In the course of the afternoon he knocked at Mrs. Mordaunt's door.
"Not at home, sir."
Many an afternoon had he called there, but never before had such a missile been flung at his head. His face flushed a little when he saw Lord Penwhistle's miniature brougham being driven slowly up and down the street.
Two days later he called again, only to be repulsed3 with the same polite fiction.
Each afternoon he lingered in the Park till the last moment, in the hope of catching4 a glimpse of Clara's sunny face; but all his lingering was in vain. A week later he heard through a mutual5 acquaintance that Mrs. Mordaunt and Miss Leslie had started for the Continent.
But before this took place the cards of the newly-wedded pair had reached Burgo. He tore them up in a pet and threw them into the fire. The same day, in sheer recklessness, he drove down to Richmond with some club acquaintances who belonged to a faster set than he habitually6 consorted7 with. There he drank more champagne8 and smoked more cigars than was good for him, and awoke next morning with a splitting headache.
It has been remarked before that he was by no means an exemplary young man.
It was during these days he got the notion into his head that the world was already beginning to look askance at him, that the greetings of his acquaintances were scarcely so cordial as they used to be, that there was a chilliness9 in the social atmosphere such as he had never experienced before.
All this was probably due to some touch of morbid10 fancy on his part. One unpleasant fact there was, however, which he found it impossible to ignore: he rarely opened his morning's letters nowadays without finding among them one or more bills, most of them containing a pressing request for an early settlement. To poor Burgo it seemed as if the air was full of portents11.
If he had ever thought much about the matter--which, to give him his due, he never had--he would have said that it was impossible he could have owed so much money. Yet here was account after account tumbling in, embodying12 items not one of which, when he came to look at them, was he in a position to dispute. And when, one morning, he found courage to take a sheet of paper and a pencil and total up the lot, he was astounded13 at the magnitude of the result. It was not the first time he had floundered into a similar quagmire14. His uncle had already paid his debts on two previous occasions--not without a little grumbling15, for Sir Everard was somewhat penuriously16 inclined, and living well within his own income, considered that everybody should do the same--and, under ordinary circumstances, Burgo would have appealed to him for the third time, and would have felt confident that the appeal would not have been in vain. But now the door was shut in his face, at least for the time being. Until he should know what kind of woman this new aunt should prove to be, he felt that it would be impossible for him to appeal to his uncle as he should otherwise have done. It was a capital thing, he said to himself, that quarter-day was so close at hand.
When those important epochs came round, it was Burgo's practice to charter a hansom, and be driven into the City, to the office of Mr. Garden, his uncle's lawyer, have ten minutes' chat and a glass of dry sherry with him, pocket the cheque which was always waiting for him, give a receipt in due form, and then lounge back westward17, with a fine glow of satisfaction such as he had not been conscious of half-an-hour before. "You have heard the news, I presume," said Mr. Garden on the present occasion, as he shook hands with the young man.
"I have; and very much surprised I was. Were not you also surprised?"
"I have lived too long, and have seen too much of human nature, to be greatly surprised at anything. Still I must confess that I never looked upon Sir Everard as a marrying man."
"I should think not, indeed."
"Let us hope that the step he has taken will in no way interfere18 with your prospects19 in life."
"It is pretty sure to do that," responded Burgo a little ruefully.
"I don't see why it should. Sir Everard always gave me the impression of being a very just-dealing man. Of course you are aware that a fresh will will now have to be drawn20 up?"
"Does that follow as a matter of course?"
"As a matter of necessity. Sir Everard's marriage annuls21 any will he may have executed prior to that ceremony."
"Oh!"
"I may tell you in confidence, that up to the present I have received no instructions in the matter. By the way, do you know anything of the lady who has now the privilege of calling you her nephew?"
"Nothing whatever. I had never heard of her existence before I read her name in the newspaper."
"Well, we can only hope for the best. It is a poor philosophy which anticipates troubles that may never come to pass."
Then Mr. Garden handed Burgo a certain narrow slip of paper, for which the latter gave a receipt in the usual form. Then he rose to go.
"Sit down for a minute or two, Mr. Brabazon. I have not quite done with you yet," said the old lawyer. Burgo, wondering a little, did as he was told.
"In a certain communication which I received from your uncle a few days ago," resumed Mr. Garden, "among other matters he requested me to obtain from you a full and complete schedule of any debts that may be owing by you at the present time, and forward the same to him as early as possible. I presume," added Mr. Garden blandly22, as he stared at Burgo over his spectacles, "that you young gentlemen about town are nearly always in debt?"
"By Jove! I believe you are right there," answered Burgo, with a short laugh; "at least, I know that in my case the complaint has almost become chronic23. But what can be the dear old boy's reason for making such a request?"
"That is more than I can say; but one may be permitted to hazard a guess."
"He has paid my debts twice already."
"Who should know that fact better than I? But is it not the accepted creed24 among you young gentlemen of the town that rich fathers and uncles are sent into the world by a kind Providence25 expressly for that purpose?"
Burgo laughed a little uneasily. "The distribution of capital is said to conduce to the national well-being," he replied, with a quizzical glance at the staid face opposite him.
"A very bad argument for getting into debt, my dear Mr. Brabazon. However, you will let me have the document asked for by your uncle as early as convenient."
"When you see the sum total it will frighten you."
"It won't frighten me; but I can't answer for the effect it may have on Sir Everard."
"You shall have it in the course of to-morrow; but I shall be deucedly uneasy, I can tell you, till I know the result."
"Were you ever 'deucedly uneasy' about anything, Mr. Brabazon for more than a few hours at a time?"
"Upon my word, I don't think I ever was," laughed Burgo. "By-the-by, have you any idea when my uncle is coming home?"
"Not the remotest."
With that Burgo took his leave.
Next day the schedule of his liabilities was duly made out and despatched, after which Burgo did his best to dismiss the subject from his mind.
Clara Leslie dwelt much in his thoughts about this time. He never smoked a pipe alone in his rooms without seeming to see her face shining on him through the smoke wreaths. That he was deeply in love with her he had not the slightest doubt, but he was not quite so certain how much she cared for him in return. True, there had not been wanting tokens which told him that he was not wholly indifferent to her, but between liking26 and love there is often a wide chasm27, and although that chasm may be, and often is, bridged over, it is not always so; and in this case the cold winds of absence would doubtless do their best to extinguish any tiny flame of love which might perchance have been kindled28 in Miss Leslie's bosom29. Among hundreds of strange faces and a perpetual change of scene, how could he hope that his image would continue to dwell in her memory? And yet--and yet she had not repulsed him that evening when he took her hand and spoke30 certain words to her in the conservatory31; there had even been something in her manner, or he dreamed so, which led him to believe that, had they not been interrupted at that particular moment, no repulse2 need have been feared by him. This thought it was, and this alone, that made sweet his solitary32 musings.
About a fortnight after his visit to Mr. Garden, Burgo received a note from that gentleman informing him that the whole of his debts, as specified33 in the schedule rendered by him, had been paid in full. Burgo gave vent34 to a sigh of satisfaction as he laid down the lawyer's note. A great weight had been lifted off his mind. He hesitated as to whether he ought not to write a few words of thanks to his uncle, but ultimately decided35 that he would await Sir Everard's arrival in town, and then thank him in person. It was characteristic of him that next day he should call upon his tailor and his bootmaker, and one or two other tradesmen, and thoroughly36 replenish37 his wardrobe. It was not so much that there was any real necessity for his doing so, as that the novelty of being out of debt caused him to feel slightly uncomfortable. He had not been used to it, and it did not seem right somehow. Besides, how is it possible for tradespeople to live unless they are liberally patronised?
One morning, as he was skimming through the newspapers at his club, Burgo was accosted38 by a voice which he had not heard for several months. There was no mistaking the rasping tones of Captain Cusden. "We have lost sight of you for several months," said Burgo, as soon as he had shaken hands with the new-comer--a man of fifty-five, who did his best to keep up an assumption of juvenility39 by consorting40 as much as possible with men thirty years younger than himself.
"Been trotting41 about the Continent with Aunt Jane, dear boy," answered Cusden, who wanted no encouragement to talk, as he drew a chair up. "Expectations and all that, you know. Must do one's duty. Awful hard work I found it, dear boy. Had to be on parade every morning at eight to the tick. Wonderful old lady! If I had to explore one church with her, I had to explore five hundred; if I was expected to admire one picture, I was expected to admire five thousand. Did it ever occur to you, dear boy, what a remarkable42 chap that Rubens must have been? Must have turned out a fresh picture every week of his life, by Jove if the catalogues are not telling flams. At last we got away from the Low Countries--very properly so called, dear boy--and when I found myself at Chamonix I began to breathe again. It was there, by the way, that I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a certain venerated43 relative of yours."
Burgo knocked the ash off his cigarette; then he said, quietly: "My uncle, I suppose, you mean?"
"Right you are, dear boy. Sir Everard and his bride." Here Cusden gave vent to a snigger, followed by a sharp sidelong glance at his companion; but that impassive individual was not so easily caught.
"They had been married in Italy a few weeks before and were on their way home, doing the thing by easy stages. Of course you are aware that the bride is at the very least thirty years younger than the bridegroom?"
"I believe I have been told something of the sort," answered Burgo. Although, in point of fact, he had been told nothing of the kind.
"A famous catch for her, I should imagine, considering--hem!--her antecedents," remarked the Captain with an expressive44 shrug45.
For the moment Burgo felt a strong desire to fling his companion out of the window, but he reflected in time that, were he to do so, he might perhaps remain for ever in ignorance of the antecedents to which Cusden had alluded46, and he had his reasons for not wanting to do that. So he merely lighted another cigarette, and said in his drawling way: "She had antecedents, then?"
"No woman of thirty is without 'em, particularly when she comes to marry her third husband."
"I should not wonder if you are right there," was all Burgo condescended47 to remark in reply to this somewhat startling piece of intelligence.
"Her first husband is said to have been an Italian who held some sort of Government post," resumed Cusden. "Entre nous, I believe she herself is half an Italian. He left her with one boy, who is said to be now at school somewhere in Switzerland. Her second husband, Colonel Innes, was an old East Indian without any liver to speak of. He is said to have died under somewhat mysterious circumstances at the end of a couple of years, and there were some queer rumours48 afloat at the time, but I suppose they came to nothing. By all accounts that second marriage must have proved a rank failure as far as she was concerned, seeing that the Colonel lost nearly all he was worth by a bank smash within a year of their becoming man and wife."
"You seem to have picked up a lot about her in the course of your travels," remarked Burgo.
"People will talk, you know, dear boy, and one can't help hearing what is said in society. However, you'll probably have the pleasure of making Lady Clinton's acquaintance before long. Ta-ta for the present."
There was cold comfort for Burgo in what Cusden had just told him. "I hope to heaven the dear old boy has not fallen into the hands of some scheming adventuress," he muttered.
But he was obliged to admit that circumstances looked very much like it.
A week later the following note reached him:--
"22 Great Mornington Street, W.
"Will Mr. Brabazon have the goodness to call here at four o'clock to-morrow."
The writing was that of a lady.
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1
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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repulse
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| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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7
consorted
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| v.结伴( consort的过去式和过去分词 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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8
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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chilliness
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| n.寒冷，寒意，严寒 | |
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10
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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portents
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| n.预兆( portent的名词复数 )；征兆；怪事；奇物 | |
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12
embodying
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| v.表现( embody的现在分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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13
astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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14
quagmire
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| n.沼地 | |
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grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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penuriously
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| adv.penurious（吝啬的）的变形 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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18
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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annuls
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| v.宣告无效( annul的第三人称单数 )；取消；使消失；抹去 | |
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22
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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28
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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29
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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30
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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31
conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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32
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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33
specified
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| adj.特定的 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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35
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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37
replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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38
accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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39
juvenility
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| n.年轻，不成熟 | |
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40
consorting
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| v.结伴( consort的现在分词 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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41
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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42
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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43
venerated
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| 敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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45
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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46
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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48
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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