‘How thoughtful you are, Mrs Seaton!’ remarked Felix with great admiration. ‘Of course you are right. The old fellow will be delighted beyond measure, and will fancy he has a hand in the matter himself.’
‘I do not see why we should wait for that,’ Edgar grumbled.
‘Impatient boy!’ said Eleanor with a charming smile. ‘Talk about curiosity in woman, indeed!’
‘All right,’ he replied laughingly, his brow clearing at one glance from his wife. ‘I suppose we must wait. I do not see, however, what is to prevent us starting to see him at once. Probably, you won’t be more than an hour putting on your bonnet, Nelly?’
‘I shall be with you in five minutes;’ and, singular to relate, she was.
‘Curiosity,’ remarked Edgar, ‘is a great stimulus, even to women.’
Arrived at Bedford Row, they found Mr Carver at his office, and fortunately disengaged. It did not take that astute gentleman long to perceive, from the faces of his visitors, that something very great and very fortunate had happened.
‘Well, good people,’ he said, cheerfully rubbing his head with considerable vigour, ‘what news? Not particularly bad, by the look of you.’
Edgar stated the case briefly, and at the beginning of his narrative it was plain to see that the worthy solicitor was somewhat disappointed; but when he learned they were nearly as much in the dark as he, he resumed his usual rubicund aspect.
‘Dear, dear! how fortunate. Wonderful, wonderful!’ he exclaimed, hopping about excitedly. ‘Never heard such a thing in my life—never, and thirty years in practice too. Quite a hero, Edgar.’