VC -- A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea | Page 9

half a minute, anyhow? 'asked Jervase, who
was glad of a chance to recover a seeming of composure for himself
under the shelter of a pretended anger. 'Why didn't you give somebody
the word in place of leaving a valuable beast like that wandering about
in a tempest?
'I don't know,' James answered, as feebly as ever. 'I was in a hurry to
get in.'
At this his cousin's temper broke altogether, or he was willing to relieve
the tension of his own mind by allowing it to seem as if it did so.

'Of all the funking, skunking, silly cowardly devils----'
The General took him by the arm with a commanding grip.
'You forget, my good Jervase, you forget--my daughter is present, and
she is not accustomed to have her ears assailed by that sort of
language.'
'I beg your pardon,' said Jervase, suddenly cooling down. 'I beg ten
thousand pardons--I beg Miss Irene's pardon most of all. I forgot
myself, and I apologise.'
He bowed to the girl and fell to pacing up and down the room, casting
glances of wrath at the messenger of ill news.
The General, fearing a new outburst, turned to the old lady with his
courtliest air.
'We are all a little agitated for the moment by the strange tidings Mr.
Jervoyce has brought us, and they involve some matters of business
about which it will be better for us to hold a consultation between
ourselves. Will you be so very kind as to take Irene elsewhere for a
little while? 'His voice and manner were perfectly composed, and his
face lit up with one of his rare sweet smiles as he added: 'I do not
believe, my dear Mrs. Jervase, that I have ever, in the whole course of
my three-score years, so far transgressed as to drive a lady from her
own parlour, until now.'
'We will go,' said Mrs. Jervase, and the General stepping to the door
threw it open, and stood for his hostess and his daughter to go by. Irene
looked first at young Polson Jervase with a glance of fear and inquiry,
and the young fellow responded to it only by a curt nod of the head, as
much as to say 'Go! 'She looked into her father's face as she passed
through the doorway, and the old man smiled down on her
reassuringly.
'This will all be over in a few minutes, dear,' he said, 'and then I will
send for you.' He closed the door gently, and tinned to face the trio in

the room.
'I have apologised to the ladies,' said Jervase, 'already; but I owe an
apology to you, General. I'm very sorry that my temper carried me back
to my old seafaring manners; but,' with a savage look at his cousin, 'a
coward's my loathing. I hate the sight of a coward worse than I hate the
smell of a rotten egg.'
'Let us try to understand things,' said the General. 'Mr. James has
brought his tidings in such a manner that they are evidently very
serious to his mind. Had he brought them coolly I should have smiled
at them. As it is, I think we must come to an explanation.'
'Certainly, General,' Jervase answered. 'Let us come to an explanation.
Get on, James. Who's this suborned rascal you have been telling us
about?'
James began to pull off his dripping overcoat, which by this time had
left a little pond of water on the carpet round about him, and to fumble
in the inner breast pocket of it. 'There are three of them,' he answered,
and for a while he said no more. The General looked from him to John
Jervase, and back again, and if his face were at all an index to his mind,
he saw something which did not please him. His stooping shoulders
straightened, and one hand went up to stroke the grey moustache. His
brows straightened, his mild grey-blue eye grew stern, and his mouth
was ruled into a straight line. The fact was that the General had had an
almost lifelong experience in the great art of reading men, and though
he had preserved a child-like simplicity in his dealings with the world,
the fact was due a thousand times more to the charity of his heart than
to any want of penetration. He was one of those who suspect nothing
until suspicion is actually shaken awake, and who then see with a
piercing clearness signs which would escape many who pride
themselves upon their shrewdness. And when James Jervoyce faltered
out the words, 'There are three of them! 'John Jervase gave a start and a
look which indicated an instant understanding.
'He knows those three,' said General Boswell to himself.

'De Blacquaire's lawyer gave me their