Ten Thousand a-Year Volume Iii Part 27

"What _does_ your Grace mean?" inquired Gammon, respectfully, but firmly--and throwing an expression of still greater amazement into his face.

"Mean, sir? By----! that you have killed my Lord Dreddlington and the Lady Cecilia," cried the duke, in a very violent manner.

"I wait to hear, as soon as your Grace may condescend to explain," said Gammon, calmly.

"Explain, sir? Why, I have _already_ told and explained everything!"

replied the choleric duke, who imagined that he really _had_ done so.

"Your Grace has told--has explained nothing whatever," said Gammon.

"Why, sir--I mean, what 's this horrible story you've been telling my Lord Dreddlington about Mr. t.i.tmouse being--in plain English, sir--A b.a.s.t.a.r.d?"

If the duke had struck at Gammon, the latter could not have started back more suddenly and violently than he did on hearing his Grace utter the last words; and he remained gazing at the duke with a face full of horror and bewilderment. The spectacle which he presented arrested the duke's increasing excitement. He stared open-mouthed at Gammon, presently adding--"Why sir, are we both--are we all--mad? or dreaming?

or what has come to us?"

"I think," replied Gammon, a little recovering from the sort of stupor into which the duke's words had apparently thrown him, "it is I who have a better t.i.tle than your Grace to ask the question!--I tell Lord Dreddlington that Mr. t.i.tmouse is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Why, I can hardly credit my ears! Does my Lord Dreddlington say that I have told him so?"

"He does, sir!" replied the duke, fiercely.

"And what else may his Lordship have said concerning me?" inquired Gammon, with a sort of hopeless smile.

"By Heaven, sir, you mustn't treat this matter lightly!" said the duke, impetuously, approaching him suddenly.

"May I ask your Grace whether this is the matter mentioned in your Grace's note, as of the"----

"It _is_, sir! it is!--and it's killed my Lord Dreddlington--and also the Lady Cecilia!"

"What!" cried Gammon, starting and exhibiting increasing amazement--"does _her Ladyship_, too, say that I have told her so?"

"Yes, sir; she does!"

"What, Lady Cecilia?" echoed Gammon, really confounded.

"Well, sir--I think she did"----

"_Think_, your Grace!" interrupted Gammon, bitterly and reproachfully.

"Well, sir--certainly the fact is, I may be mistaken as to _that_ matter. I was not present; but, at all events, my Lord Dreddlington certainly says you told _him_--and he's told Lady Cecilia--and it's killing her--it is, sir!--By heavens, sir, I expect hourly to hear of both of their deaths!--and I beg to ask you, sir, once for all, have you ever made any such statement to my Lord Dreddlington?"

"Not a syllable--never a breath of the sort in all my life!" replied Gammon, boldly, and rather sharply, as if indignant at being pressed about anything so absurd.

"What!--nothing of the sort? or to that effect?" exclaimed the duke, with mingled amazement and incredulity.

"Certainly--certainly not!--But let me ask, in my turn, is the _fact_ so? Does your Grace mean to say that"----

"No, sir," interrupted the duke, but not speaking in his former confident tone--"but my Lord Dreddlington does!"

"Oh, impossible! impossible!" cried Gammon, with an incredulous air--"Only consider for one moment--how could the fact possibly be so and I not know it! Why, I am familiar with every step of his pedigree!"

The duke drummed vehemently with his finger on the table, and stared at Gammon with the air of a man suddenly and completely nonplussed.

"Why, Mr. Gammon, then my Lord Dreddlington must have completely lost his senses! He declares that you told him that such was the fact!--When and where, may I ask, did you first see him to-day?"

"About half-past eleven or twelve o'clock, when he called at my chambers in a state of the greatest agitation and excitement, occasioned by the announcement in this morning's paper of the sudden blow-up of the Artificial"----

"Good Heaven! why, is _that_ gone?" interrupted his Grace, eagerly and alarmedly, starting up from his seat--"When? why? how?--By Heaven, it's enough to turn any one's head!"

"Indeed it is, your Grace. My Lord Dreddlington was the first from whom I heard anything on the subject."

"It's very odd I didn't see the paragraph! Where was it? In the _Morning Growl_?" continued the duke, with much agitation.

"It was, your Grace--it stated that Sir Sharper Bubble had suddenly absconded, with all the funds of"----

"Oh, the villain! oh, the villain!--But why do you make such scoundrels chairmen, and treasurers, and so forth? How must the loss be made good?

You really don't look sharp enough after people whom you put into such situations! Who the deuce is this fellow--this Sir Bubble Sharper, or whatever he is called--eh?"

"He was greatly respected in the City, or would not have been in the position he was. Who could have suspected it?"

"And is the thing quite blown up? _All_ gone?"

"Yes. I fear it is, indeed!" replied Gammon, shrugging his shoulders and sighing.

"Of course no one can be made liable--come the worst to the worst, eh?"

inquired the duke, very anxiously, "beyond the amount of his shares?

How's that, Mr. Gammon?"

"I devoutly trust not! Your Grace will observe that it depends a good deal on the prominence which any one takes in the affair."

"Egad! is that the principle? Then, I a.s.sure you, Mr. Gammon, upon my word of honor, that I have not taken the least public part in the proceedings"----

"I am very happy to hear it, your Grace. Nor have I--but I very much fear that my Lord Dreddlington may have gone farther a good deal"----

"I've several times warned him on the subject, I a.s.sure you. By the way, there's that other affair, Mr. Gammon, I hope--eh?--that the Gunpowder and Fresh Water"----

"Good heavens, your Grace! I hope all is right _there_--or I, for one, am a ruined man!" replied Gammon, quickly.

"I--I--hope so too, sir.--So Lord Dreddlington was a good deal shocked, eh, this morning?"

"Yes, indeed he was--nay, I may say, terribly excited! I was greatly alarmed on his account, directly I saw him."

"And is this Mr. t.i.tmouse--eh?--involved in the thing?"

"I really can't tell, your Grace--his movements are somewhat eccentric--it's extremely difficult to discover or account for them! By the way, I recollect, now, that I _did_ mention his name to Lord Dreddlington."

"Ah, indeed! What about?" interrupted his Grace, briskly.

"Why, I just heard that early this morning there would be one or two executions put into his house--he's been going on lately in a very wild way."

"Oh, he's a monstrous little--but was that all that pa.s.sed between you and my Lord Dreddlington about him?"