This course of proceeding at once informed him that the first steamer,
bound for that destination, would sail from London in two days' time.
The obvious precaution to take was to have the Dock watched; and
Mountjoy's steady old servant, who knew Lord Harry by sight, was the
man to employ.
Iris naturally inquired what good end could be attained, if the
anticipated discovery actually took place.
To this Mountjoy answered, that the one hope--a faint hope, he must
needs confess--of inducing Lord Harry to reconsider his desperate
purpose, lay in the influence of Iris herself. She must address a
letter to him, announcing that his secret had been betrayed by his own
language and conduct, and declaring that she would never again see him,
or hold any communication with him, if he persisted in his savage
resolution of revenge. Such was the desperate experiment which
Mountjoy's generous and unselfish devotion to Iris now proposed to try.
The servant (duly entrusted with Miss Henley's letter) was placed on
the watch--and the event which had been regarded as little better than
a forlorn hope, proved to be the event that really took place. Lord
Harry was a passenger by the steamship.
Mountjoy's man presented the letter entrusted to him, and asked
respectfully if there was any answer. The wild lord read it--looked (to
use the messenger's own words) like a man cut to the heart--seemed at a
loss what to say or do--and only gave a verbal answer: "I sincerely
thank Miss Henley, and I promise to write when the ship touches at
Madeira." The servant continued to watch him when he went on board the
steamer; saw him cast a look backwards, as if suspecting that he might
have been followed; and then lost sight of him in the cabin. The vessel
sailed after a long interval of delay, but he never reappeared on the
deck.
The ambiguous message sent to her aroused the resentment of Iris; she
thought it cruel. For some weeks perhaps to come, she was condemned to
remain in doubt, and was left to endure the trial of her patience,
without having Mountjoy at hand to encourage and console her. He had
been called away to the south of France by the illness of his father.
But the fortunes of Miss Henley, at this period of her life, had their
brighter side. She found reason to congratulate herself on the
reconciliation which had brought her back to her father. Mr. Henley had
received her, not perhaps with affection, but certainly with kindness.
"If we don't get in each other's way, we shall do very well; I am glad
to see you again." That was all he had said to her, but it meant much
from a soured and selfish man.