They were to start the next day, but it was not thought best to let Alice know of the journey until morning. Then they told her that a matter of importance, which had recently come to Magdalen’s knowledge, made it necessary for her to go to Cincinnati, and that Guy was going with her. Alice knew they were keeping something from her, but would not question them, and without a suspicion of the truth she bade Magdalen and Guy good-by, and saw them start on their journey to Cincinnati.
CHAPTER XLII.
IN CINCINNATI.
Mr. Grey was breakfasting in that leisurely, luxurious kind of way which he enjoyed so thoroughly. His morning papers were on the table beside him. He had glanced them through, and read every word in them about poor Laura’s property, which was now secured to her and her heirs forever. He had succeeded in making his claim clear, and Laura and her heirs were richer by some thirty thousand dollars than they were when last the crazy woman was in the city. To a man with nearly half a million thirty thousand dollars were not so very much; but Mr. Grey was glad to get it, and had decided that it should be invested for Alice, just as his breakfast appeared, and in dispatching that, he forgot the city lots and houses, and the days when he had gone so often to one of them, now a long time torn down to make room for a large and handsome block. He had finished his first cup of coffee, and was waiting for his second, when a hand was laid familiarly upon his shoulder, and Guy Seymour’s handsome face confronted him.
“Why, Guy, how you frightened me!” he said. “Where did you come from? Is anything the matter at home? Is it Alice?”
She was nearest his heart, and he asked for her first, while his cheek paled for a moment; but Guy quickly reassured him.
There was nothing the matter with Alice; nothing the matter with any one, he said. He had come on business, and as soon as Mr. Grey was through with his breakfast he would like to see him alone. Then Mr. Grey proceeded with his coffee and mutton chop, and omelette and hot cakes, and Guy grew terribly impatient and nervous with waiting. Mr. Grey’s appetite was satisfied at last, and he invited Guy to his room and asked what he could do for him. Guy had the story at his tongue’s end. He had repeated it to himself several times so as to be sure and make himself understood, and after half an hour or so he was understood, and Mr. Grey knew why he was there, and who was with him. To say that he was startled would convey but a faint idea of the effect Guy’s story had upon him. Laura’s ravings about “the one that was dead and the one that was not,” had come back to him with a new meaning and helped to prove the twin theory correct, and he was struck dumb with amazement, and tried in vain to speak as some question he wished to ask presented itself to his mind. He could not speak, his tongue was so thick and lay so heavy in his mouth, while the blood rushed in such torrents to his head and face that he plucked at his cravat as if to tear it off, so he could breath more freely, and made a motion toward the window for air.
“Apoplexy, it has almost given me that,” he whispered as the fresh air blew gratefully upon him, and he drank the water Guy brought to him. Then leaning his head against the back of his chair, he said: “I am greatly shocked by this story you have told me. It seems reasonable and may be true, though I do not deserve it. I’ve been a villain, a rascal. I abused and neglected Laura; I ought to have come home when she first wrote about the baby, and should have done so but for that devilish trait of mine, to follow a pretty face. I had an Italian woman in tow and it blunted every other feeling, and when I heard the child was dead I did not care so very much, though I wrote to her kindly enough; and now, to have this great good come so suddenly upon me is too much,—too much,”—
Guy believed in Magdalen, and his belief had so colored his story that Mr. Grey believed in her, too, at first. Then a doubt began to creep into his mind, as was very natural, and he asked, “Where is she, and how does she propose to prove it?”
“She is in No.——. She wishes to see you first. Will you go to her now?” Guy said; and Mr. Grey arose, and leaning on Guy started for the room where Magdalen was waiting for him.