KAURI GUM.
The reader will no doubt think that Ferdinand Lopez must have been very hardly driven indeed by circumstances before he would have made such an appeal to the Duke as given in the last chapter.But it was not the want of money only that had brought it about.It may be remembered that the 500 pounds had already been once repaid him by his father-in-law,--that special sum having been given to him for that special purpose.And Lopez, when he wrote to the Duke, assured himself that if, by any miracle, his letter should produce pecuniary results in the shape of a payment from the Duke, he would refund the money so obtained to Mr Wharton.But when he wrote the letter he did not expect to get the money,--nor, indeed, did he expect that aid towards another seat, to which he alluded at the close of the letter.He expected probably nothing but to vex the Duke, and to drive the Duke into correspondence with him.
Though this man had lived nearly all his life in England, he had not quite acquired that knowledge of the way in which things are done which is general among men of a certain class, and so rare among those beneath them.He had not understood that the Duchess's promise of her assistance at Silverbridge might be taken by him for what it was worth, and that her aid might be used as far as it went,--but, that in the event of its failing him, he was bound in honour to take the result without complaining, whatever that result might be.He felt that a grievous injury,--even though it were against a woman.He just knew that he could not very well write to the Duchess herself,--though there was sometimes present to his mind a plan for attacking her in public, and telling her what evil she had done him.He had half resolved that he would do so in her own garden at The Horns;--but on that occasion the apparition of Arthur Fletcher had disturbed him, and he had vented his anger in another direction.But still his wrath against the Duke and Duchess remained, and he was wont to indulge it with very violent language as he sat upon one of the chairs in Sexty Parker's office, talking somewhat loudly of his own position, of the things that he would do, and of the injury done him.Sexty Parker sympathized with him to the full,--especially as that first 500 pounds, which he had received from Mr Wharton, had gone into Sexty's coffers.At that time Lopez and Sexty were together committed to large speculations in the guano trade, and Sexty's mind was by no means easy in the early periods of the day.As he went into town by his train he would think of his wife and family and of the terrible things that might happen to them.But yet, up to this period, money had always been forthcoming from Lopez when absolutely wanted, and Sexty was quite alive to the fact that he was living with a freedom of expenditure in his own household that he had never known before, and that without apparent damage.Whenever, therefore, at some critical moment, a much-needed sum of money was produced Sexty would become light-hearted, triumphant, and very sympathetic.'Well;--I never heard such a story,' he had said when Lopez was insisting on his wrongs.'That's what the Dukes and Duchesses call honour among thieves! Well, Ferdy, my boy, if you stand that you'll stand anything.' In these latter days Sexty had become very intimate with his partner.
'I don't mean to stand it,' Lopez had replied, and then on the spot had written the letter which he had dated from Manchester Square.He had certainly contrived to make that letter as oppressive as possible.He had been clever enough to put into it words which were sure to wound the poor Duke and to confound the Duchess.And having written it he was very careful to keep the first draft, so that if occasion came he might use it again and push for vengeance farther.But he certainly had not expected such a result as it produced.