Jove.  I bet you fifty, if he stays here three months, he’ll be at swords or pistols with some of our hot bloods.  And whatever his secret is—­and I dare say ’tisn’t worth knowing—­the people here will ferret it out at last, I warrant you.  There’s small good in making all the fuss he does about it; if he knew but all, there’s no such thing as a secret here—­hang the one have I, I know, just because there’s no use in trying.  The whole town knows when I’ve tripe for dinner, and where I have a patch or a darn.  And when I got the fourteen pigeons at Darkey’s-bridge, the birds were not ten minutes on my kitchen table when old Widow Foote sends her maid and her compliments, as she knew my pie-dish only held a dozen, to beg the two odd birds.  Secret, indeed!’ and he whistled a bar or two contemptuously, which subsided into dejected silence, and he muttered, ’I wish I knew it,’ and walked over the bridge gloomily; and he roared more fiercely on smaller occasions than usual at his dogs on the way home, and they squalled oftener and louder.

Now, for some reason or other, Dangerfield had watched the growing intimacy between Mervyn and Miss Gertrude Chattesworth with an evil eye.  He certainly did know something about this Mr. Mervyn, with his beautiful sketches, and his talk about Italy, and his fine music.  And his own spectacles had carefully surveyed Miss Chattesworth, and she had passed the ordeal satisfactorily.  And Dangerfield thought, ’These people can’t possibly suspect the actual state of the case, and who and what this gentleman is to my certain knowledge; and ’tis a pity so fine a young lady should be sacrificed for want of a word spoken in season.’  And when he had decided upon a point, it was not easy to make him stop or swerve.

CHAPTER XXII.

TELLING HOW MR. MERVYN FARED AT BELMONT, AND OF A PLEASANT LITTLE DEJEUNER BY THE MARGIN OF THE LIFFEY.

Now it happened that on the very same day, the fashion of Dr. Walsingham’s and of Aunt Rebecca’s countenances were one and both changed towards Mr. Mervyn, much to his chagrin and puzzle.  The doctor, who met him near his own house on the bridge, was something distant in manner, and looked him in the face with very grave eyes, and seemed sad, and as if he had something on his mind, and laid his hand upon the young man’s arm, and addressed himself to speak; but glancing round his shoulder, and seeing people astir, and that they were under observation, he reserved himself.

That both the ladies of Belmont looked as if they had heard some strange story, each in her own way.  Aunt Rebecca received the young man without a smile, and was unaccountably upon her high horse, and said some dry and sharp things, and looked as if she could say more, and coloured menacingly, and, in short, was odd, and very nearly impertinent.  And Gertrude, though very gentle and kind, seemed also much graver, and looked pale, and her eyes larger and more excited, and altogether like a brave young lady who had fought a battle without crying.  And Mervyn saw all this and pondered on it, and went away soon; the iron entered into his soul.