"Yes," said I, "his wife, and young, and beautiful as an angel."
"Young, and beautiful as an angel!" repeated Jack. "Good Lord, Macrorie!"
"Well, you know, I thought his wife was Miss O'Halloran, and the other Miss Marion."
"What's that? his wife? You thought she was Miss O'Halloran?"
"Yes, and the one I saved on the ice, you know--"
"Well, all I can say is, old fellow, I'm confoundedly sorry for your sake that she's a married woman. That rather knocks your little game.
At the same time it's a very queer thing that I didn't know any thing about it. Still, I wasn't at the house much, and Mrs. O'Halloran might have been out of town. I didn't know any thing about their family affairs, and never heard them mentioned. I thought there was only a daughter in the family. Never dreamed of there being a wife."
"Well, there is a wife--a Mrs. O'Halloran--so young and beautiful that I took her for the old man's daughter; and Jack, my boy, I'm in a scrape."
"A scrape?"
"Yes--a duel. Will you be my second?"
"A duel!" cried Jack, and gave a long whistle.
"Fact," said I, "and it all arose out of my mistaking a man's wife for His daughter."
"Mistaking her?" cried Jack, with a roar of laughter. "So you did. Oh, Macrorie! how awfully spooney you were about her, you know--ready to fight with your best friend about her, and all that, you know. And how did it go on? What happened? Come, now, don't do the reticent. Out with it, man. Every bit of it. A duel! And about a man's wife! Good Lord Macrorie, you'll have to leave the regiment. An affair like this will rouse the whole town. These infernal newspapers will give exaggerated accounts of every thing, you know. And then you'll get it. By Jove, Macrorie, I begin to think your scrape is worse than mine."
"By-the-way, Jack, how are you doing?"
"Confound it man, what do you take me for? Do you think I'm a stalk or a stone. No, by Jove, I'm a man, and I'm crazy to hear about your affair. What happened? What did you do? What did you say? Something must have taken place, you know. You must have been awfully sweet on her. By Jove! And did the old fellow see you at it? Did he notice any thing? A duel! Something must have happened. Oh, by Jove! don't I know the old rascal! Not boisterous, not noisy, but keen, sir, as a razor, and every word a dagger. The most savage, cynical, cutting, insulting old scoundrel of an Irishman that I ever met with. By Heaven, Macrorie, I'd like to be principal in the duel instead of second. By Jove, how that old villain did walk into me that last time I called there!
"Well, you see," I began, "when I went to his house he introduced _me_, And didn't introduce _her_."
"Yes."
"Well, I talked with her several times, but for various reasons, unnecessary to state, I never mentioned her name. I just chatted with her, you know, the way a fellow generally does."
"Was the old fellow by?"
"Oh, yes, but you know yesterday I went there and found her alone."
"Well?"
"Well--you know--you were so determined at the time of our row, that I resolved to be beforehand, so I at once made a rush for the prize, and --and--"
"And, what?"
"Why--did the spooney--you know--told her my feelings--and all that sort of thing, you know."
I then went on and gave Jack a full account of that memorable scene, The embarrassment of Nora, and the arrival of O'Halloran, together with our evening afterward, and the challenge.
To all this Jack listened with intense eagerness, and occasional bursts Of uncontrollable laughter.
I concluded my narrative with my departure from the house. Of my return, my wanderings with Marion, my sight of him at Berton's, and all those other circumstances, I did not say a word. Those things were not the sort that I chose to reveal to anybody, much less to Jack.
Suddenly, and in the midst of his laughter and nonsense, Jack's face changed. He grew serious. He thrust his hand in his pocket with something like consternation, and then drew forth--
CHAPTER XXX.
A LETTER!--STRANGE HESITATION.--GLOOMY FOREBODINGS.--JACK DOWN DEEP IN THE DUMPS.--FRESH CONFESSIONS.--WHY HE MISSED THE TRYST.--REMORSE AND REVENGE.--JACK'S VOWS OF VENGEANCE.--A VERY SINGULAR AND UNACCOUNTABLE CHARACTER.--JACK'S GLOOMY MENACES.
"By Jove!" he exclaimed, "I'll be hanged if I haven't forgot all about it. It's been in my pocket ever since yesterday morning."
Saying this, he held up the letter, and looked at it for some time Without opening it, and with a strange mixture of embarrassment and ruefulness in his expression.
"What's that?" said I, carelessly. "A letter? Who's it from, Jack?"
Jack did not give any immediate answer. He turned the letter over and over, looking at it on the front and on the back.
"You seem hit hard, old man," said I, "about something. Is it a secret?"
"Oh, no," said Jack, with a sigh.
"Well, what's the matter?"
"OH, only this," said he, with another sigh.
"What, that letter?"
"Yes."
"It don't look like a dun, old chap--so, why fret?"
"Oh, no," said Jack, with a groan.
"What's the reason you don't open it?"
Jack shook his head.
"I've a pretty good idea of what's in it," said he. "There are some letters you can read without opening them, old boy, and this is one of them. You know the general nature of the contents, and you don't feel altogether inclined to go over all the small details."
"You don't mean to say that you're not going to open it?"
"Oh, I'll open it," said Jack, more dolefully than ever.
"Then, why don't you open it now?"