His lucubrations were interrupted by the sudden return of Captain Snowdon. He was plainly in a condition of great excitement. His coat was loose and his neckerchief was flying.
“We are too late, Mr. Wesley,” he cried. “We are too late. The girl has given both of us the slip. I called at the cottage to fetch her hither. I did not find her at home. This is what was put into my hand.”
He thrust out a piece of paper with writing upon it.
“I cannot stay—I dare not stay any longer where I am forced to see you every day, and am thus reminded of my promise which I know I cannot now keep. Please try not to follow me; 'twould be of no use. I must be apart from you before I make up my mind. I am very unhappy, and I know that I am most unhappy because I have to give pain to one who is the best of men.
“Nelly.”
“You have read it?” cried Snowdon. “I had no notion that her whimsies would carry her so far. Oh, she is but a girl after all—I tell you that she is no more than a girl.”
“She is a girl, and I think that she is the best that lives, to be a blessing to a good man's life,” said Wesley, returning the letter to his trembling hand.
“The best? The best? She has made a fool of the man who would have died to save her from the least hurt, and you call her the best!” he cried, walking to and fro excitedly, crumpling up the letter with every stride.
“She is the best,” said Wesley. “Sir, cannot you see that those lines were written by a woman who is anxious to be true to herself? Cannot you see that her sole fear is that she may do an injustice to the man who loves her?”
“You see things, sir, that none other can see; I am but a plain man, Mr. Wesley, and I can see naught in this letter save the desire of a fickle young woman to rid herself of a lover of whom she has grown weary. Well, she has succeeded—she has succeeded! She exhorts me not to follow her. She need not have been at the trouble to do so: I have no intention of following her, even if I knew whither she has gone. Have you any guess as to the direction she has taken? Not that I care—I tell you, sir, I have no desire to follow her. Who do you suspect is her lover?”