"Never," said the attorney, bubbling, "with my good will!"

Soane lost patience at that. "D--n you!" he cried. "Will you be quiet?"

And made a cut at him with his cane. Fortunately the lawyer evaded it

with nimbleness; and having escaped to a safe distance hastened to cry,

"No malice! I bear you no malice, sir!" with so little breath and so

much good-nature that Sir George recovered his balance. "Confound you,

man!" he continued. "Why am I not to speak? I came here to tell this

good woman that if she has a care for this girl the sooner she takes her

from where she is the better! And you cannot let me put a word in."

"You came for that, sir?"

"For what else, fool?"

"I was wrong," said the attorney humbly. "I did not understand. Allow me

to say, sir, that I am entirely of your opinion. The young lady--I mean

she shall be removed to-morrow. It--the whole arrangement is

improper--highly improper."

"Why, you go as fast now as you went slowly before," Sir George said,

observing him curiously.

Mr. Fishwick smiled after a sickly fashion. "I did not understand, sir,"

he said. "But it is most unsuitable, most unsuitable. She shall return

to-morrow at the latest."

Sir George, who had said what he had to say, nodded, grunted, and went

away; feeling that he had performed an unpleasant--and somewhat

doubtful--duty under most adverse circumstances. He could not in the

least comprehend the attorney's strange behaviour; but after some

contemptuous reflection, of which nothing came, he dismissed it as one

of the low things to which he had exposed himself by venturing out of

the charmed circle in which he lived. He hoped that the painful series

was now at an end, stepped into his post-chaise, amid the reverent

salaams of the Mitre, the landlord holding the door; and in a few

minutes had rattled over Folly Bridge, and left Oxford behind him.




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