“Stop a little,” said the Curate, rising up. “Though you seem both to have forgotten it, this is my room. I don’t mean to have any altercations here. I have taken you in for the sake of your—family,” said Mr. Wentworth, with a momentary gasp, “and you have come because you are my brother. I don’t deny any natural claims upon me; but I am master of my own house and my own leisure. Get up, Jack, and tell me what you want. When I understand what it is, you can lounge at your will; but in the meantime get up and explain: and as for you, Wodehouse—”
Jack Wentworth faced round on his sofa, and then, with a kind of involuntary motion, slid his feet to the ground. He looked at his brother with extreme amazement as he closed his novel and tossed away the end of his cigar. “It’s much better not to mention names,” he said, in a half-apologetic way. “Our friend here is under a temporary cloud. His name, in fact, is—Smith, I think.” But as he spoke he sat upright, a little startled to find that Frank, whom he remembered only as a lad, was no longer to be coerced and concussed. As for the other, he came forward with the alacrity of a man who began to see some hope.
“By Jove, my name is Wodehouse, though,” he said, in the argumentative tone which seemed habitual to him; his voice came low and grumbling through his beard. He was not of the class of triumphant sinners, whatever wickedness he might be capable of. To tell the truth, he had long, long ago fallen out of the butterfly stage of dissipation, and had now to be the doer of dirty work, despised and hustled about by such men as Jack Wentworth. The wages of sin had long been bitter enough, though he had neither any hope of freeing himself, nor any wish to do so; but he took up a grumbling tone of self-assertion as soon as he had an opening. “The parson treats me like a gentleman—like what I used to be,” he repeated, coming into the light, and drawing a chair towards the table. “My name is Wodehouse—it’s my own name that I have signed after all, by Jove!” said the unlucky prodigal. It seemed to give him a little comfort to say that over again, as if to convince himself.
“As for Wodehouse, I partly understand what he has done,” said the Curate. “It appears likely that he has killed his father, by the way; but I suppose you don’t count that. It is forgery in the meantime; I understand as much.”
“It’s my name as well as his, by Jove!” interrupted, hastily, the stranger, under his breath.
“Such strong terms are unnecessary,” said Jack; “everybody knows that bills are drawn to be renewed, and nursed, and taken care of. We’ve had a great failure in luck as it happens, and these ones have come down to this deuced place; and the old fellow, instead of paying them like a gentleman, has made a row, and dropped down dead, or something. I suppose you don’t know any more than the women have told you. The old man made a row in the office, and went off in fire and flame, and gave up our friend here to his partner’s tender mercies. I sent for you, as you’ve taken charge of him. I suppose you have your reasons. This is an unlikely corner to find him in, and I suppose he couldn’t be safer anywhere. That’s about the state of the case. I came down to look after him, out of kind feeling,” said the heir of the Wentworths. “If you don’t mean to eat any dinner, have a cigar.”
“And what have you to do with each other? what is the connection between you?” said the Curate of St. Roque’s. “I have my reasons, as you say, for taking an interest in him—but you—”
“I am only your elder brother,” said Jack, shrugging his shoulders and resuming his place on the sofa. “We understand that difference. Business connection—that’s all,” he said, leisurely selecting another cigar from his case. When he had lighted it, he turned round and fixed his eyes upon the stranger. “We don’t want any harm to happen to him,” he said, with a little emphasis. “I have come here to protect him. If he keeps quiet and doesn’t show, it will blow over. The keenest spy in the place could scarcely suspect him to be here. I have come entirely on his account—much to my own disgust—and yours,” said the exquisite, with another shrug. He laid back his head and looked up at the ceiling, contemplating the fragrant wreaths of smoke with the air of a man perfectly at his ease. “We don’t mean him to come to any harm,” said Jack Wentworth, and stretched out his elegant limbs on the sofa, like a potentate satisfied that his protection was enough to make any man secure.
“I’m too much in their secrets, by Jove!” said poor Wodehouse, in his beard. “I do know their secrets, though they talk so big. It’s not any consideration for me. It’s to save themselves, by Jove, that’s what it is!” cried the indignant drudge, of whom his superior deigned to take no notice. As for Mr. Wentworth, he rose from his seat in a state of suppressed indignation, which could not express itself merely in words.
“May I ask what share I am expected to play in the drama?” he asked, pushing his chair aside in his excitement. The elder brother turned instinctively, and once more slid his feet to the ground. They looked at each other for a moment;
