The reply reached him late in the evening. It was in the handwriting of
a stranger, and was to this effect: "Dear Mr. Mountjoy,--It is impossible that I can allow you to run the
risk of seeing me while I am in my present situation. So serious is the
danger of contagion in scarlet fever, that I dare not even write to you
with my own hand on note-paper which has been used in the sick room.
This is no mere fancy of mine; the doctor in attendance here knows of a
case in which a small piece of infected flannel communicated the
disease after an interval of no less than a year. I must trust to your
own good sense to see the necessity of waiting, until I can receive you
without any fear of consequences to yourself. In the meantime, I may
answer your inquiry relating to the name communicated in your letter. I
first knew the gentleman you mention some years since; we were
introduced to each other by Lord Harry; and I saw him afterwards on
more than one occasion."
Mountjoy read this wise and considerate reply to his letter with
indignation.
Here was the good fortune for which he had not dared to hope, declaring
itself in favour of Iris. Here (if Mrs. Vimpany could be persuaded to
write to her friend) was the opportunity offered of keeping the
hot-tempered Irish husband passive and harmless, by keeping him without
further news of the assassin of Arthur Mountjoy. Under these
encouraging circumstances the proposed consultation which might have
produced such excellent results had been rejected; thanks to a
contemptible fear of infection, excited by a story of a trumpery piece
of flannel!
Hugh snatched up the unfortunate letter (cast away on the floor) to
tear it in pieces and throw it into the waste-paper basket--and checked
himself. His angry hand had seized on it with the blank leaf of the
note-paper uppermost.
On that leaf he discovered two little lines of print, presenting, in
the customary form, the address of the house at which the letter had
been written! The writer, in taking the sheet of paper from the case,
must have accidentally turned it wrong side uppermost on the desk, and
had not cared to re-copy the letter, or had not discovered the mistake.
Restored to his best good-humour, Hugh resolved to surprise Mrs.
Vimpany by a visit, on the next day, which would set the theory of
contagion at defiance, and render valuable service to Iris at a crisis
in her life.
Having time before him for reflection, in the course of the evening, he
was at no loss to discover a formidable obstacle in the way of his
design.