VERY HARD CASH.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND."

CHAPTER XLIV.

AFTER a defiance so bitter and deadly, Alfred
naturally drew away from his inamorata. But
she, boiling with love and hate, said bitterly,
"We need not take Mr. Rooke into our secrets.
Come, sir, your arm!"

He stuck it out ungraciously, and averted his
head; she took it, suppressed with difficulty a
petty desire to pinch, and so walked by his side;
he was as much at his ease as if promenading
jungles with a panther. She felt him quiver with
repugnance under her soft hand; and prolonged
the irritating contact. She walked very slowly,
and told him with much meaning she was waiting
for a signal. "Till then," said she, "we
will keep one another company;" biting the
word with her teeth as it went out.

By-and-by a window was opened in the asylum,
and a tablecloth hung out. Mrs. Archbold
pointed it out to Alfred; he stared at it; and
after that she walked him rapidly home in silence.
But, as soon as the door was double-locked on
him, she whispered triumphantly in his ear:

"Your mother-in-law was expected to-day;
that signal was to let me know she was gone."

"My mother-in-law!" cried the young man,
and tried in vain to conceal his surprise and
agitation.

"Ay; your mother-in-law, that shall never be:
Mrs. Dodd."

"Mrs. Dodd here!" said Alfred, clasping his
hands. Then he reflected, and said coolly: "It
is false; what should she come here for?"

"To see your father-in-law."

"My father-in-law? What, is he here, too?"
said Alfred, with an incredulous sneer.

"Yes, the raving maniac that calls himself
Thompson, and that you took to from the first:
he is your precious father-in-law—that shall
never be."

Alfred was now utterly amazed, and bewildered.
Mrs. Archbold eyed him in silent scorn.

"Poor man," said he, at last; and hung his
head sorrowfully. "No wonder then his voice
went so to my heart. How strange it all is?
and how will it all end?"

"In your being a madman instead of an
insolent fool," hissed the viper.

At this moment Beverley appeared at the end
of the yard. Mrs. Archbold whistled him to her
like a dog. He came running zealously. "Who
was that called while I was out?" she inquired.

"A polite lady, madam: she said sir to me,
and thanked me."

"That sounds like Mrs. Dodd," said the
Archbold, quietly.

"Ah, but," continued Frank, "there was
another with her: a beautiful young lady; oh,
so beautiful!"

"Miss Julia Dodd," said the Archbold grimly.

Alfred panted, and his eyes roved wildly in
search of a way to escape and follow her; she
could not be far off.

"Anybody else, Frank?" inquired Mrs. Archbold.

"No more ladies, madam; but there was a
young gentleman all in black; I think he was a
clergyman; or a butler."

"Ah, that was her husband that is to be; that
was Mr. Hurd. She can go nowhere without
him, not even to see her old beau."

At these words, every one of them an adder,
Alfred turned on her furiously, and his long arm
shot out of its own accord, and the fingers opened
like an eagle's claw. She saw, and understood,
but never blenched. Her vindictive eye met his
dilating flashing orbs unflinchingly.

"You pass for a woman," he said, "and I am
too wretched for anger." He turned from her
with a deep convulsive sob, and, almost staggering,
leaned his brow against the wall of the
house.

She had done what no man had as yet
succeeded in; she had broken his spirit. And here
a man would have left him alone. But the
rejected beauty put her lips to his ear, and
whispered into them: "This is only the beginning."
Then she left him, and went to his room and
stole all his paper, and pens, and ink, and his
very Aristotle. He was to have no occupation
now, except to brood, and brood, and brood.

As for Alfred, he sat down upon a bench in the
yard, a broken man: up to this moment he had
hoped his Julia was as constant as himself. But
no; either she had heard he was mad, and with
the universal credulity had believed it, or perhaps
not hearing from him at all, believed herself
forsaken; and was consoling herself with a clergyman.
Jealousy did not as yet infuriate Alfred.
Its first effect resembled that of a heavy blow.