CHAPTER CXCII.

MRS. MORTIMER IN LONDON AGAIN.

“This is really most fortunate, my lords!” exclaimed the old woman,

as she entered with a smirking countenance and a self-sufficient air.

“I wished to see you both as early as convenient this morning--and,

behold! I find you together. How is the pretty Agnes? Has not your

lordship discovered that I told you the truth, when I referred you

to this house for information respecting her?” she inquired, turning

towards the Marquis.

“Yes, madam,” he exclaimed, hastily: “and as I shall proceed direct

hence to my bankers, to instruct them relative to certain cheques which

I recently gave in Paris, you may present your draft in the course of

the day with the certainty of receiving the amount. I presume that it

was for this purpose you desired to see me!”

“Precisely so, my lord,” responded the old woman, scarcely able to

conceal the boundless joy which she now experienced: for the Marquis

had given her precisely the very information which she was anxious to

obtain--namely, _that his banker would in the course of the day be

directed to cash the various cheques he had recently given when in

Paris!_

“And what business can you possibly have to transact with me, madam?”

demanded Lord William Trevelyan, in a tone of the most chilling hauteur.

“I thought of doing your lordship a service,” answered Mrs. Mortimer;

“and yet the manner in which I am received, is but a sorry recompense

for my good intentions.”

“To speak candidly, madam,” said the young noble, “I mistrust your

intentions and do not require your services.”

“It is true enough that the presence of the Marquis here has

forestalled the purport of my own visit,” observed Mrs. Mortimer,

secretly enjoying the vexation which she evidently caused Lord William

by remaining in the room. “But I may as well prove to you that those

intentions which you affect to mistrust, were really good; and

therefore I will at once inform your lordship that I came to relate

to you all that took place between the Marquis and me in Paris three

days ago. For I thought that I might as well prepare you for a visit on

the part of my Lord Delmour; and I was in hopes of being the first to

reveal to you the high birth of the young lady whom you had believed to

be plain _Agnes Vernon_.”

“For which officiousness you would have expected a handsome

remuneration,” said Lord William, with a contemptuous curling of the

lip. “No--madam: you will not obtain a single guinea from me! I can

read your character thoroughly--and, grieved as I am to be compelled to

address a female in so harsh a manner, I must nevertheless beg you to

relieve me of your presence as speedily as possible.”

“I have no wish to intrude myself any longer upon your lordships,”

observed Mrs. Mortimer; and, with a respectful curtsey to the Marquis

and a stiff inclination of the head to Trevelyan, she took her

departure.

“And now, my lord,” said the impatient Marquis, “that we are relieved

of the company of that despicable woman--for in no other light can I

regard her--may I solicit your decision in the important matter that

yet remains to be settled?”

“It grieves me--believe me, my dear Marquis, it pains me to keep you in

suspense,” returned Trevelyan: “but on one side my inclination prompts

me to act in accordance with your wishes--on the other, my word is

pledged to retain the abode of--of----”

“Mrs. Sefton,” interrupted the old nobleman, hastily.

“To retain the address of that lady a profound secret,” added

Trevelyan. “But this much I will promise--this much I will

undertake:--without delay to repair to Mrs. Sefton and urge her to

deliver up Lady Agnes to your care. I have that confidence in her

rectitude of principle, which induces me to hope for success when I

shall have placed the entire matter before her in its proper light.”

“With this assurance I must rest contented for the present,” observed

the Marquis. “But hear the resolution to which I have come,” he

continued, rising from his seat, and speaking in a tone of excitement.

“Hitherto I have done all I could--aye, and far more than the

generality of injured husbands would have done--to cast a veil over

the unhappy circumstances which I have this morning related to you.

But should she refuse to deliver up my daughter to my care--should she

entrench herself behind the decision of the Chancery Court--I shall

then remain peaceable no longer. It shall be war--open war--between her

and me. I will appeal to the tribunals of my country--I will apply to

the Ecclesiastical Court and the House of Lords for a divorce--and I

will adopt the necessary proceedings and furnish the proper evidence to

induce the Lord Chancellor to deprive the erring mother of the care of

her child. Such is my determination, Lord William--and you may use the

menace, which is no idle one, to bring that woman to reason.”

With these words the Marquis pressed the hand of the young nobleman,

and took his leave hastily.

Mrs. Mortimer, who was seated in a cab at a little distance, watching

for the departure of the Marquis, beheld him enter his carriage, which

immediately drove away; and the humbler vehicle was thereupon directed

to follow the more imposing equipage.

The carriage proceeded into the Strand, and stopped at the door of an

eminent banking-house, which the Marquis entered.

Mrs. Mortimer, having dogged him thither, alighted at a little distance

and dismissed the cab.

She watched the old nobleman come forth again; and then she repaired to

a coffee-house in the neighbourhood where she ordered some refreshment

to be served up in a private room. She likewise demanded writing

materials; and when she was left to herself, she drew forth the cheque

for six hundred pounds which the Marquis of Delmour had given her.

“Now for the grand blow,” she thought within herself, as she carefully

examined the draft: “and it must be struck boldly, too! But the aim is

worth all the risk:--sixty thousand pounds or transportation--those

are the alternatives! I have been possessed of enough money in my life

to know how sweet it is--and I have seen enough of transportation to

be well aware how bitter it is! And the former is so sweet that it

is worth while chancing all the bitters of the latter to obtain it.

Besides--apart from the delicious feeling of having a vast fortune

at my command--how delightful will it be to over-reach the haughty

Perdita--or Laura, as she chooses to call herself!”

And here the old woman’s lips curled into a contemptuous sneer.

“I have hitherto managed matters cleverly enough,” she continued in

her musings. “Ah! hah! Lord William Trevelyan thought that I called

upon him either to gratify some idle curiosity or to extort money. He

little suspected my drift! It was to see whether the Marquis had been

to him--to learn whether my information had been found correct--to

ascertain whether I might present the draft at the bankers’. And then

the old Marquis himself!--it was lucky that I found him there--I was

saved the trouble of calling at his mansion to worm out of him whether

he had instructed his bankers to pay the cheque,--not _my_ paltry draft

for six hundred--but Perdita’s grand amount of sixty thousand! In all

this I succeeded admirably: and now for the desperate venture.”

Having thus communed with herself, Mrs. Mortimer partook of a little

refreshment; for she was anxious to while away an hour before she went

to the bank, so as not to present herself too soon after the visit of

the Marquis of Delmour to the establishment.

When she had eaten and drank as drunk as much as she cared for, she

addressed herself to the grand project which she had in view, and in

furtherance of which she had demanded the private room and the writing

materials at the coffee-house.

The writing of the Marquis was execrably bad; and it was not a very

difficult matter to add _ty_ to the _six_, and transform the word

_hundred_ into _thousand_, in the body of the cheque; while the simple

addition of 00 to the 600_l._ written in figures in the corner,

completed the forgery.

The cheque, therefore, now stood for _sixty thousand pounds_, instead

of _six hundred_, payable to _bearer_, no particular name being

mentioned as the intended recipient.

When the old woman had thus transformed the document, a glow of triumph

animated her hideous countenance: but in a few moments a chill--a cold,

creeping tremor came over her--as if a clammy snake were gradually

coiling itself around her form, underneath her clothes;--for she

remembered all the sensations which she had experienced when she

committed the forgery of Sir Henry Courtenay’s name nineteen years

previously!

By a desperate effort the old woman shook off the painful feeling that

thus influenced her; and, resolving to allow herself no more leisure

for reflection, _lest her thoughts should make a coward of her_,

she rang the bell--paid the trifling amount incurred--and took her

departure from the coffee-house.

During her walk to the bank, which was close at hand, she rapidly

calculated in her mind all the chances of success. The Marquis had

unquestionably been thither to give instructions relative to the

draft held by Laura as well as that which had been given to herself;

and there was not the slightest reason to fear that her daughter had

followed so closely on her steps from Paris as to have been able to

visit the bank during the hour that had just elapsed. As for the

excellence of the forgery--or rather of the alterations, Mrs. Mortimer

entertained no apprehension on that score; and thus, all things

considered, she deemed failure to be impossible.

With an apparent outward composure, but with a palpitating heart, the

old woman entered the bank, and presented her cheque to one of the

clerks. He surveyed it narrowly--took it into the private office,

or parlour, doubtless to submit it to one of the proprietors of the

establishment or some responsible person--and remained away upwards of

two minutes.

Two minutes!--but that interval was an age--a perfect age in the

imagination of the old woman! It was an interval composed of such

intense feelings that the hair of a young person might have turned

suddenly grey,--feelings of such burning hope and such awful suspense,

of such profound terror and fervid expectation, that while molten lead

appeared to drop upon one side of her heart, ice seemed to lay upon the

other!

At length the clerk came back; and Mrs. Mortimer darted a

rapid--searching--penetrating glance at his countenance.

Nothing save respect and civility could she trace thereon: and she

instantly knew that she was safe!

Then came such a revulsion of feeling--such a subsiding of the terrors

and such an exaltation of the hopes which she had conceived--that it

was as if she were shooting upwards from the profundity of a deluge of

dark waters and suddenly breathed the fresh air again and beheld the

bright sun and the smiling heavens overhead.

The clerk proceeded to count out bank-notes for the sum specified

in the cheque; and as he handed the fortune--yes, literally a

fortune--over to the old woman, he considerately gave her a caution to

take care of the vile characters who frequently lurked about the doors

of banking-houses.

Mrs. Mortimer thanked the clerk for his well-meant advice, and sallied

forth from the establishment, with a heart so elate that she could

scarcely believe in the success of the tremendous fraud, now that it

had passed triumphantly through the ordeal.

But as she was crossing the threshold, she heard a name suddenly

mentioned; and, hastily turning her head, she found herself face to

face with Jack Rily, the Doctor!