Jack Harkaway in New York; or, The Adventures of the Travelers' Club
Page 17
CHAPTER XVII.
JACK MAKES A LAST APPEAL.
It was the morning appointed for the marriage.
Harkaway was miserable and disconsolate.
He had not seen Mr. Mole since the day before, and had only heard thathe was hurt and had been taken to the hospital.
So he said to Harvey: "Morris Hart tells me that old Mole got his legbroken playing base-ball. I suppose it is not very serious or we shouldhave heard from him. Won't you go and see him, Dick?"
"Certainly," replied Harvey.
Scarcely had he gone, when Alfred Van Hoosen came in. Jack eagerlygrasped his hand.
"Will she see me?" he asked.
"Yes. I have sufficient influence over her to induce her to do that,"was the reply. "I have induced her to consent to breakfast with us atthe Brunswick."
They quitted the house together and Jack went on to the Brunswick,while Alfred Van Hoosen engaged a carriage to go to the house and bringhis sister.
It was in a private room that Jack awaited their coming. Slowly passedthe minutes.
At length there was a rustle of silk, that indescribable _frou-frou_which the skirts of a woman always make, and Lena Van Hoosen, lookingpale and with traces of tears on her cheeks entered.
"Lena!" exclaimed Jack.
She extended her hand which Jack grasped warmly.
"I have come at the solicitation of my brother," she replied, "to bidyou farewell."
"Forever?" he asked.
"Yes. I thought I owed this much to you, but I wish it understood thatwe can only meet in future as strangers.
"I am to be married to Lord Maltravers. It is against my will, I admitthat--"
"Oh! Lena," interrupted her brother, passionately. "You alwaysprofessed some liking for me. Why will you persist in this ill-advisedmatch?"
"Simply because it is my duty. My mother insists upon it. I sacrificemy inclination and my love."
It was evident from her manner and appearance that the poor girl wassuffering terribly.
"Is there no hope for me?" asked Jack, as he choked back a sob.
"None," she answered in a stony voice. "Learn to forget me."
"I cannot do it. I have every reason to believe that I have beensomething to you. Can you so easily forget me?"
She dared not look him in the face.
"Do not ask me," she said. "I have come at your wish and my brother'sto wish you farewell."
At this moment an organ in the street began to play a funereal dirge,and it sounded like the knell of all his hopes.
Alfred offered his arm to his sister and they passed out together.
For some time Jack remained in an attitude of passive despair, then hewalked down-stairs.
In his preoccupied state, he did not see where he was going, and in thecorridor he pushed against a man.
The man was Lord Maltravers who had come there to breakfast.
"Harkaway," said his lordship.
"Yes, and your enemy," was the reply.
"I know it, my good fellow, and I'm proud of it."
"Don't call me your 'good fellow,'" said Jack, while the blood rushedto his face.
"I shall call you what I please," exclaimed Lord Maltravers, with coolinsolence.
Jack controlled himself, and the two men stood glaring at one another.Under no circumstances can men hate so intensely as when they arerivals for the affections of a woman.
"Isn't it about time, Mr. Harkaway, that you returned to England?" saidLord Maltravers, with his glass in his eye.
Jack gnashed his teeth.
"You are trying to insult me," he exclaimed.
"I hoped I had succeeded," was the reply.
"By Heaven you have," Jack cried, unable to control himself any longer.
Clinching his broad sledge-hammer fist, he stepped back a pace anddealt the peer a heavy blow in the face.
Maltravers rolled over and fell on the floor.
Striding over his prostrate body with a contemptuous air, Jack quittedthe place.
When he reached home he found Harvey in the hall.
"I was waiting for you, Jack," he said. "Had any luck?"
"None at all."
"Couldn't you persuade the lady that you were better than that fellowMaltravers?"
"No. She would obey her mother."
"Never mind. There are as good fish in the sea, as ever."