e gone, our good
Colonel held a council of war with us his two friends, and told us what
had happened between him and Barnes on that morning and the previous
night. His offer to sacrifice every shilling of his fortune to young
Clive seemed to him to be perfectly simple (though the recital of the
circumstance brought tears into my wife's eyes)--he mentioned it by the
way, and as a matter that was scarcely to call for comment, much less
praise.

Barnes's extraordinary statements respecting Lady Kew's absence puzzled
the elder Newcome; and he spoke of his nephew's conduct with much
indignation. In vain I urged that her ladyship desiring to be considered
absent from London, her grandson was bound to keep her secret. "Keep
her secret, yes! Tell me lies, no!" cries out the Colonel. Sir Barnes's
conduct was in fact indefensible, though not altogether unusual--the
worst deduction to be drawn from it, in my opinion, was, that Clive's
chance with the young lady was but a poor one, and that Sir Barnes
Newcome, inclined to keep his uncle in good-humour, would therefore give
him no disagreeable refusal.

Now this gentleman could no more pardon a lie than he could utter one.
He would believe all and everything a man told him until deceived once,
after which he never forgave. And wrath being once roused in his simple
mind and distrust firmly fixed there, his anger and prejudices gathered
daily. He could see no single good quality in his opponent; and hated
him with a daily increasing bitterness.

As ill luck would have it, that very same evening, at his return to
town, Thomas Newcome entered Bays's club, of which, at our request, he
had become a member during his last visit to England, and there was Sir
Barnes, as usual, on his way homewards from the City. Barnes was writing
at a table, and sealing and closing a letter, as he saw the Colonel
enter; he thought he had been a little inattentive and curt with
his uncle in the morning; had remarked, perhaps, the expression of
disapproval on the Colonel's countenance. He simpered up to his uncle as
the latter entered the clubroom, and apologised for his haste when they
met in the City in the morning--all City men were so busy! "And I have
been writing about that little affair, just as you came in," he said;
"quite a moving letter to Lady Kew, I assure you, and I do hope and
trust we shall have a favourable answer in a day or two."

"You said her ladyship was in the North, I think?" said