You have heard that old woman there fling my poverty in my teeth;
yet you could keep this from me--just to assist a cheat and play upon the
feelings of a friend. Now, what good has that done you, to inflict misery
on me in sport, on a man who never gave you a moment's pain if he could
help it?"
Fanny looked ruefully this way and that, her face began to work, and she
laid down her arms, if a lady can be said to do that who lays down a
strong weapon and takes up a stronger; in other words, she burst out
crying, and said no more. You see, she was poor herself.
Severne took no notice of her; he was accustomed to make women cry. He
thrust his head out of the window in hopes of seeing a station near, and
his whole being was restless as if he would like to jump out.
While he was in this condition of mind and body, the hand he had once
kissed so tenderly, and shocked Miss Maitland, passed an envelope over
his shoulder, with two lines written on it in pencil:
"If you GO BACK TO HOMBURG, oblige ME BY REMAINING there."
This demands an explanation; but it shall be brief.
Fanny's shrewd hint, that the money could only be obtained from Mdlle.
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