“Mr Girtley thought me very impatient, Antony,” said Hallett, as we walked steadily back from Great George Street, where the little machine had been set up; “but there are bounds to every one’s patience, and I feel sometimes as if the idol I have been trying to set up will not be finished in my time.”
“Nonsense?” I cried cheerily, “I guarantee it shall be. I’m to have a lot of superintending to do, Hallett, and I’ll leave no stone unturned to get it on.”
“Thank you, Antony,” he said, “do your best. I grieve for poor Mr Jabez more than for myself. Two hundred and fifty pounds of his money gone, and he has nothing yet before him in return but an unsubstantial shadow.”
Miss Carr had been a good deal away from England during this time, visiting her sister, who twice over returned with her to stay at Westmouth Street. I had, however, kept her fully informed about the progress made by Hallett. In fact, she knew my innermost life, and as much of the Halletts’ as I knew myself. Those were pleasant days, though, when she was at home, much of my time being spent with her; and though I found that Lister had made several attempts to see her, and had written continually, he had never been successful.
I learned, too, that Mr Ruddle had interfered in concert with some distant relatives of Miss Carr, and they had pretty well coerced Lister into more reasonable behaviour.
He evidently, however, lived in the hope of yet resuming his old relationship with Miss Carr, little dreaming how well acquainted she was with his character, for, in no tale-bearing spirit, but in accordance with her wish, that she should know everything in connection with my daily life, I had told her of Lister’s continued underhanded pursuit of Linny, news which I afterwards found had come to her almost in company with imploring letters, full of love, passion and repentance.
When I look back upon that portion of my life, it all seems now like a dream of pleasure, that glided away as if by magic. I had no troubles—no cares of my own, save such as I felt by a kind of reflex action. I was young, active, and full of eagerness. Hallett’s enterprise seemed to be almost my own, and I looked forward to its success as eagerly as he did himself.
The house at Great Ormond Street was a far less solemn place now than it used to be, and many and bright were the evenings we spent together. Hallett seemed less sad and self-contained, as he saw his mother take a little interest in the group that used to form about her chair. For Mr Jabez appeared to have become quite a new man, and there were not many evenings that he did not spend at the Halletts’.
“Business, you see, Grace,” he used to say, with a dry chuckle. “I must be on the spot to talk over the machine with Hallett;” but somehow very little used to be said about business: for very often after the first introduction by the old man, there used to be a snug rubber at whist, in which he and Mrs Hallett would be partners against Linny and Tom Girtley.
For Tom used to come a great, deal in those days to see me. He used to tell me, with a laughing light in his eye, that he was sure I must be very dull there of an evening, and that it was quite out of kindness to me. But, somehow or another, I suppose through my neglect, and the interest I took in Hallett’s work, he used to be driven upstairs, where his bright, hearty ways made him always welcome. For after what looked like dead opposition at first, Tom quite won Mr Jabez over to his side; and, save and excepting a few squabbles now and then, which Mrs Hallett took seriously, and which afforded Linny intense amusement, Mr Jabez and Tom became the best of friends.