"If Aunt Jenkins were the shrewd woman she used to be, I'd lay the
whole case before her, and have it out; but she is not," contended Dan
Jenkins, tilting the tongs in his hand, as we sat round the dying
embers of the surgery fire.
His brother Sam and I had walked home together from Mrs. Knox's soirée,
and we overtook Dan in the town. Another soirée had been held in Lefford
that night, which Dan had promised himself to before knowing Mrs. Knox
would have one. We all three turned into the surgery. Dr. Knox was out
with a patient, and Sam had to wait up for him. Sam had been telling
his brother what we witnessed up at Rose Villa--the promenade round the
laurels that Captain Collinson and Mina had stolen in the moonlight. As
for me, though I heard what Sam said, and put in a confirming word here
and there, I was thinking my own thoughts. In a small way, nothing had
ever puzzled me much more than the letter Charlotte Knox had seen. Who
was Madame St. Vincent? and who was her sister, that I, Johnny Ludlow,
might not meet her?
"You see," continued Dan, "one reason why I can't help suspecting the
fellow, is this--he does not address Mina openly. If he were honest and
above board, he would go in for her before all the world. He wouldn't do
it in secret."
"What do you suspect him of?" cried Sam.
"I don't know. I do suspect him--that he is somehow not on the square.
It's not altogether about Mina; but I have no confidence in the man."
Sam laughed. "Of course you have not, Dan. You want to keep Mina for
yourself."
Dan pitched his soft hat at Sam's head, and let fall the tongs with a
clatter.
"Collinson seems to be all right," I put in. "He is going up to London
to a levée, and he is going to buy an estate. At least, he told me so
to-night in the supper-room."
"Oh, in one sense of the word the fellow is all right," acknowledged
Dan. "He is what he pretends to be; he is in the army list; and, for all
I know to the contrary, he may have enough gold to float an argosy of
ships. What I ask is, why he should go sneaking after Mina _when he does
not care for her_."
"That may be just a fallacy of ours, Dan," said his brother.
"No, it's not. Collinson is in love with Madame St. Vincent; not with
Mina."
"Then why does he spoon after Mina?"
"That's just it--why?"
"Any way, I don't think madame is in love with him, Dan. It was proposed
that he should take aunt home to-night, and madame was as tart as you
please over it, letting all the room know that she did not want him."
"Put it down so," agreed Dan, stooping to pick up the tongs. "Say that
he is not fond of madame, but of Mina, and would like to make her his
wife: why does he not go about it in a proper manner; court her openly,
speak to her mother; instead of pursuing her covertly like a sneak?"
"It may be his way of courting."
"May it! It is anything but a right way. He is for ever seeking to meet
her on the sly. I know it. He got her out in the garden to-night to a
meeting, you say: you and Johnny Ludlow saw it."
"Dicky saw it too, and Charlotte got the truth out of him. There may be
something in what you say, Dan."
"There's a great deal in what I say," contended Dan, his honest face
full of earnestness. "Look here. Here's an officer and a gentleman; a
rich man, as we are given to believe, and we've no reason to doubt it.
He seems to spend enough--Carter saw him lose five pounds last night,
betting at billiards. If he is in love with a young lady, there's
nothing to hinder a man like that from going in for her openly----"
"Except her age," struck in Sam. "He may think they'll refuse Mina to
him on that score."
"Stuff! I wish you wouldn't interrupt me, Sam. Every day will help to
remedy that--and he might undertake to wait a year or two. But I feel
sure and certain he does not really care for Mina; I feel sure that, if
he is seeking in this underhand way to get her to promise to marry him,
he has some ulterior motive in view. My own belief is he would like to
kidnap her."