Blind Love

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.