The woman's faithful attachment to Iris pleaded for her with Hugh.
"Try, if you like," he said kindly.
Speaking as seriously as ever, Fanny proceeded to describe her
experience at the keyhole. What she had seen was not worth relating.
What she had heard proved to be more important.
The talk between my lord and the doctor had been about raising money.
They had different notions of how to do that. My lord's plan was to
borrow what was wanted, on his life-insurance. The doctor told him he
couldn't do that, till his insurance had been going on for three or
four years at least. "I have something better and bolder to propose,"
says Mr. Vimpany. It must have been also something wicked--for he
whispered it in the master's ear. My lord didn't take to it kindly.
"How do you think I could face my wife," he says, "if she discovered
me?" The doctor says: "Don't be afraid of your wife; Lady Harry will
get used to many things which she little thought of before she married
you." Says my lord to that: "I have done my best, Vimpany, to improve
my wife's opinion of you. If you say much more, I shall come round to
her way of thinking. Drop it!"--"All right," says the doctor, "I'll
drop it now, and wait to pick it up again till you come to your last
bank note." There the talk ended for that day---and Fanny would be glad
to know what Mr. Mountjoy thought of it.
"I think you have done me a service," Hugh replied.
"Tell me how, sir."
"I can only tell you this, Fanny. You have shown me how to relieve your
mistress of the doctor."
For the first time, the maid's impenetrable composure completely failed
her. The smouldering fire in Fanny Mere flamed up. She impulsively
kissed Mountjoy's hand. The moment her lips touched it she shrank back:
the natural pallor of her face became whiter than ever. Startled by the
sudden change, Hugh asked if she was ill.
She shook her head.
"It isn't that. Yours is the first man's hand I have kissed, since--"
She checked herself. "I beg you won't ask me about it. I only meant to
thank you, sir; I do thank you with all my heart--I mustn't stay here
any longer."
As she spoke the sound of a key was heard, opening the lock of the
cottage-door. Lord Harry had returned.