I was too bewildered and shocked to speak. All I could do was to take the hand which lay on my arm and hold it in mine. This then was Jack’s mystery. This explained his nervous avoidance of all references to home, his sudden changes of manner both at Stonebridge House and in London. Poor Jack!
We neither of us spoke for some time; then, as if in answer to the questions I longed to ask, he continued, “I hardly ever saw him. When mother died he went nearly mad and took to drinking, so Mrs Shield told me, and left home. No one heard of him again till it was discovered he had forged on his employers. I remember their coming and looking for him at M—, where we then lived. He wasn’t there, but they found him in London, and,”—here Jack groaned—“he was transported.”
“Poor Jack!” was all I could say. “How dreadful for you all!”
We said no more that night, but as we lay arm in arm, and presently fell asleep, I think we both felt we were bound together that night by a stronger tie than ever.
Yet, had I known what was to come, I would sooner have rushed from that house than allow my friend Smith to tell me his secret.
Chapter Nineteen.
How Hawkesbury put in an Appearance at Hawk Street.
When I woke in the morning and called to mind Jack’s confidence of the night before, I could hardly believe I had not dreamt it.