The fainting lady had been carried in the mean time by the villagers into the thatched cottage, and into it Frank also proceeded to watch over her recovery. Two ladies were bending over her; and, on Frank's approach, the elder one looked up. The younger one also saw him. There was nothing more needed than that look. Frank took a hand of each. There was an end of his uncertainties. It was Alice Elstree and her mother.
While the recognitions were going on outside, and Sibylla was slowly recovering, a phaeton had driven rapidly up, and Old Smith and his son had jumped out, and laid violent hands on Percy Marvale's collar.
"You villain, you ruffian, you swindler!" began my old friend out of breath.
"Actionable!" observed the philanthropic attorney. "I'll take down his words."
"Where is my daughter, sir?"
"I don't know. I—that is—my friend Edwards"—
"What has he to do with it, sir?"
"I should say, sir," said General Hosham, advancing in a most polite manner, and lifting his hat—"that it is probable the person alluded to by my son is guilty of the crime, whatever it is you now charge my boy with. The person has gone into that cottage, and you can arrest him on the spot."
"Oho!" said Mr Smith, "I think I recollect your faces, my fine fellows. Haven't we met at the quarter sessions? Was not there some rumour about your extorting money from a tenant a year or two ago, by threats of accusing him of passing a forged note?"
The general made a stately bow, and The Chobb himself, who had joined the crowd, felt crestfallen, and limped back again into the house.