He jerked forward the flask and Rigg went to a fine old oaken bureau

with his keys. But Raffles had reminded himself by his movement with

the flask that it had become dangerously loose from its leather

covering, and catching sight of a folded paper which had fallen within

the fender, he took it up and shoved it under the leather so as to make

the glass firm.

By that time Rigg came forward with a brandy-bottle, filled the flask,

and handed Raffles a sovereign, neither looking at him nor speaking to

him. After locking up the bureau again, he walked to the window and

gazed out as impassibly as he had done at the beginning of the

interview, while Raffles took a small allowance from the flask, screwed

it up, and deposited it in his side-pocket, with provoking slowness,

making a grimace at his stepson's back.

"Farewell, Josh--and if forever!" said Raffles, turning back his head

as he opened the door.

Rigg saw him leave the grounds and enter the lane. The gray day had

turned to a light drizzling rain, which freshened the hedgerows and the

grassy borders of the by-roads, and hastened the laborers who were

loading the last shocks of corn. Raffles, walking with the uneasy gait

of a town loiterer obliged to do a bit of country journeying on foot,

looked as incongruous amid this moist rural quiet and industry as if he

had been a baboon escaped from a menagerie. But there were none to

stare at him except the long-weaned calves, and none to show dislike of

his appearance except the little water-rats which rustled away at his

approach.

He was fortunate enough when he got on to the highroad to be overtaken

by the stage-coach, which carried him to Brassing; and there he took

the new-made railway, observing to his fellow-passengers that he

considered it pretty well seasoned now it had done for Huskisson. Mr.

Raffles on most occasions kept up the sense of having been educated at

an academy, and being able, if he chose, to pass well everywhere;

indeed, there was not one of his fellow-men whom he did not feel

himself in a position to ridicule and torment, confident of the

entertainment which he thus gave to all the rest of the company.

He played this part now with as much spirit as if his journey had been

entirely successful, resorting at frequent intervals to his flask. The

paper with which he had wedged it was a letter signed Nicholas

Bulstrode, but Raffles was not likely to disturb it from its present

useful position.




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