“Fetch her soon, for we sha’n’t be here long,” Van Diemen said to him at parting. He expressed a certain dread of his next meeting with Mart Tinman.
Herbert speedily brought Mary Fellingham to Elba, and left her there. The situation was apparently unaltered. Van Diemen looked worn, like a man who has been feeding mainly on his reflections, which was manifest in his few melancholy bits of speech. He said to Herbert: “How you feel a thing when you are found out!” and, “It doesn’t do for a man with a heart to do wrong!” He designated the two principal roads by which poor sinners come to a conscience. His own would have slumbered but for discovery; and, as he remarked, if it had not been for his heart leading him to Tinman, he would not have fallen into that man’s power.
The arrival of a young lady of fashionable appearance at Elba was matter of cogitation to Mrs. Cavely. She was disposed to suspect that it meant something, and Van Diemen’s behaviour to her brother would of itself have fortified any suspicion. He did not call at the house on the beach, he did not invite Martin to dinner, he was rarely seen, and when he appeared at the Town Council he once or twice violently opposed his friend Martin, who came home ruffled, deeply offended in his interests and his dignity.
“Have you noticed any difference in Annette’s treatment of you, dear?” Mrs. Cavely inquired.
“No,” said Tinman; “none. She shakes hands. She asks after my health. She offers me my cup of tea.”
“I have seen all that. But does she avoid privacy with you?”
“Dear me, no! Why should she? I hope, Martha, I am a man who may be confided in by any young lady in England.”
“I am sure you may, dear Martin.”
“She has an objection to name the... the day,” said Martin. “I have informed her that I have an objection to long engagements. I don’t like her new companion: She says she has been presented at Court. I greatly doubt it.”
“It’s to give herself a style, you may depend. I don’t believe her!” exclaimed Mrs. Cavely, with sharp personal asperity.