The sick man was stung to madness at the thought. His eyes burned and his face grew convulsed. “Reparation!” he cried hoarsely in jealous rage. “Reparation! The viper! If ever I put eyes on him again, I will——” he broke off as a fit of coughing took him, and when it was over he dropped to his seat utterly exhausted, gasping painfully for breath.
The man whose lying story had brought on this attack, watched him unmoved, and calculated cynically whether Bracknell’s own estimate of the span of life remaining to him was correct; then he said, “I am very sorry for you, Mr. Bracknell, but I cannot allow private wrongs to interfere with my own mission. You say that your cousin was here two days ago; perhaps you can tell me which way he was travelling?”
“He was going up the river—to meet Joy as like as not!”
“Then I shall follow! Perhaps I shall meet the lady; if so, I shall be able to assure her that the marriage she is contemplating is quite out of the question.”
“Say nothing to the man about my threats, if you find him,” said Bracknell, rousing himself. “Say I’ve news for him, that I want to see him; as by—— I do! Tell him what you like, but get him to come back here.”
“I will do my best, sir!”
“If I’d dogs, sick though I am, I’d follow him myself. But that’s out of the question. I shall rely on you to——”
“You may, sir,” broke in Rayner obsequiously. “If I find him, I will certainly induce him to come back to you, if I can. But I hope you will not be violent——”
“Violent! Bring him here,” Bracknell laughed almost deliriously, “and you will see.”
.......