When Mountjoy had rung for the servant, and the bedroom door had been
unlocked, it was too late to follow the fugitive. Her cab was waiting
for her outside; and the attention of the porter had been distracted,
at the same time, by a new arrival of travellers at the hotel.
It is more or less in the nature of all men who are worthy of the name,
to take refuge from distress in action. Hugh decided on writing to
Iris, and on making his appeal to her father, that evening. He
abstained from alluding, in his letter, to the manner in which she had
left him; it was her right, it was even her duty to spare herself. All
that he asked was to be informed of her present place of residence, so
that he might communicate the result--in writing only if she preferred
it--of his contemplated interview with her father. He addressed his
letter to the care of Mr. Vimpany, to be forwarded, and posted it
himself.
This done, he went on at once to Mr. Henley's house.
The servant who opened the door had evidently received his orders. Mr.
Henley was "not at home." Mountjoy was in no humour to be trifled with.
He pushed the man out of his way, and made straight for the
dining-room. There, as his previous experience of the habits of the
household had led him to anticipate, was the man whom he was determined
to see. The table was laid for Mr. Henley's late dinner.
Hugh's well-meant attempt to plead the daughter's cause with the father
ended as Iris had said it would end.
After hotly resenting the intrusion on him that had been committed, Mr.
Henley declared that a codicil to his will, depriving his daughter
absolutely of all interest in his property, had been legally executed
that day. For a time, Mountjoy's self-control had resisted the most
merciless provocation. All that it was possible to effect, by patient
entreaty and respectful remonstrance, he had tried again and again, and
invariably in vain. At last, Mr. Henley's unbridled insolence
triumphed. Hugh lost his temper--and, in leaving the heartless old man,
used language which he afterwards remembered with regret.
To feel that he had attempted to assert the interests of Iris, and that
he had failed, was, in Hugh's heated state of mind, an irresistible
stimulant to further exertion. It was perhaps not too late yet to make
another attempt to delay (if not to prevent) the marriage.
In sheer desperation, Mountjoy resolved to inform Lord Harry that his
union with Miss Henley would be followed by the utter ruin of her
expectations from her father. Whether the wild lord only considered his
own interests, or whether he was loyally devoted to the interests of
the woman whom he loved, in either case the penalty to be paid for the
marriage was formidable enough to make him hesitate.