insisted upon raking up all the details of poor
Jacobs's misdeeds! Why, your poor father, who was ruined by his
dishonesty, never showed half the animosity you do. I could have
understood it if you had suffered by his frauds. But have you? You have
been well educated; you have started well in life. And on the whole, no
man who has arrived at your age can honestly say that it would have been
better for him to start life with a fortune at his back, eh?"
"No."
Dudley got up from his chair. He seemed agitated and uneasy, and soon
took advantage of Mr. Wedmore's suggestion, somewhat dryly made, that he
was tired after his journey and would like to go to bed.
When he had left the room, Mr. Wedmore turned angrily to his daughter.
"Now, Doreen, I will have no more of this nonsense. Dudley is beginning
all the old tricks over again--absence of mind, indifference to you--did
he even look at you as he said good night?--and morbid interest in this
old, forgotten business of Jacobs and his misdoings. I won't have any
more of it, and I shall tell him plainly that we don't care to have him
down here until he can bring a livelier face and manner with him!"
Doreen had risen from her humble seat on the floor and had crawled on
her knees to the side of his chair, where she slid a coaxing, caressing
hand under his arm and put her pretty head gently down on his shoulder.
"No, you won't, papa dear. You won't do anything of the kind," she
whispered in his ear very softly, very humbly. "You would not do
anything to give pain to your old friend's son if you could help it, and
you would not do anything to hurt your own child, your little Doreen,
for a hundred thousand pounds, now would you?"
"Yes, I would, if it was for her good," replied Mr. Wedmore, in a very
loud and determined voice, which was supposed to have the effect of
frightening her into submission. "And it's all rubbish to think to get
around me by calling yourself 'little Doreen,' when you're a great, big,
overgrown lamp-post of a girl, who can take her own part against the
whole county."
Doreen laughed, but still clung persistently to the arm which he
pretended to try to release from her clutches.
"Well, I don't know about the county, but I think I can persuade my old
father into doing what I want," she purred into his ear with gentle
conviction. "You see, papa, it isn't as if Dudley and I were engaged.
We--"
"Why, what else have you been but engaged ever since last Christmas?"
said her father, irritably. "Everybody has looked upon it as an
engagement, and Dudley was devoted enough until a couple of months ago;
but now something has gone wrong with the lad, I'm certain, and it would
be much better for you both to make an end of this."
"Why, there's nothing to make an end of," pleaded Doreen. "Just 'let
things slide,' as Max says, and let Dudley come down or stay away as he
likes, and the matter will come quite right one way or the other, and
you will find there was really nothing for you to trouble your dear old
head about, after all."
There was really some excellence in the girl's suggestion; and her
father, after much grumbling, gave a half consent to it. He was forced
to admit to himself that there was some grounds for Dudley's agitation
on reading the paragraph concerning the disappearance of Edward Jacobs,
since he had been interesting himself of late in that person's history.
But it was the degree of the young man's agitation which had seemed
morbid. Mr. Wedmore found it difficult to understand why a mere
suggestion of the man's disappearance--if it were indeed _the_
man--should affect Dudley so deeply. And the idea of incipient insanity
in young Horne grew stronger than ever in Mr. Wedmore's mind.
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