“Confounded fool he must be! He stood heavily on that mare. When did Lady Jane bolt?”
“On Tuesday night, sir. She was here at the Priory at luncheon with Captain Peters that morning. She and Mrs. Sewell were walking more than an hour together in the back garden.”
“Did you overhear anything they said?”
“Only once, sir, for they spoke low; but one time your Lady said aloud, 'If any one blames you, dear, it won't be me.' I think the other was crying when she said it.”
“Stuff and nonsense!” said Sewell, angrily.
“She's gone away, at all events, sir; and Mr. Harman 's out of his mind about it. Cross told me this morning that he would n't be surprised if his master cut his throat or went to live on the Continent.”
“Do you happen to know anybody would lend me a thousand pounds on no particular security, O'Reardon?”
“Not just at the minute,—perhaps if I had a day or two to think of it.”
“I could give you a week,—a fortnight if it was any use, but it is not; and you know it's not, Master O'Reardon, as well as any man breathing.”
There was a silence of some minutes now between them; and while Sewell brooded over his hard fortune, O'Reardon seemed to be reviewing in his mind the state of the share market, and taking a sweeping view of the course of the exchanges.