第160章

On that very day Sir Thomas started for Ostend, and reached the place about two o'clock. Captain Batsby and Gertrude had arrived only during the previous night, and Gertrude, as she had been very sick was still in bed. Captain Batsby was not in bed. Captain Batsby had been engaged since an early hour in the morning looking for that respectable clergyman of the Church of England of whose immediate services he stood in need. By the time that Sir Thomas had reached Ostend he had found that no such clergyman was known in the place. There was a regular English clergyman who would be very happy to marry him -- and to accept the usual fees --after the due performance of certain preliminaries as ordained by the law, and as usual at Ostend. The lady, no doubt, could be married at Ostend, after such preliminaries -- as she might have been married also in England. All this was communicated by the Captain to Gertrude -- who was still very unwell -- at her bedroom door. Her conduct during this trying time was quite beyond reproach -- and also his -- as Captain Batsby afterwards took an opportunity of assuring her father.

"What on earth, Sir, is the meaning of all this?" said Sir Thomas, encountering the man who was not his son-in-law in the sitting-room of the hotel.

"I have just run away with your daughter, Sir Thomas. That is the simple truth.""And I have got the trouble of taking her back again.""I have behaved like a gentleman through it all, Sir Thomas,"said the Captain, thus defending his own character and the lady's.

"You have behaved like a fool. What on earth am I to think of it, Sir? You were asked down to my house because you gave me to understand that you proposed to ask my niece, Miss Dormer, to be your wife; and now you have run away with my daughter.

Is that behaviour like a gentleman?"

"I must explain myself."

"Well, Sir?" Captain Batsby found the explanation very difficu

"Oh dear no. What I said then was quite true. It was my intention.

But -- but -- ." The perspiration broke out upon the unhappy man's brow as the great immediate trouble of his situation became clear to him. "There was no lie -- no lie at all. I beg to assure you, Sir Thomas, that I am not a man to tell a lie.""How has it all been, then?"

"When I found how very superior a person your daughter was!""It isn't a month since she was engaged to somebody else," said the angry father, forgetting all propriety in his indignation.

"Gertrude?" demanded Captain Batsby.

"You are two fools. So you gave up my niece?""Oh dear yes, altogether. She didn't come to Merle Park, you know. How was I to say anything to her when you didn't have her there?""Why didn't you go away then, instead of remaining under a false pretence? Or why, at any rate, didn't you tell me the truth?""And what would you have me to do now?" asked Captain Batsby.

"Go to the d -- " said Sir Thomas, as he left the room, and went to his daughter's chamber.

Gertrude had heard that her father was in the house, and endeavoured to hurry herself into her clothes while the interview was going on between him and her father. But she was not yet perfectly arrayed when her father burst into her room. "Oh, papa," she said, going down on her knees, "you do mean to forgive us?""I mean to do nothing of the kind. I mean to carry you home and have you locked up.""But we may be married!"