“Not I, nor, I hope, anybody belonging to me,” replied Maria. “O, Letitia, what o’clock is it? I cannot trust my watch.”
“Far enough from two o’clock, my dear. So you will not be amused, even with talk about the usury laws. Well? I will keep all drowsy subjects to lull you to sleep with to-night, when all will be settled;—all redeemed, I trust; and when you will own at last that watching has nearly worn you out.”
Mr. Bland looked as immitigably solemn as ever, when he appeared at his own door on the carriage stopping. He would have had the ladies wait the result at his house; but Letitia’s business was not finished till she had ascertained whether Simeon’s help would be wanted or not. Mr. Bland was obliged to let his law papers be tossed into her lap, and to edge in his stick and portly person as well as he could. He had been busy since the morning interview, and had fully satisfied himself in the matter of the spices; but he said to himself, while being whirled along, that the affair could hardly be brought to a satisfactory conclusion, since a woman had so much to do in it. If it had not been for the Earl’s recommendation of the case, he would have eschewed the whole matter; and the oddest thing was that his lordship did not say whether he was himself informed of the particulars.
“Is Mr. Waldie here?” inquired the trembling wife, in a choking voice, of one of the clerks, who appeared when the carriage stopped.
“He is, madam; but particularly engaged at present, except——”
“Except to this gentleman,” said Letitia, handing Mr. Bland’s card with her own, which brought an immediate request that the party would alight.
Mr. Waldie was in the act of shutting somebody into an inner room when his wife appeared at the door. He looked pale and worn, but composed and active. He received his wife and her sister as if nothing extraordinary had happened, stated that the money would be forthcoming if the securities were so; and went straight to business with Mr. Bland.
As soon as satisfied that all was likely to be well, the ladies proposed to withdraw into the inner room, and await the issue.
“That room? No; not there, my dear,” said he. “Yet you will not mind my other man of business being there. He will not be in your way long.”
So they were ushered into the apartment where stood—Mr. Simeon.