"Firstly," Coke continued blandly, "that I count the money I bring home--at irregular intervals. Secondly, that two guineas is a larger sum than forty shillings. Another time, Watkyns, I would take less than forty shillings. You will understand why. That is all."
The man, still pale and trembling, found his tongue. "Oh, sir!" he cried, "I swear, if you'll--if you'll forgive me----"
Coke stopped him. "That is all," he said, "that is all. The matter is at an end. Pick that up, go downstairs, and return in five minutes."
When the man was gone, Sir Hervey smoothed the paper, and, with a face that grew darker and darker as he proceeded, read the contents of the letter from beginning to end. They were these:--
"Dear Sir,
"The honour you intended my family by an alliance with a person so nearly related to us as Miss Maitland renders it incumbent on me to inform you with the least possible delay of the unfortunate event which has happened in our household, an event which, I need not say, I regret on no account more than because it must deprive us of the advantage we rightly looked to derive from that connection. At a late hour last evening the misguided (and I fear I must call her the unfortunate) girl, whom you distinguished by so particular a mark of your esteem, left the shelter of her home, it is now certain, to seek the protection of a lover.
"While the least doubt on this point remained, I believed myself justified in keeping the matter even from you, but I have this morning learned from a sure source--Lane, the mercer, in Piccadilly--that she was set down about nine o'clock last night at a house in Davies Street, kept by a man of the name of Wollenhope, and the residence--alas, that I should have to say it!--of the infamous Irishman whose attentions to her at one time attracted your notice.
"You will readily understand that from the moment we were certified of this we ceased to regard her as a part of our family; a choice so ill-regulated can proceed only from a mind naturally inclined to vice. Resentment on your account no less than a proper care of our household, dictates this course, nor will any repentance on her part, nor any of those misfortunes to which as I apprehend her misconduct will surely expose her, prevail on us to depart from it.
"Forgive me, dear sir, if, under the crushing weight of this deplorable matter, I confine myself to the bare fact and its consequence, adding only the expression of our profound regret and consideration.
"I have the honour to remain,