"Oh, no, no! You know Lady Cicely's taken me for better for worse, for richer for poorer!" interrupted t.i.tmouse, in a sort of agony of apprehension.

"Ah, t.i.tmouse! But she did not know, when she said that, that she was speaking to a"----

"What! wouldn't it have held good?" exclaimed t.i.tmouse, perfectly aghast.

"We need not speculate on a case that cannot arise, my dear t.i.tmouse,"

replied Gammon, eying him steadfastly, and then resuming his writing.--"This paper becomes, as they say at sea, your sheet-anchor!--Here you shall remain--the owner of Yatton--of this splendid house--husband of Lady Cecilia--a member of Parliament--and in due time, as 'my Lord Drelincourt,' take your place permanently in the Upper House of Parliament, among the hereditary legislators of your country. Now, Mr. t.i.tmouse, sign your name, and there's an end forever of all your unhappiness!"

t.i.tmouse eagerly took the pen, and, with a very trembling hand affixed his signature to what Gammon had written.

"You'll sign it too, eh?" he inquired timidly.

"Certainly, my dear t.i.tmouse."--Gammon affixed his signature, after a moment's consideration.--"Now we are both bound--we are friends for life! Let us shake hands, my dear, dear t.i.tmouse, to bind the bargain!"

They did so, Gammon cordially taking into his hands those of t.i.tmouse, who, in his anxiety and excitement, never once thought of asking Mr.

Gammon to allow him to read over what had been just signed.

"Oh Lord!" he exclaimed, heaving a very deep sigh, "It seems as if we'd been only in a dream! I begin to feel _something like_ again!--it's really all right?"

"On my sacred word of honor," replied Gammon, laying his hand on his heart, "provided you perform the engagement into which you have this day entered."

"Never fear! honor bright!" said t.i.tmouse, placing _his_ on his heart, with as solemn a look as he could a.s.sume.

Mr. Gammon, having folded up the paper, put it into his pocket-book.

"I was a trifle too deep for you, t.i.tmouse, eh?" said he, good-humoredly. "How could you suppose me green enough to bring you the _real_ doc.u.ments?" he added with perfect command of voice and feature.

"Where are they?" inquired t.i.tmouse, timidly.

"At a banker's, in a double-iron strong box, with three different locks."

"Lord!--But, _in course_, you'll put them into the fire when I've performed my agreement, eh?"

Gammon looked at him for a moment, doubtful what answer to make to this unexpected question.

"My dear t.i.tmouse," said he at length, "I will be candid--I must preserve them--but no human eye shall ever see them except my own."

"My stars!--Excuse me"--stammered t.i.tmouse, uneasily.

"Never fear _my_ honor, t.i.tmouse! Have you ever had reason to do so?"

"No--never! It's quite true! And why don't you trust _me_?"

"Have you forgotten!--_Did_ I not trust you--_as you supposed_"--quickly subjoined Gammon, positively on the point of again committing himself--"and when you fancied you really had in your power the precious original doc.u.ments?"

"Oh! well"--said t.i.tmouse, his face flushing all over--"but that's all past and gone."

"You _must_ rely on my honor--and I'll tell you why. What would be easier than for me to pretend to you that the papers which you might see me burn, were really the originals--and yet be no such thing?"

"In course--yes; I see!" replied t.i.tmouse--who, however, had really not comprehended the case which Gammon had put to him. "Well--but--I say--excuse me, Mr. Gammon"--said t.i.tmouse, hesitatingly returning, as Gammon imagined, to the charge--"but--you said something about the _real_ heir."

"Certainly. There _is_ such a person, I a.s.sure you!"

"Well--but since you and I, you know, have made it up, and are friends for life--eh? What's to be done with the fellow? (betwixt ourselves!)"

"That is at present no concern--nay, it never will be any concern of yours or mine. Surely it is enough for you, that you are enjoying the rank and fortune belonging to some one else? Good gracious! I can't help reminding you--fancy the natural son of a cobbler--figuring away as the Right Honorable Lord Drelincourt--while all the while, the real Lord Drelincourt is--nay, at this moment, pining, poor soul! in poverty and obscurity."

"Well--I dare say he's used to it, so it can't hurt him much! But I've been thinking, Mr. Gammon, couldn't we get him--pressed? or enlisted into the army?--He's a deuced deal better out of the way, you know, for both of us!"

"Sir!" interrupted Gammon, speaking very seriously, and even with a melancholy and apprehensive air--"leave the future to _me_. I have made all requisite arrangements, and am myself implicated already to a fearful extent on your behalf. The only person on earth, besides myself, who can disturb my arrangements, is yourself."

Here a gentle tapping was heard at the door.

"Be off!" shouted t.i.tmouse, with angry impatience; but Mr. Gammon, who was anxious himself to be gone, stepped to the door, and opening it, a servant entered--a tall graceful footman, with powdered hair, shoulder-knot, and blue and yellow livery--and who obsequiously intimated to Mr. t.i.tmouse, that Signor Sol-fa had been in attendance for at least half-an-hour.

"A--a--I don't sing to-day--let him come to-morrow," said t.i.tmouse, with attempted ease, and the servant withdrew.

"Farewell, Mr. t.i.tmouse--I have a most important engagement awaiting me at the office--so I must take my leave. Will you execute the necessary doc.u.ments so soon as they are ready? I will cause them to be prepared immediately."

"Oh, yes!"--and he added in a lower tone--"take care, Mr. Gammon, that no one knows _why_!--eh, you know?"

"Leave that to _me_!--Good-morning, Mr. t.i.tmouse," replied Gammon, b.u.t.toning his surtout, and taking up his gloves and hat; and having shaken t.i.tmouse by the hand, he was the next moment in the street--where he heaved a prodigious sigh--which, however, only momentarily relieved his pent-up bosom from the long-suppressed rage, the mortification, the wounded pride, and the wild apprehension with which it was nearly bursting. Why, what a sudden and dismaying disaster had befallen him!

And what but his own inconceivable folly had occasioned it? His own puppet had beaten him; had laid him prostrate; 't was as though Prospero had permitted Caliban to wheedle him out of his wand!--What could Gammon possibly have been thinking about, when he trusted the originals into the hands of t.i.tmouse? As Gammon recognized no overruling Providence, he was completely at a loss to account for an act of such surpa.s.sing thoughtlessness and weakness as he had committed--at the mere recollection of which, as he walked along he ground his teeth together with the vehemence of his emotions. After a while, he reflected that regrets were idle--the future, not the past, was to be considered; and how he had to deal with the new state of things which had so suddenly been brought about. All he had thenceforth to trust to, was his mastery over the fears of a fool. But was he _really_, on consideration, in a worse position than before? Had t.i.tmouse turned restive at any time while Gammon possessed the doc.u.ments in question, could Gammon have had more effectual control over him than he still had, while he had succeeded in persuading t.i.tmouse that such doc.u.ments were still in existence? Could the legality of the transaction which Gammon sought to effect, be upheld one whit the more in the one case than in the other, if t.i.tmouse took it into his head resolutely to resist? Again, could a transaction of such magnitude, could so serious a diminution of t.i.tmouse's income, remain long concealed from his father-in-law, Lord Dreddlington, who, Gammon knew, was every now and then indicating much anxiety on the subject of his son-in-law's finances? Was it possible to suppose the earl disposed to acquiesce, in any event, in such an arrangement? Suppose again t.i.tmouse, in some moment of caprice, or under the influence of wine, should disclose to the earl the charge on the estate given to Gammon; and that, either sinking, or revealing, the true ground on which Gammon rested a claim of such magnitude? Gracious Heavens! thought Gammon--fancy the earl really made acquainted with the true state of the case! What effect would so terrible a disclosure produce upon him?

Here a bold stroke occurred to Mr. Gammon: what if he were himself, as it were, to take the bull by the horns--to be beforehand with t.i.tmouse, and apprise the earl of the frightful calamity which had befallen him and his daughter? Gammon's whole frame vibrated with the bare imagining of the scene which would probably ensue. But what would be the practical use to be made of it? The first shock over, if, indeed, the old man survived it--would not the possession of such a secret give Gammon a complete hold upon the earl, and render him, in effect, obedient to his wishes?

CHAPTER IV.

The object which Gammon had originally proposed to himself, and unwaveringly fixed his eye upon amid all the mazy tortuosities of his course, since taking up the cause of t.i.ttlebat t.i.tmouse, was his own permanent establishment in the upper sphere of society; conscious that, above all, could he but once emerge into political life, his energies would insure him speedy distinction. With an independent income of 2,000 a-year, he felt that he should be standing on sure ground. But even above and beyond this, there was one dazzling object of his hopes and wishes, which, unattained, would, on several accounts, render all others comparatively valueless--a union with Miss Aubrey. His heart fluttered within him at the bare notion of such an event. What effect would be produced upon that beautiful, that pure, high-minded, but haughty creature--for haughty to _him_ had Kate Aubrey ever appeared--by a knowledge that he, Gammon, possessed the means--Bah!

accursed t.i.tmouse!--thought Gammon, his cheek suddenly blanching as he recollected that through him _those means_ no longer existed.--Stay!--Unless, indeed--...--which would, however, be all but impossible--perilous in the extreme! Absorbed with these reflections, he started on being accosted by the footman of the Earl of Dreddlington; who, observing Gammon, had ordered his carriage to draw up, to enable his Lordship to speak to him. It was the end of Oxford Street nearest to the City.

"Sir--Mr. Gammon--good-day, sir!"--commenced the earl, with a slight appearance of disappointment, and even displeasure, "pray, has anything unfortunate happened"----

"Unfortunate! I beg your Lordship's pardon"----interrupted Gammon, coloring visibly, and gazing with surprise at the earl.

"You do not _generally_, Mr. Gammon, forget your appointments. The marquis, I, and the gentlemen of the Direction, have been waiting for you in vain at the office for a whole hour."

"Good Heavens! my Lord--I am confounded!" said Gammon, suddenly recollecting the engagement he had made with the earl: "I have forgotten everything in a sudden fit of indisposition, with which I have been seized at the house of a client at Bayswater. I can but apologize, my Lord"----

"Sir, say no more; your looks are more than sufficient; and I beg that you will do me the honor to accept a seat in my carriage, and tell me whither you will be driven. I'm at your service, Mr. Gammon, for at least an hour; longer than that I cannot say, as I have to be at the House; you remember our two bills have to be forwarded a stage"----

Since his Lordship was as peremptory as politeness would permit him to be, in got Gammon, and named THE GUNPOWDER AND FRESHWATER COMPANY'S Offices, in Lothbury, in the hopes of finding yet some of the gentlemen whom he had so sadly disappointed; and thither, having turned his horses' heads, drove the coachman.

"Sir," said the earl, after much inquiry into the nature of Gammon's recent indisposition, "by the way, what can be the meaning of my Lord Tadpole's opposition to the second reading of our bill, No. 2?"