"I am here, and I must
bear all that follows. I had hoped to preserve my incognito. If I
cannot, well, I must bear the shame."
"And your mother?" asked the lawyer.
"My poor mother! Perhaps, after all, you had better go down to Ulverston
and tell her! She will begin to wonder where I am. Besides, the London
house must be attended to."
"If I know Lady Carruthers rightly," said the lawyer, "she will never
get over the blow."
"Tell her that I am here, and why, but tell her also that I refuse to
give an explanation to any human being. Tell her the honor of the
Carruthers seals my lips; try to comfort her if she seems distressed; do
all she wishes you."
"How am I to comfort a mother whose eldest and only son has thrown all
prudence to the wind; who has disgraced himself so far as to stand in a
felon's dock; who has wantonly laid his life bare and waste--for what?"
A strange smile came over the young face.
"Ah! for what! I know; no one else does. There is a reward, and it
satisfies me."
"If ever a Carruthers went mad," said Mr. Forster, angrily, "I should
say you were mad now!"
Basil paid no heed to the remark.
"The only thing I can do," he said, "I will do. I will go to Vienna as
soon as I leave here. I will not remain in London one-half hour."
"I fear your compliance will be too late then," he said. "I must leave
you, if I go to Ulverston this evening. I have several matters that I
must attend to.
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