Emmie staggered backwards as though she had been struck. “Put into jail! my brother! and on what pretext?” she exclaimed, grasping the table for support.
“I’ll tell you all about it—you ought to know, seeing you’re his own sister,” said Hannah, enjoying the excitement of the scene, and yet not without a touch of natural pity, on seeing the anguish which she inflicted. “Master Vibert went yesterday to London, you know; and when he got there, he went off straight to a jeweller (Golding, I think, is the name), and bought from him lots of jewels, diamonds, pearls, and all kinds of gim-cracks, worth more than a thousand pounds.”
“Impossible!” exclaimed Emmie.
“But he did buy the jewels, and paid for them too with a lot of nice, fresh, clean ten-pound notes,” said Hannah. “The shopman didn’t suspect nothing at first, ’cause he knew the young gentleman’s face so well, as he’d often dealt at the shop. But when the head of the firm, as they call him, came in the afternoon to look after the business (there’s nothing like a master’s eye, we know), he said the notes weren’t real and honest bank-notes; and off he went at once to the biggest police-station in London.”
“My brother has been the unconscious tool of a villain!” murmured Emmie, who felt certain that Vibert’s vanity and careless security must have made him the victim of the impostor who had called himself Colonel Standish.
“The p’lice and Mr. Golding drove off to Grosvenor Square,” continued Hannah, “for the jeweller knew the address; and a mighty bustle and fuss was caused by their coming, for there was an afternoon party, and the gentlefolk were amazed when they found that he who had been the merriest of them all was to be haled up afore a magistrate, on a charge of passing forged notes.”
“Did not my brother at once clear himself from suspicion?” cried Emmie, the paleness of whose face was now exchanged for the crimson flush of indignation and shame.
“Master Vibert said that the notes had been given to him by a Colonel Standish; and that he had bought the jewels for Colonel Standish; and that he would have sent them off at once to some address in Liverpool, only he had waited to have out his dance.”
“Then are the jewels safe in the hands of the police?” asked Emmie.
“Ay; I wish that this cheat of a colonel were so too,” replied Hannah. “Hanging is too good for him, say I; for sure and certain it was his wheedling which made poor Master Vibert do so wicked a thing. Some of the police were sent off to Liverpool, and some hurried down to S——. And first they searched the colonel’s lodgings, and then they came ferreting here.”