“Would you like it better if I said you were a villain?” asked the exasperated Curate. “I don’t want to discuss your character with you. Where is Rosa Elsworthy? She is scarcely more than a child,” said Mr. Wentworth, “and a fool, if you like. But where is she? I warn you that unless you tell me you shall have no more assistance from me.”
“And I tell you that I don’t know,” said Wodehouse; and the two men stood facing each other, one glowing with youthful indignation, the other enveloped in a cloud of sullen resistance. Just then there came a soft knock at the door, and Sarah peeped in with a coquettish air, which at no other time in her existence had been visible in the sedate demeanour of Mrs. Hadwin’s favourite handmaid. The stranger lodger was “a gentleman,” notwithstanding his shabbiness, and he was a very civil-spoken gentleman, without a bit of pride; and Sarah was still a woman, though she was plain and a housemaid. “Please, sir, I’ve brought you your coffee,” said Sarah, and she carried in her tray, which contained all the materials for a plentiful breakfast. When she saw Mr. Wentworth standing in the room, and Wodehouse in his shirtsleeves, Sarah said, “La!” and set down her tray hastily and vanished; but the episode, short as it was, had not been without its use to the culprit who was standing on his defence.
“I’m not staying here on my own account,” said Wodehouse—“it’s no pleasure to me to be here. I’m staying for your brother’s sake and—other people’s; it’s no pleasure to me, by Jove! I’d go tomorrow if I had my way—but I aint a fool,” continued the sulky defendant: “it’s of no use asking me such questions. By Jove, I’ve other things to think of than girls; and you know pretty well how much money I’ve got,” he continued, taking out an old purse and emptying out the few shillings it contained into his hand. When he had thrown them about, out and in, for nearly a minute, he turned once more upon the Curate. “I’d like to have a little more pocket-money before I ran away with anyone,” said Wodehouse, and tossed the shillings back contemptuously. As for Mr. Wentworth, his reasonableness once more came greatly in his way. He began to ask himself whether this penniless vagabond, who seemed to have no dash or daring in his character, could have been the man to carry little Rosa away; and, perplexed by this idea, Mr. Wentworth put himself unawares into the position of his opponent, and in that character made an appeal to his imaginary generosity and truth.
“Wodehouse,” he said, seriously, “look here. I am likely to be much annoyed about this, and perhaps injured. I entreat you to tell me, if you know, where the girl is. I’ve been at some little trouble for you; be frank with me for once,” said the Curate of St. Roque’s. Nothing in existence could have prevented himself from responding to such an appeal, and he made it with a kind of absurd confidence that there must be some kindred depths even in the meaner nature with which he had to deal, which would have been to Jack Wentworth, had he seen it, a source of inextinguishable laughter. Even Wodehouse was taken by surprise. He did not understand Mr. Wentworth, but a certain vague idea that the Curate was addressing him as if he still were “a gentleman as he used to be”—though it did not alter his resolution in any way—brought a vague flush of shame to his unaccustomed cheek.
“I aint a fool,” he repeated rather hastily, and turned away not to meet the Curate’s eyes. “I’ve got no money—how should I know anything about her? If I had, do you think I should have been here?” he continued, with a sidelong look of inquiry: then he paused and put on his coat, and in that garb felt himself more of a match for his opponent. “I’ll tell you one thing you’ll thank me for,” he said—“the old man is dying, they think. They’ll be sending for you presently. That’s more important than a talk about a girl. I’ve been talked to till I’m sick,” said Wodehouse, with a little burst of irrepressible nature, “but things may change before you all know where you are.” When he had said so much, the fear in his heart awoke again, and he cast another look of inquiry and anxiety at the Curate’s face. But Mr. Wentworth was disgusted, and had no more to say.
“Everything changes—except the heart of the churl, which can never be made bountiful,” said the indignant young priest. It was not a fit sentiment, perhaps, for a preacher who had just written that text about the wicked man turning from the evil of his ways. Mr. Wentworth went away in a glow of indignation and excitement, and left his guest to Sarah’s bountiful provision of hot coffee and new-laid eggs, to which Wodehouse addressed himself with a perfectly good appetite, notwithstanding all the events of the morning, and all the mystery of the night.
XXVII
Mr. Wentworth retired to his own quarters with enough to think about for one morning. He could not make up his mind about Wodehouse—whether he was guilty or not guilty. It seemed incredible that, penniless as he was, he could have succeeded in carrying off a girl so well known in Carlingford as Rosa Elsworthy; and, if he had taken her away, how did it happen that he himself had come back again? The Curate saw clearly enough that his
