"Of old, my lord, I have sometimes talked to some purpose."
"Talk again, then. What do you mean by disservice? You will say next, I suppose, that this play acting was fortunate for me."
"We may sometimes turn disasters into victories. If your lordship will listen----"
His patron sat down again--the late storm leaving its trace in a scowling face and twitching lips.
"Why the devil was not Molly there? How did this woman find out? How did she know that Molly was not coming?"
"I can answer these questions," said the lady. "Molly would not come because she learned last night, just in time, certain facts in the private life of the bridegroom----"
"What?" Lord Fylingdale betrayed his terror. "She has heard? What has she heard?" He had not, as you have heard, received Molly's letter, nor had he opened the captain's letter. Therefore, he knew nothing.
"She had heard more than enough. You have lost your bride and her fortune. I might have warned you, but I preferred to take her place."
"Apparently, all that there is to be heard. Not, of course, all that could be told if Mr. Purdon were to speak. Merely things of public notoriety. That you are a gambler and a rake; that you have ruined many; that you are ruined yourself. Oh! Quite enough for a girl of her class to learn. In our rank we want much more before we turn our back upon a man. I, myself, know much more. Yet I have married you."
"She has heard--" Lord Fylingdale repeated.
"Dear, dear!" said the parson. "All this is most unfortunate--most unfortunate. Your lordship has already lost your bride--lost her," he repeated; "lost her--and her fortune. Is there no way out?"
"Who brought these reports? Show me the man!"
"Ta-ta-ta! You need not bluster, Ludovick. Reports of this kind are in the air; they cling to your name; they travel with you. What? The notorious Lord Fylingdale? They have come, you see, at last, even to this unfashionable corner of the island. They are here, although we have done so much to declare your virtues. Acknowledge that you have been fortunate so far."
"Are these reports your doing, madam? Is this a part of your infernal jealousy?"
"I do not know who put them about. It is not likely that I should start such reports--especially after the scandal at Bath. I am, in fact, like his reverence here, too much involved myself. Oh! we have beautiful characters--all three of us."