"But, man alive! what is all this you have written here?" exclaimed Derval; "it looks like a title-deed—a marriage settlement—or a bill in chancery. Surely all this raggabash is not necessary between you and me!"
"For legal purposes it is—you, as a sailor, are ignorant of the ridiculous tautology of legal composition; but if you will affix your ordinary signature, witnessed by me, in these two places, without troubling you to read it, we shall post it to old De Murrer for security in his hands."
"All right, old fellow, I'll do anything you like but read over all that rigmarole," replied Derval, who dashed off his signature at the places indicated, and the document was enclosed in an envelope, addressed to their mutual agent at Gray's Inn for preservation, and placed in the usual receptacle at the hotel for letters to be posted.
There is no doubt that it was extremely culpable and negligent of Derval to sign that document as he did, without once troubling himself by an examination of its contents and nature—all the more so was he culpable, from the past knowledge he had of Rookleigh's general character; but his correspondence with Clara was uppermost then in his thoughts; and when the half-brothers parted for the night, there came into Rookleigh's face a diabolical smile, and he laughed, as he took his homeward way muttering to himself—
"How easily that fool allowed himself to be chiselled out of everything; but he is a sailor, ignorant of land life, for sailors go round and round the world but never into it!"
And again he laughed loudly.
On the morrow, the pretty villa at Bayview was tenantless; the shrine was empty, so Derval gladly welcomed the hour that took him from Finglecombe, and the change of scene and occupation that came with it.
Lord Oakhampton had seen of late the preoccupation of his daughter's thoughts, and knew the cause thereof. Hence this sudden Parisian trip; after which a season in London would, he hoped, find another whose presence might obliterate what he deemed to be a foolish, a girlish, and outré fancy for Derval Hampton.
Ere the Amethyst sailed, the latter wrote to her under cover to Rookleigh, who was to discover Lord Oakhampton's address, and contrive some means of having it delivered.
The letter, full of passionate love and longing, of the tender little incoherences in which all lovers indulge, and many prayerful hopes for the future, duly reached the hands of his brother; but it was fortunate for Derval's peace of mind that he did not see the strange and horrible smile that crept over the face of Rookleigh as he perused it, and then tossed it into the fire.