Mrs Parker, when she saw him, got up, and curtsied low, and then sat down again.Old Wharton looked at her from under his bushy eyebrows before he spoke, and then sat opposite her.'Madam,' he said, 'this is a very sad story that I have heard.' Mrs Parker again rose, and again curtsied, and put her handkerchief to her face.'It is of no use talking any more about it here.'
'No, sir,' said Mrs Parker.
'I and my daughter leave town early to-morrow morning.'
'Indeed, sir.Mrs Lopez didn't tell me.'
'My clerk will be in London, at No.12, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, till I come back.Do you think you can find the place? Ihave written it there.'
'Yes, sir, I can find it,' said Mrs Parker, just raising herself from her chair at every word he spoke.
'I have written his name, you see.Mr Crumpy.'
'Yes, sir.'
'If you will permit me, I will give you two sovereigns now.'
'Thank you, sir.'
'And if you can make it convenient to call on Mr Crumpy every Thursday morning about twelve, he will pay you two sovereigns a week till I come back to town.Then I will see about it.'
'God Almighty bless you, sir!'
'And as to the furniture, I will write to my attorney, Mr Walker.
You need not trouble yourself by going to him.'
'No, sir.'
'If necessary, he will send to you, and he will see what can be done.Good night Mrs Parker.' Then he walked across the room with two sovereigns which he dropped into her hand.Mrs Parker, with many sobs, bade him farewell, and Mr Wharton stood in the hall immoveable till the front door had been closed behind her.
'I have settled it,' he said to Emily.'I'll tell you to-morrow, or some day.Don't worry yourself now, but go to bed.' She looked wistfully,--so sadly, up into his face, and then did as he bade her.
But Mr Wharton could not go to bed without further trouble.It was incumbent on him to write full particulars that very night both to Mr Walker and to Mr Crumpy.And the odious letters in the writing became very long;--odious because he had to confess in them over and over again that his daughter, the very apple of his eye, had been the wife of a scoundrel.To Mr Walker he had to tell the whole story of the alleged forgery, and in doing so could not abstain from the use of hard words.'I don't suppose that it can be proved, but there is every reason to believe that it's true.' And again--'I believe the man to have been as vile a scoundrel as ever was made by the love of money.' Even to Mr Crumpy he could not be reticent.'She is an object of pity,' he said.'Her husband was ruined by the infamous speculations of Mr Lopez.' Then he betook himself to bed.Oh, how happy would he be to pay the two thousand weekly pounds,--even to add to that the amount of the forged bill, if by doing so he might be saved from ever hearing again the name of Lopez.
The amount of the bill was ultimately lost by the bankers who had advanced the money on it.As for Mrs Sexty Parker, from week to week, and from month to month, and at last from year to year, she and her children,--and probably her husband also,--were supported by the weekly pension of two sovereigns which she always received on Thursday mornings form the hands of Mr Crumpy himself.In a little time the one excitement of her life was the weekly journey to Mr Crumpy, whom she came to regard as a man appointed by Providence to supply her with 40s on Thursday morning.As to poor Sexty Parker,--it is to be feared that he never again became a prosperous man.
'You will tell me what you did for that poor woman, papa,' said Emily, leaning over her father in the train.
'I have settled it, my dear.'
'You said you'd tell me.'
'Crumpy will pay her two pounds a week till we know more about it.' Emily pressed her father's hand, and that was an end.No one ever did know any more about it, and Crumpy continued to pay the money.
