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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10875 ***
+
+AT SUNWICH PORT
+
+BY
+
+W. W. JACOBS
+
+Part 5.
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+From Drawings by Will Owen
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Gossip from one or two quarters, which reached Captain Nugent's ears
+through the medium of his sister, concerning the preparations for his
+son's marriage, prevented him from altering his mind with regard to the
+visits of Jem Hardy and showing that painstaking young man the door.
+Indeed, the nearness of the approaching nuptials bade fair to eclipse,
+for the time being, all other grievances, and when Hardy paid his third
+visit he made a determined but ineffectual attempt to obtain from him
+some information as to the methods by which he hoped to attain his ends.
+His failure made him suspicious, and he hinted pretty plainly that he had
+no guarantee that his visitor was not obtaining admittance under false
+pretences.
+
+"Well, I'm not getting much out of it," returned Hardy, frankly.
+
+"I wonder you come," said his hospitable host.
+
+"I want you to get used to me," said the other.
+
+The captain started and eyed him uneasily; the remark seemed fraught with
+hidden meaning.  "And then?" he inquired, raising his bushy eyebrows.
+
+"Then perhaps I can come oftener."
+
+The captain gave him up.  He sank back in his chair and crossing his legs
+smoked, with his eyes fixed on the ceiling.  It was difficult to know
+what to do with a young man who was apparently destitute of any feelings
+of shame or embarrassment.  He bestowed a puzzled glance in his direction
+and saw that he was lolling in the chair with an appearance of the
+greatest ease and enjoyment.  Following the direction of his eyes, he saw
+that he was gazing with much satisfaction at a photograph of Miss Nugent
+which graced the mantelpiece.  With an odd sensation the captain suddenly
+identified it as one which usually stood on the chest of drawers in his
+bedroom, and he wondered darkly whether charity or mischief was
+responsible for its appearance there.
+
+In any case, it disappeared before the occasion of Hardy's next visit,
+and the visitor sat with his eyes unoccupied, endeavouring to make
+conversation with a host who was if anything more discourteous than
+usual.  It was uphill work, but he persevered, and in fifteen minutes had
+ranged unchecked from North Pole explorations to poultry farming.  It was
+a relief to both of them when the door opened and Bella ushered in Dr.
+Murchison.
+
+The captain received the new arrival with marked cordiality, and giving
+him a chair near his own observed with some interest the curt greeting of
+the young men.  The doctor's manner indicated polite surprise at seeing
+the other there, then he turned to the captain and began to talk to him.
+
+For some time they chatted without interruption, and the captain's
+replies, when Hardy at last made an attempt to make the conversation
+general, enabled the doctor to see, without much difficulty, that the
+latter was an unwelcome guest.  Charmed with the discovery he followed
+his host's lead, and, with a languid air, replied to his rival in
+monosyllables.  The captain watched with quiet satisfaction, and at each
+rebuff his opinion of Murchison improved.  It was gratifying to find that
+the interloper had met his match.
+
+Hardy sat patient.  "I am glad to have met you to-night," he said, after
+a long pause, during which the other two were discussing a former
+surgical experience of the captain's on one of his crew.
+
+"Yes?" said Murchison.
+
+"You are just the man I wanted to see."
+
+"Yes?" said the doctor, again.
+
+"Yes," said the other, nodding.  "I've been very busy of late owing to my
+partner's illness, and you are attending several people I want to hear
+about."
+
+"Indeed," said Murchison, with a half-turn towards him.
+
+"How is Mrs. Paul?" inquired Hardy.
+
+"Dead!" replied the other, briefly.
+
+"Dead!" repeated Mr. Hardy.  "Good Heavens!  I didn't know that there was
+much the matter with her."
+
+"There was no hope for her from the first," said Murchison, somewhat
+sharply.  It was merely a question of prolonging her life a little while.
+She lived longer than I deemed possible.  She surprised everybody by her
+vitality."
+
+"Poor thing," said Hardy.  "How is Joe Banks?"
+
+"Dead," said Murchison again, biting his lip and eyeing him furiously.
+
+"Dear me," said Hardy, shaking his head; "I met him not a month ago.  He
+was on his way to see you then."
+
+"The poor fellow had been an invalid nearly all his life," said
+Murchison, to the captain, casually.  "Aye, I remember him," was the
+reply.
+
+"I am almost afraid to ask you," continued Hardy, "but shut up all day I
+hear so little.  How is old Miss Ritherdon?"
+
+Murchison reddened with helpless rage; Captain Nugent, gazing at the
+questioner with something almost approaching respect, waited breathlessly
+for the invariable answer.
+
+"She died three weeks ago; I'm surprised that you have not heard of it,"
+said the doctor, pointedly.
+
+"Of course she was old," said Hardy, with the air of one advancing
+extenuating circumstances.
+
+"Very old," replied the doctor, who knew that the other was now at the
+end of his obituary list.
+
+"Are there any other of my patients you are anxious to hear about?"
+
+[Illustration: "Are there any other of my patients you are anxious to
+hear about?"]
+
+"No, thank you," returned Hardy, with some haste.
+
+The doctor turned to his host again, but the charm was broken.  His talk
+was disconnected, owing probably to the fact that he was racking his
+brain for facts relative to the seamy side of shipbroking.  And Hardy,
+without any encouragement whatever, was interrupting with puerile
+anecdotes concerning the late lamented Joe Banks.  The captain came to
+the rescue.
+
+"The ladies are in the garden," he said to the doctor; "perhaps you'd
+like to join them."
+
+He looked coldly over at Hardy as he spoke to see the effect of his
+words.  Their eyes met, and the young man was on his feet as soon as his
+rival.
+
+"Thanks," he said, coolly; "it is a trifle close indoors."
+
+Before the dismayed captain could think of any dignified pretext to stay
+him he was out of the room.  The doctor followed and the perturbed
+captain, left alone, stared blankly at the door and thought of his
+daughter's words concerning the thin end of the wedge.
+
+He was a proud man and loth to show discomfiture, so that it was not
+until a quarter of an hour later that he followed his guests to the
+garden.  The four people were in couples, the paths favouring that
+formation, although the doctor, to the detriment of the border, had made
+two or three determined attempts to march in fours.  With a feeling akin
+to scorn the captain saw that he was walking with Mrs. Kingdom, while
+some distance in the rear Jem Hardy followed with Kate.
+
+He stood at the back door for a little while watching; Hardy, upright and
+elate, was listening with profound attention to Miss Nugent; the doctor,
+sauntering along beside Mrs. Kingdom, was listening with a languid air to
+an account of her celebrated escape from measles some forty-three years
+before.  As a professional man he would have died rather than have owed
+his life to the specific she advocated.
+
+Kate Nugent, catching sight of her father, turned, and as he came slowly
+towards them, linked her arm, in his.  Her face was slightly flushed and
+her eyes sparkled.
+
+"I was just coming in to fetch you," she observed; "it is so pleasant out
+here now."
+
+"Delightful," said Hardy.
+
+"We had to drop behind a little," said Miss Nugent, raising her voice.
+"Aunt and Dr. Murchison _will_ talk about their complaints to each other!
+They have been exchanging prescriptions."
+
+The captain grunted and eyed her keenly.
+
+"I want you to come in and give us a little music," he said, shortly.
+
+Kate nodded.  "What is your favourite music, Mr. Hardy?" she inquired,
+with a smile.
+
+"Unfortunately, Mr. Hardy can't stay," said the captain, in a voice which
+there was no mistaking.
+
+Hardy pulled out his watch.  "No; I must be off," he said, with a
+well-affected start.  "Thank you for reminding me, Captain Nugent."
+
+"I am glad to have been of service," said the other, looking his
+grimmest.
+
+He acknowledged the young man's farewell with a short nod and, forgetting
+his sudden desire for music, continued to pace up and down with his
+daughter.
+
+"What have you been saying to that--that fellow?" he demanded, turning to
+her, suddenly.
+
+Miss Nugent reflected.  "I said it was a fine evening," she replied, at
+last.
+
+"No doubt," said her father.  "What else?"
+
+"I think I asked him whether he was fond of gardening," said Miss Nugent,
+slowly.  "Yes, I'm sure I did."
+
+"You had no business to speak to him at all," said the fuming captain.
+
+"I don't quite see how I could help doing so," said his daughter.  "You
+surely don't expect me to be rude to your visitors?  Besides, I feel
+rather sorry for him."
+
+"Sorry?" repeated the captain, sharply.  "What for?"
+
+"Because he hasn't got a nice, kind, soft-spoken father," said Miss
+Nugent, squeezing his arm affectionately.
+
+The appearance of the other couple at the head of the path saved the
+captain the necessity of a retort.  They stood in a little knot talking,
+but Miss Nugent, contrary to her usual habit, said but little.  She was
+holding her father's arm and gazing absently at the dim fields stretching
+away beyond the garden.
+
+At the same time Mr. James Hardy, feeling, despite his bold front,
+somewhat badly snubbed, was sitting on the beach thinking over the
+situation.  After a quarter of an hour in the company of Kate Nugent all
+else seemed sordid and prosaic; his own conduct in his attempt to save
+her brother from the consequences of his folly most sordid of all.  He
+wondered, gloomily, what she would think when she heard of it.
+
+[Illustration: "He wondered, gloomily, what she would think when she
+heard of it."]
+
+He rose at last and in the pale light of the new moon walked slowly along
+towards the town.  In his present state of mind he wanted to talk about
+Kate Nugent, and the only person who could be depended upon for doing
+that was Samson Wilks.  It was a never-tiring subject of the steward's,
+and since his discovery of the state of Hardy's feelings in that quarter
+the slightest allusion was sufficient to let loose a flood of
+reminiscences.
+
+It was dark by the time Hardy reached the alley, and in most of the
+houses the lamps were lit behind drawn blinds.  The steward's house,
+however, was in darkness and there was no response when he tapped.  He
+turned the handle of the door and looked in.  A dim figure rose with a
+start from a chair.
+
+"I hope you were not asleep?" said Hardy.
+
+"No, sir," said the steward, in a relieved voice.  "I thought it was
+somebody else."
+
+He placed a chair for his visitor and, having lit the lamp, slowly
+lowered the blind and took a seat opposite.
+
+"I've been sitting in the dark to make a certain party think I was out,"
+he said, slowly.  "She keeps making a excuse about Teddy to come over and
+see me.  Last night 'e talked about making a 'ole in the water to
+celebrate 'Melia Kybird's wedding, and she came over and sat in that
+chair and cried as if 'er 'art would break.  After she'd gone Teddy comes
+over, fierce as a eagle, and wants to know wot I've been saying to 'is
+mother to make 'er cry.  Between the two of 'em I 'ave a nice life of
+it."
+
+"He is still faithful to Miss Kybird, then?" said Hardy, with a sudden
+sense of relief.
+
+"Faithful?" said Mr. Wilks.  "Faithful ain't no word for it.  He's a
+sticker, that's wot 'e is, and it's my misfortune that 'is mother takes
+after 'im.  I 'ave to go out afore breakfast and stay out till late at
+night, and even then like as not she catches me on the doorstep."
+
+"Well, perhaps she will make a hole in the water," suggested Hardy.
+
+Mr. Wilks smiled, but almost instantly became grave again.  "She's not
+that sort," he said, bitterly, and went into the kitchen to draw some
+beer.
+
+He drank his in a manner which betokened that the occupation afforded him
+no enjoyment, and, full of his own troubles, was in no mood to discuss
+anything else.  He gave a short biography of Mrs. Silk which would have
+furnished abundant material for half-a-dozen libel actions, and alluding
+to the demise of the late Mr. Silk, spoke of it as though it were the
+supreme act of artfulness in a somewhat adventurous career.
+
+Hardy walked home with a mind more at ease than it had been at any time
+since his overtures to Mr. Swann.  The only scruple that had troubled him
+was now removed, and in place of it he felt that he was acting the part
+of a guardian angel to Mr. Edward Silk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Mr. Nathan Smith, usually one of the most matter-of-fact men in the
+world, came out of Mr. Swann's house in a semi-dazed condition, and for
+some time after the front door had closed behind him stood gaping on the
+narrow pavement.
+
+He looked up and down the quiet little street and shook his head sadly.
+It was a street of staid and substantial old houses; houses which had
+mellowed and blackened with age, but whose quaint windows and
+chance-opened doors afforded glimpses of comfort attesting to the
+prosperity of those within.  In the usual way Mr. Nathan Smith was of too
+philosophical a temperament to experience the pangs of envy, but to-day
+these things affected him, and he experienced a strange feeling of
+discontent with his lot in life.
+
+"Some people 'ave all the luck," he muttered, and walked slowly down the
+road.
+
+[Illustration: "'Some people 'ave all the luck,' he muttered."]
+
+He continued his reflections as he walked through the somewhat squalid
+streets of his own quarter.  The afternoon was wet and the houses looked
+dingier than usual; dirty, inconvenient little places most of them, with
+a few cheap gimcracks making a brave show as near the window as possible.
+Mr. Smith observed them with newly opened eyes, and, for perhaps the
+first time in his life, thought of the draw-backs and struggles of the
+poor.
+
+In his own untidy little den at the back of the house he sat for some
+time deep in thought over the events of the afternoon.  He had been
+permitted a peep at wealth; at wealth, too, which was changing hands, but
+was not coming his way.  He lit his pipe and, producing a bottle of rum
+from a cupboard, helped himself liberally.  The potent fluid softened him
+somewhat, and a half-formed intention to keep the news from Mr. Kybird
+melted away beneath its benign influence.
+
+"After all, we've been pals for pretty near thirty years," said Mr. Smith
+to himself.
+
+He took another draught.  "Thirty years is a long time," he mused.
+
+He finished the glass.  "And if 'e don't give me something out of it I'll
+do 'im as much 'arm as I can," he continued; and, buttoning up his coat,
+he rose and set out in the direction of the High Street.
+
+The rain had ceased and the sun was making faint efforts to break through
+watery clouds.  Things seemed brighter, and Mr. Smith's heart beat in
+response.  He was going to play the part of a benefactor to Mr. Kybird;
+to offer him access, at any rate, to such wealth as he had never dreamed
+of.  He paused at the shop window, and, observing through a gap in the
+merchandise that Mr. Kybird was be-hind the counter, walked in and
+saluted him.
+
+"I've got news for you," he said, slowly; "big news."
+
+"Oh," said Mr. Kybird, with indifference.
+
+"Big news," repeated Mr. Smith, sinking thoughtlessly into the broken
+cane-chair and slowly extricating himself.  "Something that'll make your
+eyes start out of your 'ed."
+
+The small black eyes in question were turned shrewdly in his direction.
+"I've 'ad news of you afore, Nat," remarked Mr. Kybird, with simple
+severity.
+
+The philanthropist was chilled; he fixed his eyes in a stony stare on the
+opposite wall.  Mr. Kybird, who had ever a wholesome dread of falling a
+victim to his friend's cuteness, regarded him with some uncertainty, and
+reminded him of one or two pieces of information which had seriously
+depleted his till.
+
+"Banns up yet for the wedding?" inquired Mr. Smith, still gazing in front
+of him with fathomless eyes.
+
+"They'll be put up next week," said Mr. Kybird.
+
+"Ah!" said his friend, with great emphasis.  "Well, well!"
+
+"Wot d'ye mean by 'well, well'?"  demanded the other, with some heat.
+
+"I was on'y thinking," replied Mr. Smith, mildly.  "P'r'aps it's all for
+the best, and I'd better 'old my tongue.  True love is better than money.
+After all it ain't my bisness, and I shouldn't get much out of it."
+
+"Out of wot, Nat?" inquired Mr. Kybird, uneasily.
+
+Mr. Smith, still gazing musingly before him, appeared not to hear the
+question.  "Nice after the rain, ain't it?" he said, slowly.
+
+"It's all right," said the other, shortly.
+
+"Everything smells so fresh and sweet," continued his nature-loving
+friend; "all the little dickey-birds was a-singing as if their little
+'arts would break as I come along."
+
+"I don't wonder at it," said the offended Mr. Kybird.
+
+"And the banns go up next week," murmured the boarding-master to himself.
+"Well, well."
+
+"'Ave you got anything to say agin it?" demanded Mr. Kybird.
+
+"Cert'nly not," replied the other.  "On'y don't blame me when it's too
+late; that's all."
+
+Mr. Kybird, staring at him wrathfully, turned this dark saying over in
+his mind.  "Too late for wot?" he inquired.
+
+"Ah!" said Nathan Smith, slowly.  "Nice and fresh after the rain, ain't
+it?  As I come along all the little dickey-birds--"
+
+"Drat the little dickey-birds," interrupted Mr. Kybird, with sudden
+violence.  "If you've got anything to say, why don't you say it like a
+man?"
+
+[Illustration: "If you've got anything to say, why don't you say it like
+a man?"]
+
+The parlour door opened suddenly before the other could reply, and
+revealed the face of Mrs. Kybird.  "Wot are you two a-quarrelling about?"
+she demanded.  "Why don't you come inside and sit down for a bit?"
+
+Mr. Smith accepted the invitation, and following her into the room found
+Miss Kybird busy stitching in the midst of a bewildering assortment of
+brown paper patterns and pieces of cloth.  Mrs. Kybird gave him a chair,
+and, having overheard a portion of his conversation with her husband,
+made one or two casual inquiries.
+
+"I've been spending a hour or two at Mr. Swann's," said Mr. Smith.
+
+"And 'ow is 'e?" inquired his hostess, with an appearance of amiable
+interest.
+
+The boarding-master shook his head.  "'E's slipping 'is cable," he said,
+slowly.  "'E's been making 'is will, and I was one o' the witnesses."
+
+Something in Mr. Smith's manner as he uttered this simple statement made
+his listeners anxious to hear more.  Mr. Kybird, who had just entered the
+room and was standing with his back to the door holding the handle,
+regarded him expectantly.
+
+"It's been worrying 'im some time," pursued Mr. Smith.  "'E 'asn't got
+nobody belonging to 'im, and for a long time 'e couldn't think 'ow to
+leave it.  Wot with 'ouse property and other things it's a matter of over
+ten thousand pounds."
+
+"Good 'eavens!" said Mr. Kybird, who felt that he was expected to say
+something.
+
+"Dr. Blaikie was the other witness," continued Mr. Smith, disregarding
+the interruption; "and Mr. Swann made us both promise to keep it a dead
+secret till 'e's gone, but out o' friendship to you I thought I'd step
+round and let you know."
+
+The emphasis on the words was unmistakable; Mrs. Kybird dropped her work
+and sat staring at him, while her husband wriggled with excitement.
+
+"'E ain't left it to me, I s'pose?" he said, with a feeble attempt at
+jocularity.
+
+"Not a brass farden," replied his friend, cheerfully.  "Not to none of
+you.  Why should 'e?
+
+"He ain't left it to Jack, I s'pose?" said Miss Kybird, who had suspended
+her work to listen.
+
+"No, my dear," replied the boarding-master.  "E's made 'is will all
+ship-shape and proper, and 'e's left everything--all that 'ouse property
+and other things, amounting to over ten thousand pounds--to a young man
+becos 'e was jilt--crossed in love a few months ago, and becos 'e's been
+a good and faithful servant to 'im for years."
+
+"Don't tell me," said Mr. Kybird, desperately; "don't tell me that 'e's
+been and left all that money to young Teddy Silk."
+
+"Well, I won't if you don't want me to," said the accommodating Mr.
+Smith, "but, mind, it's a dead secret."
+
+Mr. Kybird wiped his brow, and red patches, due to excitement, lent a
+little variety to an otherwise commonplace face; Mrs. Kybird's dazed
+inquiry.  "Wot are we a-coming to?" fell on deaf ears; while Miss Kybird,
+leaning forward with lips parted, fixed her eyes intently on Mr. Smith's
+face.
+
+"It's a pity 'e didn't leave it to young Nugent," said that gentleman,
+noting with much pleasure the effect of his announcement, "but 'e can't
+stand 'in: at no price; 'e told me so 'imself.  I s'pose young Teddy'll
+be quite the gentleman now, and 'e'll be able to marry who 'e likes."
+
+Mr. Kybird thrust his handkerchief into his tail-pocket, and all the
+father awoke within him.  "Ho, will 'e?" he said, with fierce sarcasm.
+"Ho, indeed!  And wot about my daughter?  I 'ave 'eard of such things as
+breach o' promise.  Before Mr. Teddy gets married 'e's got to 'ave a few
+words with me."
+
+"'E's behaved very bad," said Mrs. Kybird, nodding.
+
+"'E come 'ere night after night," said Mr. Kybird, working himself up
+into a fury; "'e walked out with my gal for months and months, and then
+'e takes 'imself off as if we wasn't good enough for'im."
+
+"The suppers 'e's 'ad 'ere you wouldn't believe," said Mrs. Kybird,
+addressing the visitor.
+
+"Takes 'imself off," repeated her husband; "takes 'imself off as if we
+was dirt beneath 'is feet, and never been back to give a explanation from
+that day to this."
+
+"I'm not easy surprised," said Mrs. Kybird, "I never was from a gal, but
+I must say Teddy's been a surprise to me.  If anybody 'ad told me 'e'd
+ha' behaved like that I wouldn't ha' believed it; I couldn't.  I've never
+said much about it, becos my pride wouldn't let me.  We all 'ave our
+faults, and mine is pride."
+
+"I shall bring a breach o' promise action agin 'im for five thousand
+pounds," said Mr. Kybird, with decision.
+
+"Talk sense," said Nathan Smith, shortly.
+
+"Sense!" cried Mr. Kybird.  "Is my gal to be played fast and loose with
+like that?  Is my gal to be pitched over when 'e likes?  Is my gal--"
+
+"Wot's the good o' talking like that to me?"  said the indignant Mr.
+Smith.  "The best thing you can do is to get 'er married to Teddy at
+once, afore 'e knows of 'is luck."
+
+"And when'll that be?" inquired his friend, in a calmer voice.
+
+"Any time," said the boarding-master, shrugging his shoulders.  "The old
+gentleman might go out to-night, or again 'e might live on for a week or
+more.  'E was so weak 'e couldn't 'ardly sign 'is name."
+
+"I 'ope 'e 'as signed it all right," said Mr. Kybird, starting.
+
+"Safe as 'ouses," said his friend.
+
+"Well, why not wait till Teddy 'as got the money?" suggested Mrs. Kybird,
+with a knowing shake of her head.
+
+"Becos," said Mr. Smith, in a grating voice, "be-cos for one thing 'e'd
+be a rich man then and could 'ave 'is pick.  Teddy Silk on a pound or
+thereabouts a week and Teddy Silk with ten thousand pounds 'ud be two
+different people.  Besides that 'e'd think she was marrying 'im for 'is
+money."
+
+"If 'e thought that," said Mrs. Kybird, firmly, "I'd never forgive 'im."
+
+"My advice to you," said Nathan Smith, shaking his forefinger
+impressively, "is to get 'em married on the quiet and as soon as
+possible.  Once they're tied up Teddy can't 'elp 'imself."
+
+"Why on the quiet?" demanded Mr. Kybird, sharply.
+
+The boarding-master uttered an impatient exclamation.  "Becos if Mr.
+Swann got to 'ear of it he'd guess I'd been blabbing, for one thing," he
+said, sharply, "and for another, 'e left it to 'im partly to make up for
+'is disappointment--he'd been disappointed 'imself in 'is younger days,
+so 'e told me."
+
+"Suppose 'e managed to get enough strength to alter 'is will?"
+
+Mr. Kybird shivered.  "It takes time to get married, though," he
+objected.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Smith, ironically, "it does.  Get round young Teddy, and
+then put the banns up.  Take your time about it, and be sure and let Mr.
+Swann know.  D'ye think 'e wouldn't understand wot it meant, and spoil
+it, to say nothing of Teddy seeing through it?
+
+"Well, wot's to be done, then?" inquired the staring Mr. Kybird.
+
+"Send 'em up to London and 'ave 'em married by special license," said Mr.
+Smith, speaking rapidly--"to-morrow, if possible; if not, the day after.
+Go and pitch a tale to Teddy to-night, and make 'im understand it's to be
+done on the strict q.t."
+
+"Special licenses cost money," said Mr. Kybird.  "I 'ave 'eard it's a
+matter o' thirty pounds or thereabouts."
+
+Mr. Nathan Smith rose, and his eyes were almost expressive.  He nodded
+good-night to the ladies and crossed to the door.  Mrs. Kybird suddenly
+seized him by the coat and held him.
+
+[Illustration: "Mrs. Kybird suddenly seized him by the coat."]
+
+"Don't be in a 'urry, Nat," she pleaded.  "We ain't all as clever as you
+are."
+
+"Talk about looking a gift-'orse in the mouth--" began the indignant Mr.
+Smith.
+
+"Sit down," urged Mr. Kybird.  "You can't expect us to be as quick in
+seeing things as wot you are."
+
+He pushed his partly mollified friend into his chair again, and taking a
+seat next him began to view the affair with enthusiasm.  "'Melia shall
+turn young Nugent off to-night," he said, firmly.
+
+"That's right," said the other; "go and do a few more silly things like
+that and we shall be 'appy.  If you'd got a 'ead instead of wot you 'ave
+got, you wouldn't talk of giving the show away like that.  Nobody must
+know or guess about anything until young Teddy is married to 'Melia and
+got the money."
+
+"It seems something like deceitfulness," said Miss Kybird, who had been
+listening to the plans for her future with admirable composure.
+
+"It's for Teddy's own sake," said Nathan Smith.  "Everybody knows 'e's
+half crazy after you."
+
+"I don't know that I don't like 'im best, even without the money," said
+Miss Kybird, calmly.  "Nobody could 'ave been more attentive than 'im.
+I believe that 'e'd marry me if 'e 'ad a hundred thousand, but it looks
+better your way."
+
+"Better all round," said Nathan Smith, with at approving nod.  "Now,
+Dan'l, 'op round to Teddy and whistle 'im back, and mind 'e's to keep it
+a dead secret on account o' trouble with young Nugent.  D'ye twig?"
+
+The admiring Mr. Kybird said that he was a wonder, and, in the discussion
+on ways and means which followed, sat listening with growing respect to
+the managing abilities both of his friend and his wife.  Difficulties
+were only mentioned for the purpose of being satisfactorily solved, and
+he noticed with keen appreciation that the prospect of a ten thousand
+pound son-in-law was already adding to that lady's dignity.  She sniffed
+haughtily as she spoke of "that Nugent lot"; and the manner in which she
+promised Mr. Smith that he should not lose by his services would have
+graced a duchess.
+
+"I didn't expect to lose by it," said the boarding-master, pointedly.
+"Come over and 'ave a glass at the Chequers, Dan, and then you can go
+along and see Teddy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+The summer evening was well advanced when Mr. Kybird and his old friend
+parted.  The former gentleman was in almost a sentimental mood, and the
+boarding-master, satisfied that his pupil was in a particularly
+appropriate frame of mind for the object of his visit, renewed his
+instructions about binding Mr. Silk to secrecy, and departed on business
+of his own.
+
+[Illustration: "Mr. Kybird and his old friend parted."]
+
+Mr. Kybird walked slowly towards Fullalove Alley with his head sunk in
+meditation.  He was anxious to find Mr. Silk alone, as otherwise the
+difficulty of his errand would be considerably increased, Mrs. Silk's
+intelligence being by no means obscured by any ungovernable affection for
+the Kybird family.  If she was at home she would have to invent some
+pretext for luring Teddy into the privacy of the open air.
+
+The lamp was lit in the front room by the time he reached the house, and
+the shadows of geraniums which had won through several winters formed a
+straggling pattern on the holland blind.  Mr. Kybird, first making an
+unsuccessful attempt to peep round the edges of this decoration, tapped
+gently on the door, and in response to a command to "Come in," turned the
+handle and looked into the room.  To his relief, he saw that Mr. Silk was
+alone.
+
+"Good evening, Teddy," he said, with a genial smile, as he entered slowly
+and closed the door behind him.  "I 'ope I see you well?"
+
+"I'm quite well," returned Mr. Silk, gazing at him with unconcealed
+surprise.
+
+"I'm glad to 'ear it," said Mr. Kybird, in a somewhat reproachful voice,
+"for your sake; for every-body's sake, though, p'r'aps, I did expect to
+find you looking a little bit down.  Ah! it's the wimmen that 'ave the
+'arts after all."
+
+Mr. Silk coughed.  "What d'ye mean?" he inquired, somewhat puzzled.
+
+"I came to see you, Teddy, on a very delikit business," said Mr. Kybird,
+taking a seat and gazing diffidently at his hat as he swung it between
+his hands; "though, as man to man, I'm on'y doing of my dooty.  But if
+you don't want to 'ear wot I've got to say, say so, and Dan'l Kybird'll
+darken your door no more."
+
+"How can I know whether I want to 'ear it or not when I don't know wot it
+is?" said Mr. Silk, judiciously.
+
+Mr. Kybird sat biting his thumb-nail, then he looked up suddenly.
+"'Melia," he said, with an outburst of desperate frankness, "'Melia is
+crying 'er eyes out."
+
+Mr. Silk, with a smothered exclamation, started up from his chair and
+regarded him eagerly.
+
+"If she knew I'd been 'ere," pursued Mr. Kybird, "she'd  I don't know wot
+she wouldn't do.  That's 'er pride; but I've got my pride too; the pride
+of a father's 'art."
+
+"What--what's she crying about?" inquired Mr. Silk, in an unsteady voice.
+
+"She's been looking poorly for some time," continued the veracious Mr.
+Kybird, "and crying.  When I tell you that part o' the wedding-dress wot
+she was making 'ad to be taken away from 'er because o' the tears she
+dropped on it, you may 'ave some idea of wot things are like.  She's
+never forgot you, Teddy, and it was on'y your quick temper that day that
+made 'er take on with young Nugent.  She's got a temper, too, but she
+give 'er love once, and, being my daughter, she couldn't give it agin."
+
+He stole a glance at his listener.  Mr. Silk, very pale and upright, was
+standing on the hearthrug, shaking all over with nervous excitement.
+Twice he tried to speak and failed.
+
+"That's 'ow it is, Teddy," sighed Mr. Kybird, rising as though to depart.
+"I've done my dooty.  It was a 'ard thing to do, but I've done it."
+
+"Do you mean," said Mr. Silk, recovering his voice at last, "do you mean
+that Amelia would marry me after all?"
+
+"Do I mean?" repeated Mr. Kybird, naturally indignant that his very
+plain speaking should be deemed capable of any misconstruction.  "Am I
+speaking to a stock or a stone, Teddy?"
+
+Mr. Silk took a deep breath, and buttoned up his coat, as though
+preparing to meet Mr. Nugent there and then in deadly encounter for the
+person of Miss Kybird.  The colour was back in his cheeks by this time,
+and his eyes were unusually bright.  He took a step towards Mr. Kybird
+and, pressing his hand warmly, pushed him back into his seat again.
+
+"There's 'er pride to consider, Teddy," said the latter gentleman, with
+the whisper of a conspirator.
+
+"She can't stand being talked about all over the town and pointed at."
+
+"Let me see anybody a-pointing at 'er," said the truculent Mr. Silk; "let
+me see 'em, that's all."
+
+"That's the way to talk, Teddy," said Mr. Kybird, gazing at him with
+admiration.
+
+"Talk!" said the heroic Mr. Silk.  "I'll do more than talk."  He clenched
+his fists and paced boldly up and down the hearthrug.
+
+"You leave things to me," said Mr. Kybird, with a confidential wink.
+"I'll see that it's all right.  All I ask of you is to keep it a dead
+secret; even your mother mustn't know."
+
+"I'll be as secret as the grave," said the overjoyed Mr. Silk.
+
+"There's lots o' things to be taken into consideration," said Mr. Kybird,
+truthfully; "it might be as well for you to be married immediate."
+
+"Immediate?" said the astonished Mr. Silk.
+
+"She 'asn't got the nerve to send young Nugent about 'is business,"
+explained Mr. Kybird; "she feels sorry for 'im, pore fellow; but 'e's got
+a loving and affectionate 'art, and she can't bear 'im making love to
+'er.  You can understand what it is, can't you?"
+
+"I can imagine it," said Mr. Silk, gloomily, and he flushed crimson as the
+possibilities suggested by the remark occurred to him.
+
+"I've been thinking it over for some time," resumed Mr. Kybird; "twisting
+it and turning it all ways, and the only thing I can see for it is for
+you to be married on the strict q.t.  Of course, if you don't like--"
+
+"Like!"  repeated the transported Mr. Silk.
+
+"I'll go and be married now, if you like."
+
+Mr. Kybird shook his head at such haste, and then softening a little
+observed that it did him credit.  He proceeded to improve the occasion by
+anecdotes of his own courting some thirty years before, and was in the
+middle of a thrilling account of the manner in which he had bearded the
+whose of his future wife's family, when a quick step outside, which
+paused at the door, brought him to a sudden halt.
+
+"Mother," announced Mr. Silk, in a whisper.
+
+Mr. Kybird nodded, and the heroic appearance of visage which had
+accompanied his tale gave way to an expression of some uneasiness.  He
+coughed behind his hand, and sat gazing before him as Mrs. Silk entered
+the room and gave vent to an exclamation of astonishment as she saw the
+visitor.  She gazed sharply from him to her son.  Mr. Kybird's expression
+was now normal, but despite his utmost efforts Mr. Silk could not
+entirely banish the smile which trembled on his lips.
+
+"Me and Teddy," said Mr. Kybird, turning to her with a little bob, which
+served him for a bow, "'ave just been having a little talk about old
+times."
+
+"He was just passing," said Mr. Silk.
+
+"Just passing, and thought I'd look in," said Mr. Kybird, with a careless
+little laugh; "the door was open a bit."
+
+"Wide open," corroborated Mr. Silk.
+
+"So I just came in to say ''Ow d'ye do?'" said Mr. Kybird.
+
+Mrs. Silk's sharp, white face turned from one to the other.  "Ave you
+said it?" she inquired, blandly.
+
+"I 'ave," said Mr. Kybird, restraining Mr. Silk's evident intention of
+hot speech by a warning glance; "and now I'll just toddle off 'ome."
+
+"I'll go a bit o' the way with you," said Edward Silk.  "I feel as if a
+bit of a walk would do me good."
+
+Left alone, the astonished Mrs. Silk took the visitor's vacated chair
+and, with wrinkled brow, sat putting two and two together until the sum
+got beyond her powers of calculation.  Mr. Kybird's affability and
+Teddy's cheerfulness were alike incomprehensible.  She mended a hole in
+her pocket and darned a pair of socks, and at last, anxious for advice,
+or at least a confidant, resolved to see Mr. Wilks.
+
+She opened the door and looked across the alley, and saw with some
+satisfaction that his blind was illuminated.  She closed the door behind
+her sharply, and then stood gasping on the doorstep.  So simultaneous
+were the two happenings that it actually appeared as though the closing
+of the door had blown Mr. Wilks's lamp out.  It was a night of surprises,
+but after a moment's hesitation she stepped over and tried his door.  It
+was fast, and there was no answer to her knuckling.  She knocked louder
+and listened.  A door slammed violently at the back of the house, a
+distant clatter of what sounded like saucepans came from beyond, and
+above it all a tremulous but harsh voice bellowed industriously through
+an interminable chant.  By the time the third verse was reached Mr.
+Wilks's neighbours on both sides were beating madly upon their walls and
+blood-curdling threats strained through the plaster.
+
+She stayed no longer, but regaining her own door sat down again to await
+the return of her son.  Mr. Silk was long in coming, and she tried in
+vain to occupy herself with various small jobs as she speculated in vain
+on the meaning of the events of the night.  She got up and stood by the
+open door, and as she waited the clock in the church-tower, which rose
+over the roofs hard by, slowly boomed out the hour of eleven.  As the
+echoes of the last stroke died away the figure of Mr. Silk turned into
+the alley.
+
+"You must 'ave 'ad quite a nice walk," said his mother, as she drew back
+into the room and noted the brightness of his eye.
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+"I s'pose 'e's been and asked you to the wedding?" said the sarcastic
+Mrs. Silk.
+
+Her son started and, turning his back on her, wound up the clock.  "Yes,
+'e has," he said, with a, sly grin.
+
+Mrs. Silk's eyes snapped.  "Well, of all the impudence," she said,
+breathlessly.
+
+"Well, 'e has," said her son, hugging himself over the joke.  "And,
+what's more, I'm going."
+
+He composed his face sufficiently to bid her "good-night," and, turning
+a deaf ear to her remonstrances and inquiries, took up a candle and were
+off whistling.
+
+[Illustration: "He took up his candle and went off whistling."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The idea in the mind of Mr. James Hardy when he concocted his infamous
+plot was that Jack Nugent would be summarily dismissed on some pretext by
+Miss Kybird, and that steps would at once be taken by her family to
+publish her banns together with those of Mr. Silk.  In thinking thus he
+had made no allowance for the workings and fears of such a capable mind
+as Nathan Smith's, and as days passed and nothing happened he became a
+prey to despair.
+
+He watched Mr. Silk keenly, but that gentleman went about his work in his
+usual quiet and gloomy fashion, and, after a day's leave for the purpose
+of arranging the affairs of a sick aunt in Camberwell, came back only a
+little less gloomy than before.  It was also clear that Mr. Swann's
+complaisance was nearly at an end, and a letter, couched in vigorous, not
+to say regrettable, terms for a moribund man, expressed such a desire for
+fresh air and exercise that Hardy was prepared to see him at any moment.
+
+It was the more unfortunate as he thought that he had of late detected
+a slight softening in Captain Nugent's manner towards him.  On two
+occasions the captain, who was out when he called, had made no comment
+to find upon his return that the visitor was being entertained by his
+daughter, going so far, indeed, as to permit the conversation to gain
+vastly in interest by that young person remaining in the room.  In face
+of this improvement he thought with dismay of having to confess failure
+in a scheme which apart from success was inexcusable.
+
+The captain had also unbent in another direction, and Mr. Wilks, to his
+great satisfaction, was allowed to renew his visits to Equator Lodge and
+assist his old master in the garden.  Here at least the steward was safe
+from the designs of Mrs. Silk and the innuendoes of Fullalove Alley.
+
+It was at this time, too, that the widow stood in most need of his
+advice, the behaviour of Edward Silk being of a nature to cause
+misgivings in any mother's heart.  A strange restlessness possessed him,
+varied with occasional outbursts of hilarity and good nature.  Dark hints
+emanated from him at these times concerning a surprise in store for her
+at no distant date, hints which were at once explained away in a most
+unsatisfactory manner when she became too pressing in her inquiries.  He
+haunted the High Street, and when the suspicious Mrs. Silk spoke of
+Amelia he only laughed and waxed humorous over such unlikely subjects as
+broken hearts and broken vows.
+
+It was a week after Mr. Kybird's visit to the alley that he went, as
+usual, for a stroll up and down the High Street.  The evening was
+deepening, and some of the shops had already lit up, as Mr. Silk, with
+his face against the window-pane, tried in vain to penetrate the
+obscurity of Mr. Kybird's shop.  He could just make out a dim figure
+behind the counter, which he believed to be Amelia, when a match was
+struck and a gas jet threw a sudden light in the shop and revealed Mr.
+Jack Nugent standing behind the counter with his hand on the lady's
+shoulder.
+
+[Illustration: "He could just make out a dim figure behind the counter."]
+
+One glance was sufficient.  The next moment there was a sharp cry from
+Miss Kybird and a bewildered stare from Nugent as something, only
+comparable to a human cracker, bounced into the shop and commenced to
+explode before them.
+
+"Take your 'and off," raved Mr. Silk.  "Leave 'er alone.  'Ow dare you?
+D'ye hear me?  'Melia, I won't 'ave it!  I won't 'ave it!"
+
+"Don't be silly, Teddy," remonstrated Mr. Nugent, following up Miss
+Kybird, as she edged away from him.
+
+"Leave 'er alone, d'ye 'ear?" yelled Mr. Silk, thumping the counter with
+his small fist.  "She's my _wife!_"
+
+"Teddy's mad," said Mr. Nugent, calmly, "stark, staring, raving mad.
+Poor Teddy."
+
+
+He shook his head sadly, and had just begun to recommend a few remedies
+when the parlour door opened and the figure of Mr. Kybird, with his wife
+standing close behind him, appeared in the doorway.
+
+"Who's making all this noise?"  demanded the former, looking from one to
+the other.
+
+"I am," said Mr. Silk, fiercely.  "It's no use your winking at me; I'm
+not going to 'ave any more of this nonsense.  'Melia, you go and get your
+'at on and come straight off 'ome with me."
+
+Mr. Kybird gave a warning cough.  "Go easy, Teddy," he murmured.
+
+"And don't you cough at me," said the irritated Mr. Silk, "because it
+won't do no good."
+
+Mr. Kybird subsided.  He was not going to quarrel with a son-in-law who
+might at any moment be worth ten thousand pounds.
+
+"Isn't he mad?" inquired the amazed Mr. Nugent.
+
+"Cert'nly not," replied Mr. Kybird, moving aside to let his daughter
+pass; "no madder than you are.  Wot d'ye mean, mad?"
+
+Mr. Nugent looked round in perplexity.  "Do you mean to tell me that
+Teddy and Amelia are married?" he said, in a voice trembling with
+eagerness.
+
+"I do," said Mr. Kybird.  "It seems they've been fond of one another all
+along, and they went up all unbeknown last Friday and got a license and
+got married."
+
+"And if I see you putting your 'and on 'er shoulder ag'in" said Mr. Silk,
+with alarming vagueness.
+
+"But suppose she asks me to?" said the delighted Mr. Nugent, with much
+gravity.
+
+[Illustration: "'But suppose she asks me to?' said the delighted
+Mr. Nugent, with much gravity."]
+
+"Look 'ere, we don't want none o' your non-sense," broke in the irate
+Mrs. Kybird, pushing her way past her husband and confronting the
+speaker.
+
+"I've been deceived," said Mr. Nugent in a thrilling voice; "you've all
+been deceiving me.  Kybird, I blush for you (that will save you a lot of
+trouble).  Teddy, I wouldn't have believed it of you.  I can't stay here;
+my heart is broken."
+
+"Well we don't want you to," retorted the aggressive Mrs. Kybird.  "You
+can take yourself off as soon as ever you like.  You can't be too quick
+to please me."
+
+Mr. Nugent bowed and walked past the counter.  "And not even a bit of
+wedding-cake for me," he said, shaking a reproachful head at the heated
+Mr. Silk.  "Why, I'd put you down first on my list."
+
+He paused at the door, and after a brief intimation that he would send
+for his effects on the following day, provided that his broken heart had
+not proved fatal in the meantime, waved his hand to the company and
+departed.  Mr. Kybird followed him to the door as though to see him off
+the premises, and gazing after the receding figure swelled with
+indignation as he noticed that he favoured a mode of progression which
+was something between a walk and a hornpipe.
+
+Mr. Nugent had not been in such spirits since his return to Sunwich, and,
+hardly able to believe in his good fortune, he walked on in a state of
+growing excitement until he was clear of the town.  Then he stopped to
+consider his next move, and after a little deliberation resolved to pay a
+visit to Jem Hardy and acquaint him with the joyful tidings.
+
+That gentleman, however, was out, and Mr. Nugent, somewhat irritated at
+such thoughtlessness, stood in the road wondering where to go next.  It
+was absolutely impossible for him to sleep that night without telling the
+good news to somebody, and after some thought he selected Mr. Wilks.  It
+was true that relations had been somewhat strained between them since the
+latter's attempt at crimping him, but he was never one to bear malice,
+and to-night he was full of the kindliest thoughts to all mankind.
+
+He burst into Mr. Wilks's front room suddenly and then pulled up short.
+The steward, with a pitiable look of anxiety on his pallid features, was
+leaning awkwardly against the mantelpiece, and opposite him Mrs. Silk sat
+in an easy-chair, dissolved in tears.
+
+"Busy, Sam?" inquired Mr. Nugent, who had heard of the steward's
+difficulties from Hardy.
+
+"No, sir," said Mr. Wilks, hastily; "sit down, sir."
+
+He pushed forward a chair and, almost pulling his visitor into it, stood
+over him attentively and took his hat.
+
+"Are you quite sure I'm not interrupting you?" inquired the thoughtful
+Mr. Nugent.
+
+"Certain sure, sir," said Mr. Wilks, eagerly.  "I was just 'aving a bit
+of a chat with my neighbour, Mrs. Silk, 'ere, that's all."
+
+The lady in question removed her handkerchief from her eyes and gazed at
+him with reproachful tenderness.  Mr. Wilks plunged hastily into
+conversation.
+
+"She came over 'ere to tell me a bit o' news," he said, eyeing the young
+man doubtfully.  "It seems that Teddy----"
+
+Mr. Nugent fetched a mighty sigh and shook his head; Mrs. Silk gazed at
+him earnestly.
+
+"Life is full of surprises, sir," she remarked.
+
+"And sadness," added Mr. Nugent.  "I hope that they will be happy."
+
+"It struck me all of a 'eap," said Mrs. Silk, rolling her handkerchief
+into a ball and placing it in her lap.  "I was doing a bit of ironing
+when in walks Teddy with Amelia Kybird, and says they was married last
+Friday.  I was that shaken I didn't know what I did or what I said.  Then
+I came over as soon as I could, because I thought Mr. Wilks ought to know
+about it."
+
+Mr. Wilks cleared his throat and turned an agonized eye on Mr. Nugent.
+He would have liked to have asked why Mrs. Silk should think it necessary
+to inform him, but the fear of precipitating a crisis stayed his tongue.
+
+"What I'm to do, I don't know," continued Mrs. Silk, feebly.  You can't
+'ave two queens in one 'ouse, so to speak."
+
+"But she was walking out with Teddy long ago," urged Mr. Wilks.  "It's no
+worse now than then."
+
+"But I wouldn't be married by license," said Mrs. Silk, deftly ignoring
+the remark.  "If I can't be asked in church in the proper way I won't be
+married at all."
+
+"Quite right," said Mr. Nugent; "there's something so sudden about a
+license," he added, with feeling.
+
+"Me and Mr. Wilks was talking about marriage only the other day," pursued
+Mrs. Silk, with a bashfulness which set every nerve in the steward's body
+quivering, "and we both agreed that banns was the proper way.
+
+"You was talking about it," corrected Mr. Wilks, in a hoarse voice.  "You
+brought up the subject and I agreed with you--not that it matters to me
+'ow people get married.  That's their affair.  Banns or license, it's all
+one to me."
+
+"I won't be married by license," said Mrs. Silk, with sudden petulance;
+"leastways, I'd rather not be," she added, softening.
+
+Mr. Wilks took his handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose
+violently.  Mrs. Silk's methods of attack left him little opportunity for
+the plain speaking which was necessary to dispel illusions.  He turned a
+watery, appealing eye on to Mr. Nugent, and saw to his surprise that that
+gentleman was winking at him with great significance and persistence.  It
+would have needed a heart of stone to have been unaffected by such
+misery, and to-night Mr. Nugent, thankful for his own escape, was in a
+singularly merciful mood.
+
+"All this sounds as though you are going to be married," he said, turning
+to Mrs. Silk with a polite smile.
+
+The widow simpered and looked down, thereby affording Mr. Nugent an
+opportunity of another signal to the perturbed steward, who sat with such
+a look of anxiety on his face lest he should miss his cue that the young
+man's composure was tried to the utmost.
+
+"It's been a understood thing for a long time," she said, slowly, "but I
+couldn't leave my son while 'e was single and nobody to look after 'im.
+A good mother makes a good wife, so they say.  A woman can't always 'ave
+'er own way in everything, and if it's not to be by banns, then by
+license it must be, I suppose."
+
+"Well, he'll be a fortunate man, whoever he is," said Mr. Nugent, with
+another warning glance at Mr. Wilks; "and I only hope that he'll make a
+better husband than you do, Sam," he added, in a low but severe voice.
+
+Mrs. Silk gave a violent start.  "Better husband than 'e does?"  she
+cried, sharply.  "Mr. Wilks ain't married."
+
+Mr. Nugent's baseless charge took the steward all aback.  He stiffened in
+his chair, a picture of consternation, and guilt appeared stamped on
+every feature; but he had the presence of mind to look to Mr. Nugent's
+eye for guidance and sufficient strength of character to accept this last
+bid for liberty.
+
+"That's my business, sir," he quavered, in offended tones.
+
+"But you ain't _married?_" screamed Mrs. Silk.
+
+"Never mind," said Nugent, pacifically.  "Perhaps I ought not to have
+mentioned it; it's a sore subject with Sam.  And I daresay there were
+faults on both sides.  Weren't there, Sam?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Mr. Wilks, in a voice which he strove hard to make
+distinct; "especially 'ers."
+
+"You--you never told me you were married," said Mrs. Silk, breathlessly.
+
+"I never said I wasn't," retorted the culprit, defiantly.  "If people
+liked to think I was a single man, I don't care; it's got nothing to do
+with them.  Besides, she lives at Stepney, and I don't 'ear from 'er once
+in six months; she don't interfere with me and I don't interfere with
+her."
+
+Mrs. Silk got up from her chair and stood confronting him with her hand
+grasping the back of it.  Her cold eyes gleamed and her face worked with
+spite as she tried in vain to catch his eye.  Of Mr. Nugent and his
+ingenuous surprise at her behaviour she took no notice at all.
+
+"You're a deceiver," she gasped; "you've been behaving like a single man
+and everybody thought you was a single man."
+
+[Illustration: "'You're a deceiver,' she gasped."]
+
+"I hope you haven't been paying attentions to anybody, Sam," said Mr.
+Nugent in a shocked voice.
+
+"A-ah," said Mrs. Silk, shivering with anger.  "Ask 'im; the deceiving
+villain.  Ask anybody, and see what they'll tell you.  Oh, you wicked
+man, I wonder you can look me in the face!"
+
+Truth to tell, Mr. Wilks was looking in any direction but hers.  His eyes
+met Nugent's, but there was a look of such stern disdain on that
+gentleman's face that he was fain to look away again.
+
+"Was it a friend of yours?" inquired the artless Mr. Nugent.
+
+"Never mind," said Mrs. Silk, recovering herself.  "Never mind who it
+was.  You wait till I go and tell Teddy," she continued, turning to the
+trembling Mr. Wilks.  "If 'e's got the 'art of a man in 'im you'll see."
+
+With this dire threat, and turning occasionally to bestow another fierce
+glance upon the steward, she walked to the door and, opening it to its
+full extent, closed it behind her with a crash and darted across the
+alley to her own house.  The two men gazed at each other without
+speaking, and then Mr. Wilks, stepping over to the door, turned the key
+in the lock.
+
+"You're not afraid of Teddy?" said the staring Nugent.
+
+"Teddy!" said Mr. Wilks, snapping his huge fingers.  "I'm not afraid o'
+fifty Teddies; but she might come back with 'im.  If it 'adn't ha' been
+for you, sir, I don't know wot wouldn't 'ave happened."
+
+"Go and draw some beer and get me a clean pipe," said Nugent, dropping
+into a chair.  "We've both been mercifully preserved, Sam, and the best
+thing we can do is to drink to our noble selves and be more careful for
+the future."
+
+Mr. Wilks obeyed, and again thanking him warmly for his invaluable
+services sat down to compile a few facts about his newly acquired wife,
+warranted to stand the severest cross-examination which might be brought
+to bear upon them, a task interspersed with malicious reminiscences of
+Mrs. Silk's attacks on his liberty.  He also insisted on giving up his
+bed to Nugent for the night.
+
+"I suppose," he said later on, as Mr. Nugent, after a faint objection or
+two, took his candle--"I suppose this yarn about my being married will
+get about?"
+
+"I suppose so," said Nugent, yawning, as he paused with his foot on the
+stair.  "What about it?"
+
+"Nothing," said Mr. Wilks, in a somewhat dissatisfied voice.  "Nothing."
+
+"What about it?" repeated Mr. Nugent, sternly.
+
+"Nothing, sir," said Mr. Wilks, with an insufferable simper.  "Nothing,
+only it'll make things a little hit slow for me, that's all."
+
+Mr. Nugent eyed him for a space in speechless amazement, and then, with a
+few strong remarks on ingratitude and senile vanity, mounted the winding
+little stairs and went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+The day after Mr. Silk's sudden and unexpected assertion of his marital
+rights Mr. Kybird stood in the doorway of his shop, basking in the sun.
+The High Street was in a state of post-prandial repose, and there was no
+likelihood of a customer to interfere with his confidential chat with Mr.
+Nathan Smith, who was listening with an aspect of great severity to his
+explanations.
+
+"It ought not to 'ave happened," he said, sharply.  "It was Teddy done
+it," said Mr. Kybird, humbly.
+
+[Illustration: "'It was Teddy done it,' said Mr. Kybird, humbly."]
+
+Mr. Smith shrugged his shoulders.  "It wouldn't 'ave happened if I'd been
+there," he observed, arrogantly.
+
+"I don't see 'ow" began Mr. Kybird.
+
+"No, o' course you don't," said his friend.  "Still, it's no use making a
+fuss now.  The thing is done.  One thing is, I don't suppose it'll make
+any diff----"
+
+"Difference," suggested Mr. Kybird, after waiting for him to finish.
+
+"Difference," said Mr. Smith, with an obvious effort.  His face had lost
+its scornful expression and given way to one almost sheepish in its
+mildness.  Mr. Kybird, staring at him in some surprise, even thought that
+he detected a faint shade of pink.
+
+"We ain't all as clever as wot you are, Nat," he said, somewhat taken
+aback at this phenomenon.  "It wouldn't do."
+
+Mr. Smith made a strange noise in his throat and turned on him sharply.
+Mr. Kybird, still staring in surprise at his unwonted behaviour, drew
+back a little, and then his lips parted and his eyes grew round as he saw
+the cause of his friend's concern.  An elderly gentleman with a neatly
+trimmed white beard and a yellow rose in his button-hole was just passing
+on the other side of the road.  His tread was elastic, his figure as
+upright as a boy's, and he swung a light cane in his hand as he walked.
+As Mr. Kybird gazed he bestowed a brisk nod upon the bewildered Mr.
+Smith, and crossed the road with the evident intention of speaking to
+him.
+
+"How do, Smith?" he said, in a kindly voice.
+
+The boarding-master leaned against the shop-window and regarded him
+dumbly.  There was a twinkle in the shipbroker's eyes which irritated him
+almost beyond endurance, and in the doorway Mr. Kybird--his face mottled
+with the intensity of his emotions--stood an unwelcome and frantic
+witness of his shame.
+
+"You're not well, Smith?" said Mr. Swann, shaking his head at him gently.
+"You look like a man who has been doing too much brain-work lately.
+You've been getting the better of some-body, I know."
+
+Mr. Smith gasped and, eyeing him wickedly, strove hard to recover his
+self-possession.
+
+"I'm all right, sir," he said, in a thin voice.  "I'm glad to see you're
+looking a trifle better, sir."
+
+"Oh, I'm quite right, now," said the other, with a genial smile at the
+fermenting Mr. Kybird.  "I'm as well as ever I was.  Illness is a serious
+thing, Smith, but it is not without its little amusements."
+
+Mr. Smith, scratching his smooth-shaven chin and staring blankly in front
+of him, said that he was glad to hear it.
+
+"I've had a long bout of it," continued the ship-broker, "longer than I
+intended at first.  By the way, Smith, you've never spoken to anybody of
+that business, of course?"
+
+"Of course not, sir," said the boarding-master, grinding his teeth.
+
+"One has fancies when one is ill," said Mr. Swann, in low tones, as his
+eye dwelt with pleasure on the strained features of Mr. Kybird.  "I burnt
+the document five minutes after you had gone."
+
+"Did you, reely?" said Mr. Smith, mechanically.
+
+"I'm glad it was only you and the doctor that saw my foolishness,"
+continued the other, still in a low voice.  "Other people might have
+talked, but I knew that you were a reliable man, Smith.  And you won't
+talk about it in the future, I'm quite certain of that.  Good afternoon."
+
+Mr. Smith managed to say, "Good afternoon," and stood watching the
+receding figure as though it belonged to a species hitherto unknown to
+him.  Then he turned, in obedience to a passionate tug at his coat sleeve
+from Mr. Kybird.
+
+"Wot 'ave you got to say for yourself?" demanded that injured person, in
+tones of suppressed passion.  "Wot do you mean by it?  You've made a
+pretty mess of it with your cleverness."
+
+"Wonderful old gentleman, ain't he?" said the discomfited Mr. Smith.
+"Fancy 'im getting the better o' me.  Fancy me being 'ad.  I took it all
+in as innercent as you please."
+
+"Ah, you're a clever fellow, you are," said Mr. Kybird, bitterly.
+"'Ere's Amelia lost young Nugent and 'is five 'undred all through you.
+It's a got-up thing between old Swann and the Nugent lot, that's wot it
+is."
+
+"Looks like it," admitted Mr. Smith; "but fancy 'is picking me out for
+'is games.  That's wot gets over me."
+
+"Wot about all that money I paid for the license?"  demanded Mr. Kybird,
+in a threatening manner.  "Wot are you going to do about it?"
+
+"You shall 'ave it," said the boarding-master, with sudden blandness,
+"and 'Melia shall 'ave 'er five 'undred."
+
+"'Ow?" inquired the other, staring.
+
+"It's as easy as easy," said Mr. Smith, who had been greatly galled by
+his friend's manner.  "I'll leave it in my will.  That's the cheapest way
+o' giving money I know of.  And while I'm about it I'll leave you a
+decent pair o' trousers and a shirt with your own name on it."
+
+While an ancient friendship was thus being dissolved, Mr. Adolphus Swann
+was on the way to his office.  He could never remember such a pleasant
+air from the water and such a vivid enjoyment in the sight of the
+workaday world.  He gazed with delight at the crowd of miscellaneous
+shipping in the harbour and the bustling figures on the quay, only
+pausing occasionally to answer anxious inquiries concerning his health
+from seafaring men in tarry trousers, who had waylaid him with great
+pains from a distance.
+
+He reached his office at last, and, having acknowledged the respectful
+greetings of Mr. Silk, passed into the private room, and celebrated his
+return to work by at once arranging with his partner for a substantial
+rise in the wages of that useful individual.
+
+"My conscience is troubling me," he declared, as he hung up his hat and
+gazed round the room with much relish.
+
+"Silk is happy enough," said Hardy.  "It is the best thing that could
+have happened to him."
+
+"I should like to raise everybody's wages," said the benevolent Mr.
+Swann, as he seated himself at his desk.  "Everything is like a holiday
+to me after being cooped up in that bedroom; but the rest has done me a
+lot of good, so Blaikie says.  And now what is going to happen to you?"
+
+[Illustration: "Pausing occasionally to answer anxious inquiries."]
+
+Hardy shook his head.
+
+"Strike while the iron is hot," said the ship-broker.  "Go and see
+Captain Nugent before he has got used to the situation.  And you can give
+him to understand, if you like (only be careful how you do it), that I
+have got something in view which may suit his son.  If you fail in this
+affair after all I've done for you, I'll enter the lists myself."
+
+The advice was good, but unnecessary, Mr. Hardy having already fixed on
+that evening as a suitable opportunity to disclose to the captain the
+nature of the efforts he had been making on his behalf.  The success
+which had attended them had put him into a highly optimistic mood, and he
+set off for Equator Lodge with the confident feeling that he had, to say
+the least of it, improved his footing there.
+
+Captain Nugent, called away from his labours in the garden, greeted his
+visitor in his customary short manner as he entered the room.  "If you've
+come to tell me about this marriage, I've heard of it," he said, bluntly.
+"Murchison told me this afternoon."
+
+"He didn't tell you how it was brought about, I suppose?" said Hardy.
+
+The captain shook his head.  "I didn't ask him," he said, with affected
+indifference, and sat gazing out at the window as Hardy began his
+narration.  Two or three times he thought he saw signs of appreciation in
+his listener's face, but the mouth under the heavy moustache was firm and
+the eyes steady.  Only when he related Swann's interview with Nathan
+Smith and Kybird did the captain's features relax.  He gave a chuckling
+cough and, feeling for his handkerchief, blew his nose violently.  Then,
+with a strange gleam in his eye, he turned to the young man opposite.
+
+"Very smart," he said, shortly.
+
+"It was successful," said the other, modestly.
+
+"Very," said the captain, as he rose and confronted him.  "I am much
+obliged, of course, for the trouble you have taken in the affairs of my
+family.  And now I will remind you of our agreement."
+
+"Agreement?" repeated the other.
+
+The captain nodded.  "Your visits to me were to cease when this marriage
+happened, if I wished it," he said, slowly.
+
+"That was the arrangement," said the dumb-founded Hardy, "but I had
+hoped----.  Besides, it has all taken place much sooner than I had
+anticipated."
+
+"That was the bargain," said the captain, stiffly.  "And now I'll bid you
+good-day."
+
+"I am sorry that my presence should be so distasteful to you," said the
+mortified Hardy.
+
+"Distasteful, sir?" said the captain, sternly.  "You have forced yourself
+on me for twice a week for some time past.  You have insisted upon
+talking on every subject under the sun, whether I liked it or not.  You
+have taken every opportunity of evading my wishes that you should not see
+my daughter, and you wonder that I object to you.  For absolute
+brazenness you beat anything I have ever encountered."
+
+"I am sorry," said Hardy, again.
+
+"Good evening," said the captain
+
+"Good evening."
+
+Crestfallen and angry Hardy moved to the door, pausing with his hand on
+it as the captain spoke again.
+
+"One word more," said the older man, gazing at him oddly as he stroked
+his grey beard; "if ever you try to come bothering me with your talk
+again I'll forbid you the house."
+
+"Forbid me the house?" repeated the astonished Hardy.
+
+"That's what I said," replied the other; "that's plain English, isn't
+it?"
+
+Hardy looked at him in bewilderment; then, as the captain's meaning
+dawned upon him, he stepped forward impulsively and, seizing his hand,
+began to stammer out incoherent thanks.
+
+"You'd better clear before I alter my mind," said Captain Nugent,
+roughly.  "I've had more than enough of you.  Try the garden, if you
+like."
+
+He took up a paper from the table and resumed his seat, not without
+a grim smile at the promptitude with which the other obeyed his
+instructions.
+
+Miss Nugent, reclining in a deck-chair at the bottom of the garden,
+looked up as she heard Hardy's footstep on the gravel.  It was a
+surprising thing to see him walking down the garden; it was still more
+surprising to observe the brightness of his eye and the easy confidence
+of his bearing.  It was evident that he was highly pleased with himself,
+and she was not satisfied until she had ascertained the reason.  Then she
+sat silent, reflecting bitterly on the clumsy frankness of the male sex
+in general and fathers in particular.  A recent conversation with the
+captain, in which she had put in a casual word or two in Hardy's favour,
+was suddenly invested with a new significance.
+
+"I shall never be able to repay your father for his kindness," said
+Hardy, meaningly, as he took a chair near her.
+
+"I expect he was pleased at this marriage," said Miss Nugent, coldly.
+"How did it happen?"
+
+Mr. Hardy shifted uneasily in his chair.  "There isn't much to tell," he
+said, reluctantly; "and you--you might not approve of the means by which
+the end was gained."
+
+"Still, I want to hear about it," said Miss Nugent.
+
+For the second time that evening Hardy told his story.  It seemed more
+discreditable each time he told it, and he scanned the girl's face
+anxiously as he proceeded, but, like her father, she sat still and made
+no comment until he had finished.  Then she expressed a strong feeling of
+gratitude that the Nugent family had not been mixed up in it.
+
+"Why?" inquired Hardy, bluntly.
+
+"I don't think it was a very nice thing to do," said Miss Nugent, with a
+superior air.
+
+"It wouldn't have been a very nice thing for you if your brother had
+married Miss Kybird," said the indignant Jem.  "And you said, if you
+remember, that you didn't mind what I did."
+
+"I don't," said Miss Nugent, noticing with pleasure that the confident
+air of a few minutes ago had quite disappeared.
+
+"You think I have been behaving badly?" pursued Hardy.
+
+"I would rather not say what I think," replied Miss Nugent, loftily.
+"I have no doubt you meant well, and I should be sorry to hurt your
+feelings."
+
+"Thank you," said Hardy, and sat gloomily gazing about him.  For some
+time neither of them spoke.
+
+"Where is Jack now?" inquired the girl, at last.  "He is staying with me
+for a few days," said Hardy.  "I sincerely hope that the association will
+not be injurious to him."
+
+"Are you trying to be rude to me?" inquired Miss Nugent, raising her
+clear eyes to his.
+
+"I am sorry," said Hardy, hastily.  "You are quite right, of course.  It
+was not a nice thing to do, but I would do a thousand times worse to
+please you."
+
+Miss Nugent thanked him warmly; he seemed to understand her so well, she
+said.
+
+"I mean," said Hardy, leaning forward and speaking with a vehemence which
+made the girl instinctively avert her head--"I mean that to please you
+would be the greatest happiness I could know.  I love you."
+
+Miss Nugent sat silent, and a strong sense of the monstrous unfairness of
+such a sudden attack possessed her.  Such a declaration she felt ought to
+have been led up to by numerous delicate gradations of speech, each a
+little more daring than the last, but none so daring that they could not
+have been checked at any time by the exercise of a little firmness.
+
+"If you would do anything to please me," she said at length in a low
+voice, and without turning her head, "would you promise never to try and
+see me or speak to me again if I asked you?"
+
+"No," said Hardy, promptly.
+
+Miss Nugent sat silent again.  She knew that a good woman should be sorry
+for a man in such extremity, and should endeavour to spare his feelings
+by softening her refusal as much as possible, little as he might deserve
+such consideration.  But man is impatient and jumps at conclusions.
+Before she was half-way through the first sentence he leaned forward and
+took her hand.
+
+"Oh, good-bye," she said, turning to him, with a pleasant smile.
+
+"I am not going," said Hardy, quietly; "I am never going," he added, as
+he took her other hand.
+
+
+Captain Nugent, anxious for his supper, found them there still debating
+the point some two hours later.  Kate Nugent, relieved at the appearance
+of her natural protector, clung to him with unusual warmth.  Then, in a
+kindly, hospitable fashion, she placed her other arm in that of Hardy,
+and they walked in grave silence to the house.
+
+[Illustration: "She placed her other arm in that of Hardy."]
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At Sunwich Port, Part 5., by W.W. Jacobs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10875 ***