Now he had another battle on his hands, in which, as he believed, the achievement of victory would be much more difficult. Amelia Roper was a person much more to be feared than the Chief Commissioner. He had one strong arrow in his quiver on which he would depend, if there should come to him the necessity of giving his enemy a death-wound. During the last week she had been making powerful love to Cradell, so as to justify the punishment of desertion from a former lover. He would not throw Cradell in her teeth if he could help it; but it was incumbent on him to gain a victory, and if the worst should come to the worst, he must use such weapons as destiny and the chance of war had given him.
He found Mrs Roper in the dining-room as he entered, and immediately began his work. 'Mrs Roper,' he said, 'I'm going out of town the day after to-morrow.'
'Oh, yes, Mr Eames, we know that. You're going as a visitor to the noble mansion of the Earl De Guest.'
'I don't know about the mansion being very noble, but I'm going down into the country for a fortnight. When I come back—'
'When you come back, Mr Eames, I hope you'll find your room a deal more comfortable. I know it isn't quite what it should be for a gentleman like you, and I've been thinking for some time past—'
'But, Mrs Roper, I don't mean to come back here any more. It's just that that I want to say to you.'
'Not come back to the crescent!'
'No, Mrs Roper. A fellow must move sometimes, you know; and I'm sure I've been very constant to you for a long time.'
'But where are you going, Mr Eames?'
'Well; I haven't just made up my mind as yet. That is, it will depend on what I may do,—on what friends of mine may say down in the country. You'll not think I'm quarrelling with you, Mrs Roper.'
'It's them Lupexes as have done it,' said Mrs Roper, in her deep distress.
'No, indeed, Mrs Roper, nobody has done it.'
'Yes, it is; and I'm not going to blame you, Mr Eames. They've made the house unfit for any decent young gentleman like you. I've been feeling that all along; but it's hard upon a lone woman like me, isn't it, Mr Eames?'
'But, Mrs Roper, the Lupexes have had nothing to do with my going.'
'Oh, yes, they have; I understand it all. But what could I do, Mr Eames? I've been giving them warning every week for the last six months; but the more I give them warning, the more they won't go. Unless I were to send for a policeman, and have a row in the house—'
'But I haven't complained of the Lupexes, Mrs Roper.'
'You wouldn't be quitting without any reason, Mr Eames. You are not going to be married in earnest, are you, Mr Eames?'
'Not that I know of.'
'You may tell me; you may, indeed. I won't say a word,—not to anybody. It hasn't been my fault about Amelia. It hasn't really.'
'Who says there's been any fault?'
'I can see, Mr Eames. Of course it didn't do for me to interfere. And if you had liked her, I will say I believe she'd have made as good a wife as any young man ever took; and she can make a few pounds go farther than most girls. You can understand a mother's feelings; and if there was to be anything, I couldn't spoil it; could I, now?'
'But there isn't to be anything.'
'So I've told her for months past. I'm not going to say anything to blame you; but young men ought to be very particular; indeed they ought.' Johnny did not choose to hint to the disconsolate mother that it also behoved young women to be very particular, but he thought it. 'I've wished many a time, Mr Eames, that she had never come here; indeed I have. But what's a mother to do? I couldn't put her outside the door.' Then Mrs Roper raised her apron up to her eyes, and began to sob.
'I'm very sorry if I've made any mischief,' said Johnny.
'It hasn't been your fault,' continued the poor woman, from whom, as her tears became uncontrollable, her true feelings forced themselves and the real outpouring of her feminine nature. 'Nor it hasn't been my fault. But I knew what it would come to when I saw how she was going on; and I told her so. I knew you wouldn't put up with the likes of her.'
'Indeed, Mrs Roper, I've always had a great regard for her, and for you too.'
'But you weren't going to marry her. I've told her so all along, and
