me to him," Laura resumed, with the complacency of one who saw
a goodly portion of the festival she was enjoying still before her. "I
was going to say, Mr. Pericles had poor Mr. Pole in his power; has him,
would be the correcter tense. And Wilfrid, as you may have heard, had
really grossly insulted him, even to the extent of maltreating him--a
poor foreigner--rich foreigner, if you like! but not capable of standing
against a strong young man in wrath. However, now there can be little
doubt that Wilfrid repents. He had been trying ever since to see Mr.
Pericles; and the very morning of that day, I believe, he saw him and
humbled himself to make an apology. This had put Mr. Pole in good
spirits, and in the evening--he and Mrs. Chump were very fond of their
wine after dinner--he was heard that very evening to name a day for his
union with her; for that had been quite understood, and he had asked his
daughters and got their consent. The sight of Sir Purcell's corpse, and
the cries of Cornelia, must have turned him childish. I cannot conceive a
situation so harrowing as that of those poor children hearing their
father declare himself an impostor! a beggar! a peculator! He cried, poor
unhappy man, real tears! The truth was that his nerves suddenly gave way.
For, just before--only just before, he was smiling and talking largely.
He wished to go on his knees to every one of them, and kept telling them
of his love--the servants all awake and listening! and more gossiping
servants than the Poles always, by the most extraordinary inadvertence,
managed to get, you never heard of! Nothing would stop him from
humiliating himself! No one paid any attention to Mrs. Chump until she
started from her chair. They say that some of the servants who were
crying outside, positively were compelled to laugh when they heard her
first outbursts. And poor Mr. Pole confessed that he had touched her
money. He could not tell her how much. Fancy such a scene, with a dead
man in the house! Imagination almost refuses to conjure it up! Not to
dwell on it too long--for, I have never endured such a shock as it has
given me--Mrs. Chump left the house, and the next thing received from her
was a lawyer's letter. Business men say she is not to blame: women may
cherish their own opinion. But, oh, Miss Belloni! is it not terrible? You
are pale."

Emilia behind what she felt for her friends, had a dim comprehension of
the meaning of their old disgust at Laura, duri