‘How dare you, Georgina?’ he exclaimed—how dare you interfere with my business? It’s a crime to steal a letter. You could be prosecuted by the Postmaster-General.’
‘Postmaster fiddlestick! I hope you didn’t send any sane woman such twaddle as that, Jabez.’
‘No, I didn’t; I thought better of it,’ stammered Mr. Duck.
‘That’s nothing. It wasn’t a copy of a letter at all. It was an exercise of the imagination, that’s all.’
‘Well, don’t leave your exercises in your pockets, Jabez.’
‘I’ll empty my pockets, Georgina—rely on that. Never do you have another coat or waistcoat of mine to brush till it’s been searched as if it were a shoplifter brought into the police station. Give me my hat and coat. I’m going. Good morning, Georgina.’
Mr. Jabez burst out of the room in a towering passion. He brushed his hat the wrong way and quite took the shine off it; and when he jumped up on the box seat of his regular omnibus, there was so little shine in his face that the driver looked round to see if there was any fog about.
Mr. Duck was excessively annoyed that his sister had found this copy of his first love-letter in his pocket. He had intended her to know nothing about the matter till it was all arranged. In fact he wasn’t quite sure that he should let her know anything about it till the ceremony was over, and he couldn’t be bullied out of his resolve. He went in mortal terror of Georgina. She had a sharp tongue and a sharp eye, and she persisted in looking upon him as a weak-minded man, who could only prosper with her assistance.
When he had called at Mr. Egerton’s house on the morning after the tea party, he had only seen Topsey, and Topsey had told him her aunt was very ill and couldn’t see anybody, because she’d seen a ghost. She, Topsey, had seen the ghost too, and she described it. Mr. Duck’s horror was intense when he found the apparition the child described was the exact counterpart of the firm’s drowned client. It was coming away from the house that he met Dr. Birnie, and sent him in to see what was the matter with the housekeeper. From the doctor he learned the particulars of the case. Mrs. Turvey declared she had seen the ghost of her master, and the child corroborated her.
It couldn’t be Gurth Egerton in flesh and blood, because he would have come in and spoken to them. He would have said, ‘Here I am,’ or made some observation.