"It was so short," said Arnold, "that there is hardly any thing to repeat. As well as I remember, Geoffrey said he was called away to London by his father's illness. He told Miss Silvester to stop where she was; and he referred her to me, as messenger.
That's all I recollect of it now."
"Cudgel your brains, my good fellow! this is very important. Did he make no allusion to his engagement to marry Miss Silvester at Craig Fernie? Didn't he try to pacify her by an apology of some sort?"
The question roused Arnold's memory to make another effort.
"Yes," he answered. "Geoffrey said something about being true to his engagement, or keeping his promise or words to that effect."
"You're sure of what you say now?"
"I am certain of it."
Sir Patrick made another note.
"Was the letter signed?" he asked, when he had done.
"Yes."
"And dated?"
"Yes." Arnold's memory made a second effort, after he had given his second affirmative answer. "Wait a little," he said. "I remember something else about the letter. It was not only dated.
The time of day at which it was written was put as well."
"How came he to do that?"
"I suggested it. The letter was so short I felt ashamed to deliver it as it stood. I told him to put the time--so as to show her that he was obliged to write in a hurry. He put the time when the train started; and (I think) the time when the letter was written as well."
"And you delivered that letter to Miss Silvester, with your own hand, as soon as you saw her at the inn?"
"I did."
Sir Patrick made a third note, and pushed the paper away from him with an air of supreme satisfaction.
"I always suspected that lost letter to be an important document," he said--"or Bishopriggs would never have stolen it.
We must get possession of it, Arnold, at any sacrifice. The first thing to be done (exactly as I anticipated), is to write to the Glasgow lawyer, and find Miss Silvester."
"Wait a lit tle!" cried a voice at the veranda. "Don't forget that I have come back from Baden to help you!"
Sir Patrick and Arnold both looked up. This time Blanche had heard the last words that had passed between them. She sat down at the table by Sir Patrick's side, and laid her hand caressingly on his shoulder.
"You are quite right, uncle," she said. "I _am_ suffering this morning from the malady of having nothing to do. Are you going to write to Anne? Don't. Let me write instead."
Sir Patrick declined to resign the pen.
"The person who knows Miss Silvester's address," he said, "is a lawyer in Glasgow. I am going to write to the lawyer. When he sends us word where she is--then, Blanche, will be the time to employ your good offices in winning back your friend."
He drew the writing materials once more with in his reach, and, suspending the remainder of Arnold's examination for the present, began his letter to Mr. Crum.
Blanche pleaded hard for an occupation of some sort. "Can nobody give me something to do?" she asked. "Glasgow is such a long way off, and waiting is such weary work. Don't sit there staring at me, Arnold! Can't you suggest something?"
Arnold, for once, displayed an unexpected readiness of resource.
"If you want to write," he said, "you owe Lady Lundie a letter.
It's three days since you heard from her--and you haven't answered her yet."
Sir Patrick paused, and looked up quickly from his writing-desk.
"Lady Lundie?" he muttered, inquiringly.
"Yes," said Blanche. "It's quite true; I owe her a letter. And of course I ought to tell her we have come back to England. She will be finely provoked when she hears why!"
The prospect of provoking Lady Lundie seemed to rouse Blanche s dormant energies. She took a sheet of her uncle's note-paper, and began writing her answer then and there.
Sir Patrick completed his communication to the lawyer--after a look at Blanche, which expressed any thing rather than approval of her present employment. Having placed his completed note in the postbag, he silently signed to Arnold to follow him into the garden. They went out together, leaving Blanche absorbed over her letter to her step-mother.
"Is my wife doing any thing wrong?" asked Arnold, who had noticed the look which Sir Patrick had cast on Blanche.
"Your wife is ****** mischief as fast as her fingers can spread it."
Arnold stared. "She must answer Lady Lundie's letter," he said.
"Unquestionably."
"And she must tell Lady Lundie we have come back."
"I don't deny it."
"Then what is the objection to her writing?"
Sir Patrick took a pinch of snuff--and pointed with his ivory cane to the bees humming busily about the flower-beds in the sunshine of the autumn morning.
"I'll show you the objection," he said. "Suppose Blanche told one of those inveterately intrusive insects that the honey in the flowers happens, through an unexpected accident, to have come to an end--do you think he would take the statement for granted? No.
He would plunge head-foremost into the nearest flower, and investigate it for himself."
"Well?" said Arnold.
"Well--there is Blanche in the breakfast-room telling Lady Lundie that the bridal tour happens, through an unexpected accident, to have come to an end. Do you think Lady Lundie is the sort of person to take the statement for granted? Nothing of the sort!
Lady Lundie, like the bee, will insist on investigating for herself. How it will end, if she discovers the truth--and what new complications she may not introduce into a matter which, Heaven knows, is complicated enough already--I leave you to imagine. _My_ poor powers of prevision are not equal to it."
Before Arnold could answer, Blanche joined them from the breakfast-room.
"I've done it," she said. "It was an awkward letter to write--and it's a comfort to have it over."
"You have done it, my dear," remarked Sir Patrick, quietly. "And it may be a comfort. But it's not over."
"What do you mean?"
"I think, Blanche, we shall hear from your step-mother by return of post."