When Captain de Vere left his friend, he strode along the passage, his clanking footsteps ringing through the arched corridor, disturbing the calmness of night, and, descending the stairs, opened the door of the smoking room.
"You have kept me a confounded time," said Sir Richard; "I have almost finished the bottle."
"It is settled," said the Captain; "he was a difficult leech to fix, a vacillating fool; but I brought him to anchor at last, and he will do so. By G—! he gave his word, and retracted, shifted and reshifted; but spite of all his tackings I piloted him to haven at last."
"When does the plot begin to work?"
"To-morrow he plays his part; in a week or ten days you will yours. And now good night; it is late, and it would not do to have it suspected we were intriguing."
So saying the two young men arose and, shaking hands, retired to their rooms,—the Captain calm and self-possessed, as his unhappy victim was stormy in mind, and unstable as the hurricane's gusts!
CHAPTER XX.
"Away, and mark the time with fairest show;
False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
Macbeth.
"And with coming day
Came fast inquiry, which unfolded nought,
Except the absence of the chief it sought.