Page 645 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

deed, you are married already?’ she added, with a quick and
angry suspicion.
‘You need not be alarmed. I was not such a fool as to mar-
ry another woman while you were alive—had I even seen
one I would have cared to marry. But what of Lady Devine?
You say you have told her.’
‘I have told her to communicate with Mrs. Carr, Post Of-
fice, Torquay, in order to hear something to her advantage.
If you had been rebellious, John, the ‘something’ would
have been a letter from me telling her who you really are.
Now you have proved obedient, the ‘something’ will be a
begging letter of a sort which she has already received hun-
dreds, and which in all probability she will not even answer.
What do you think of that, Mr. Richard Devine?’
‘You deserve success, Sarah,’ said the old schemer, in
genuine admiration. ‘By Jove, this is something like the old
days, when we were Mr. and Mrs. Crofton.’
‘Or Mr. and Mrs. Skinner, eh, John?’ she said, with as
much tenderness in her voice as though she had been a
virtuous matron recalling her honeymoon. ‘That was an
unlucky name, wasn’t it, dear? You should have taken my
advice there.’ And immersed in recollection of their past
rogueries, the worthy pair pensively smiled. Rex was the
first to awake from that pleasant reverie.
‘I will be guided by you, then,’ he said. ‘What next?’
‘Next—for, as you say, my presence doubles the danger—
we will contrive to withdraw quietly from England. The
introduction to your mother over, and Mr. Francis disposed
of, we will go to Hampstead, and live there for a while. Dur-

For the Term of His Natural Life