Lupex turned round to Miss Spruce with a sardonic grin. "You hear his words,—this enemy to domestic bliss,— Ha, ha! man, tell me whither you have conveyed my wife!"
"If you were to give me the Bank of England I don't know," said Cradell.
"And I'm sure he does not know," said Mrs Roper, whose suspicions against Cradell were beginning to subside. But as her suspicions subsided, her respect for him decreased. Such was the case also with Miss Spruce, and with Amelia, and with Jemima. They had all thought him to be a great fool for running away with Mrs Lupex, but now they were beginning to think him a poor creature because he had not done so. Had he committed that active folly he would have been an interesting fool. But now, if, as they all suspected, he knew no more about Mrs Lupex than they did, he would be a fool without any special interest whatever.
"Of course he doesn't," said Eames.
"No more than I do," said Amelia.
"His very looks show him innocent," said Mrs Roper.
"Indeed they do," said Miss Spruce.
Lupex turned from one to the other as they thus defended the man whom he suspected, and shook his head at each assertion that was made. "And if he doesn't know who does?" he asked. "Haven't I seen it all for the last three months? Is it reasonable to suppose that a creature such as she, used to domestic comforts all her life, should have gone off in this way, at dinner-time, taking with her my property and all her jewels, and that nobody should have instigated her; nobody assisted her! Is that a story to tell to such a man as me! You may tell it to the marines!" Mr Lupex, as he made this speech, was walking about the room, and as he finished it he threw his pocket-handkerchief with violence on to the floor. "I know what to do, Mrs Roper," he said. "I know what steps to take. I shall put the affair into the hands of my lawyer to-morrow morning." Then he picked up his handkerchief and walked down into the dining-room.
"Of course you know nothing about it?" said Eames to his friend, having run upstairs for the purpose of saying a word to him while he washed his hands.
"What,—about Maria? I don't know where she is, if you mean that."
"Of course I mean that. What else should I mean? And what makes you call her Maria?"
"It is wrong. I admit it's wrong. The word will come out, you know."
"Will come out! I'll tell you what it is, old fellow, you'll get yourself into a mess, and all for nothing. That fellow will have you up before the police for stealing his things—"
"But, Johnny—"
"I know all about it. Of course you have not stolen them, and of course there was nothing to steal. But if you go on calling her Maria you'll find that he'll have a pull on you. Men don't call other men's wives names for nothing."
"Of course we've been friends," said Cradell, who rather liked this view of the matter.
"Yes,—you have been friends! She's diddled you out of your money, and that's the beginning and the end of it. And now, if you go on showing off your friendship, you'll be done out of more money. You're making an ass of yourself. That's the long and the short of it."
"And what have you made of yourself with that girl? There are worse asses than I am yet, Master Johnny." Eames, as he had no answer ready to this counter attack, left the room and went downstairs. Cradell soon followed him, and in a few minutes they were all eating their dinner together at Mrs Roper's hospitable table.
Immediately after dinner Lupex took himself away, and the conversation upstairs became general on the subject of the lady's departure.
"If I was him I'd never ask a question about her, but let her go," said Amelia.
"Yes; and then have all her bills following you, wherever you went," said Amelia's brother.
"I'd sooner have her bills than herself," said Eames.
"My belief is, that she's been an ill-used woman," said Cradell. "If she had a husband that she could respect and have loved, and all that sort of thing, she would have been a charming woman."
"She's every bit as bad as he is," said Mrs Roper.
"I can't agree with you, Mrs Roper," continued the lady's champion. "Perhaps I ought to understand her position better than any one here, and—"
"Then that's just what you ought not to do, Mr Cradell," said Mrs Roper. And now the lady of the house spoke out her mind with much maternal dignity and with some feminine severity. "That's just what a young man like you has no business to know. What's a married woman like that to you, or you to her; or what have you to do with understanding her position? When you've a wife of your own, if ever you do have one, you'll find you'll have trouble enough then without anybody else interfering with you. Not but what I believe you're innocent as a lamb about Mrs Lupex; that is, as far as any harm goes. But you've got yourself into all this trouble by meddling, and was like enough to get yourself choked upstairs by that man. And who's to wonder when you go on pretending to be in love with a woman in that way, and she old enough to be your mother? What would your mamma say if she saw you at it?"
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Cradell.
"It's all very well your laughing, but I hate such folly. If I see a young man in love with a young woman, I respect him for it;" and then she looked at Johnny Eames. "I respect him for it,—even though he may now and then do things as he shouldn't. They most of 'em does that. But to see a young man like you, Mr Cradell, dangling after an old married woman, who doesn't know how to behave herself; and all just because she lets him to do it;—ugh!—an old broomstick with a petticoat on would do just as well! It makes me sick to see it, and that's the truth of it. I don't call it manly; and it ain't manly, is it, Miss Spruce?"
"Of course I know nothing about it," said the lady to whom the appeal was thus made. "But a young gentleman should keep himself to himself till the time comes for him to speak out,—begging your pardon all the same, Mr Cradell."
"I don't see what a married woman should want with any one after her but her own husband," said Amelia.
"And perhaps not always that," said John Eames.
It was about an hour after this when the front-door bell was rung, and a scream from Jemima announced to them all that some critical moment had arrived. Amelia, jumping up, opened the door, and then the rustle of a woman's dress was heard on the lower stairs. "Oh, laws, ma'am, you have given us sich a turn," said Jemima. "We all thought you was run away."
"It's Mrs Lupex," said Amelia. And in two minutes more that ill-used lady was in the room.
"Well, my dears," said she, gaily, "I hope nobody has waited dinner."
"No; we didn't wait dinner," said Mrs Roper, very gravely.
"And where's my Orson? Didn't he dine at home? Mr Cradell, will you oblige me by taking my shawl? But perhaps you had better not. People are so censorious; ain't they, Miss Spruce? Mr Eames shall do it; and everybody knows that that will be quite safe. Won't it, Miss Amelia?"
"Quite, I should think," said Amelia. And Mrs Lupex knew that she was not to look for an ally in that quarter on the present occasion. Eames got up to take the shawl, and Mrs Lupex went on.
"And didn't Orson dine at home? Perhaps they kept him down at the theatre. But I've been thinking all day what fun it would be when he thought his bird was flown."
"He did dine at home," said Mrs Roper; "and he didn't seem to like it. There wasn't much fun, I can assure you."
"Ah, wasn't there, though? I believe that man would like to have me tied to his button-hole. I came across a few friends,—lady friends, Mr Cradell, though two of them had their husbands; so we made a party, and just went down to Hampton Court. So my gentleman has gone again, has he? That's what I get for gadding about myself, isn't it, Miss Spruce?"
Mrs Roper, as she went to bed that night, made up her mind that, whatever might be the cost and trouble of doing so, she would lose no further time in getting rid of her married guests.