“Well, are you convinced?—are you satisfied now?” asked Onslow, triumphantly.
“I am perfectly so!” said Grounsell, with a deep sigh. “You must write, and tell her that business requires your immediate presence in England, and that George's condition will necessitate a return by sea. Caution her that the Daltons should be consulted about this marriage, which, so far as I know, they have not been; and I would advise, also, seeing that there may be some interval before you can write again, that you should send her a check,—say for five hundred pounds.”
“So you can be equitable,-Grounsell,” cried the other, joyously.
“And here is a letter from Lord Norwood,” said Grounsell, not heeding the remark, and breaking the seal as he spoke. “Laconic, certainly. 'Let me have the enclosed by this evening.—N.' The enclosed are five acceptances for two hundred each; the 'value received' being his Lordship's services in upholding your son's honor. Now here, at least, Onslow, I 'll have my own way.” And, with these words, he seated himself at a table and wrote:——
My Lord,—Living in a land where assassination is cheap, and
even men of small fortune can keep a Bravo, I beg to return
your Lordship's bills, without submitting them to my friend
for endorsement, your price being considerably above the
tariff of the country, and more calculated to your own
exigencies than the occasion which it was meant to
remunerate. I am, yours,
Paul Grounsell.
“What have you said there, Grounsell? you look so self-satisfied, it can scarcely be over-civil.”
“There,——'To the Viscount Norwood'” said Grounsell, as he sealed and addressed the note. “We are getting through our work rapidly. In a week, or even less, if George's symptoms show nothing worse, we shall get away from this; and even on the sea one feels half as though it were England.”
We need not follow Grounsell through the busy days which ensued, nor track him in his various negotiations with tradespeople, bankers, house-agents, and that legionary class which are called “commissionaires.” Enough if we say that, in arranging for the departure of his friends, his impressions of Italian roguery received many an additional confirmation; and that, when the last day of their sojourn arrived, his firm conviction was that none but a millionnaire could afford to live in this the very cheapest capital of Europe!
And now they are gone! steaming calmly away across the Gulf of Genoa. They have closed the little episode of their life in Italy, and with heavy hearts are turning homeward. The great Mazzarini Palace looks sad and forlorn; nor do we mean to linger much longer on a scene whence the actors have departed.