“Mr. Herbert Linley, I ask permission to reply to your inquiries in
writing, because it is quite likely that some of the opinions you will
find here might offend you if I expressed them personally. I can relieve
your anxiety on the subject of Miss Sydney Westerfield. But I must be
allowed to do so in my own way--without any other restraints than those
which I think it becoming to an honorable man to impose on himself.
“You are quite right in supposing that Miss Westerfield had heard me
spoken of at Mount Morven, as the agent and legal adviser of the lady
who was formerly your wife. What purpose led her to apply to me, under
these circumstances, you will presently discover. As to the means
by which she found her way to my office, I may remind you that any
directory would give her the necessary information.
“Miss Westerfield’s object was to tell me, in the first place, that her
guilty life with you was at an end. She has left your protection--not to
return to it. I was sorry to see (though she tried to hide it from me)
how keenly she felt the parting. You have been dearly loved by two sweet
women, and they have thrown their hearts away on you--as women will.
“Having explained the circumstances so far, Miss Westerfield next
mentioned the motive which had brought her to my office. She asked if I
would inform her of Mrs. Norman’s address.
“This request, I confess, astonished me.
“To my mind she was, of all persons, the last who ought to contemplate
communicating in any way with Mrs. Norman. I say this to you; but I
refrained from saying it to her. What I did venture to do was to ask for
her reasons. She answered that they were reasons which would embarrass
her if she communicated them to a stranger.
“After this reply, I declined to give her the information she wanted.
“Not unprepared, as it appeared to me, for my refusal, she asked next if
I was willing to tell her where she might find your brother, Mr. Randal
Linley. In this case I was glad to comply with her request. She could
address herself to no person worthier to advise her than your brother.
In giving her his address in London, I told her that he was absent on
a visit to some friends, and that he was expected to return in a week’s
time.
“She thanked me, and rose to go.
“I confess I was interested in her. Perhaps I thought of the time when
she might have been as dear to her father as my own daughters are to
me. I asked if her parents were living: they were dead. My next
question was: ‘Have you any friends in London?’ She answered: ‘I have
no friends.’ It was said with a resignation so very sad in so young
a creature that I was really distressed. I ran the risk of offending
her--and asked if she felt any embarrassment in respect of money. She
said: ‘I have some small savings from my salary when I was a governess.’
The change in her tone told me that she was alluding to the time of her
residence at Mount Morven. It was impossible to look at this friendless
girl, and not feel some anxiety about the lodging which she might have
chosen in such a place as London. She had fortunately come to me from
the railway, and had not thought yet of where she was to live. At last
I was able to be of some use to her. My senior clerk took care of Miss
Westerfield, and left her among respectable people, in whose house she
could live cheaply and safely. Where that house is, I refuse (for her
sake) to tell you. She shall not be disturbed.
“After a week had passed I received a visit from my good friend, Randal
Linley.
“He had on that day seen Miss Westerfield. She had said to him what she
had said to me, and had repeated the request which I thought it unwise
to grant; owning to your brother, however, the motives which she had
refused to confide to me. He was so strongly impressed by the sacrifice
of herself which this penitent woman had made, that he was at first
disposed to trust her with Mrs. Norman’s address.
“Reflection, however, convinced him that her motives, pure and
disinterested as they undoubtedly were, did not justify him in letting
her expose herself to the consequences which might follow the proposed
interview. All that he engaged to do was to repeat to Mrs. Norman what
Miss Westerfield had said, and to inform the young lady of the result.
“In the intervals of business, I had felt some uneasiness when I thought
of Miss Westerfield’s prospects. Your good brother at once set all
anxiety on this subject at rest.
“He proposed to place Miss Westerfield under the care of an old and dear
friend of her late father--Captain Bennydeck. Her voluntary separation
from you offered to your brother, and to the Captain, the opportunity
for which they had both been waiting. Captain Bennydeck was then
cruising at sea in his yacht. Immediately on his return, Miss
Westerfield’s inclination would be consulted, and she would no doubt
eagerly embrace the opportunity of being introduced to her father’s
friend.
“I have now communicated all that I know, in reply to the questions
which you have addressed to me. Let me earnestly advise you to make the
one reparation to this poor girl which is in your power. Resign yourself
to a separation which is not only for her good, but for yours.--SAMUEL
SARRAZIN.”