‘I suppose you have some friends?’ he continued hastily, to cover Eleanor’s confusion. ‘It’s a poor world that won’t stand one good friend.’
‘Yes, we have one,’ replied Eleanor, her face lighting up with a tender glow—‘a good friend. You have heard of Jasper Felix the author? He is far the best friend we have.’
‘Heard of Felix! I should think I have. Read every one of his books. I am glad to hear of his befriending you. I knew the man who writes as he does must have a noble heart.’
‘He has. What we should have done without his assistance, I shudder to contemplate. I honestly believe that not one of my husband’s literary efforts would have been accepted, had it not been for him.’
‘I can’t help thinking, Nelly, that there is a providence in these things, and I feel that better days are in store for you. Anyway, it won’t be my fault if it is not so. I have a presentiment that things will come out all right in the end, and I fancy that your uncle’s fortune is hidden away somewhere; and if it is hidden away, it must be, I cannot help thinking, for your benefit.’
‘Don’t count upon it, Mr Carver,’ said Eleanor calmly. ‘I look upon the money as gone.’
‘Nonsense!’ said that gentleman cheerfully; ‘while there is life there is hope. I begin to feel that I am playing a leading character in a romance; I do, indeed! Firstly, your uncle dies, and his fortune is lost; secondly, you disappear; and at the very moment I am longing—literally longing—to see you, you turn up. Now, all that remains is to find the hidden treasure, and to be happy ever afterwards, like the people in a fairy tale.’
‘Always enthusiastic,’ laughed Eleanor. ‘All we have to do is to discover a mystic clue to a buried chest of diamonds, only we lack the clue.’
‘’Pon my word, my dear, do you know I really think you have hit it?’ replied Mr Carver with great solemnity. ‘Now, at the time you left Eastwood, your companion Margaret was in the house; and after your uncle’s death, she disappeared. From a little hint Miss Wakefield dropped to me, your old friend was in the sickroom alone with your uncle the day he died.’
‘Alone? and then disappeared,’ said Eleanor, all trace of apathy gone, and her eyes shining with interest.