Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/79

This page needs to be proofread.
A TRAGEDY ‘OF TWO AMBITIONS
65

their expedition, without waiting for dinner or tea. Cornelius, to whom the millwright always addressed his letters when he wrote any, drew from his pocket and reread as he walked the curt note which had led to this journey being undertaken; it was despatched by their father the night before, immediately upon his liberation, and stated that he was setting out for Narrobourne at the moment of writing; that having no money he would be obliged to walk all the way; that he calculated on passing through the intervening town of Ivell about six on the following day, where he should sup at the Castle Inn, and where he hoped they would meet him with a carriage-and-pair, or some othersuch conveyance, that he might not disgrace them by arriving like a tramp.

“That sounds as if he gave a thought to our porition,” said Cornelius,

Joshua knew the satire that lurked in the paternal words, and said nothing. Silence prevailed during the greater part of their journey. The lamps were lighted in Ivell when they entered the streets, and Cornelius, who was quite unknown in this neighborhood, and who, moreover, waa not in clerical attire, decided that he should be the one to call at the Castle Inn. Here, in answer to his inquiry under the darkness of the archway, they told him that such a man as he had described left the houge about a quarter of an hoar earlier, after making a meal in the kitchen settle.He was rather the worse for liquor.

“Then,” said Joshua, when Cornelius joined him outside with this intelligence, “ we must have met and passed him. And now that I think of it, we did meet some one whe was unsteady in hia gait under the trees on the other side of Hendcome Hi, where it was too dark to see him.”

They rapidiy retraced their steps; but for a long

5