that very evening, without a minute's delay, cecil determined to go round and have a talk with ethel sunderland. "strike while the iron's hot," he said to himself. "there isn't a minute to be lost; for who knows but somebody else may find john cann's treasure before i do?"
ethel opened the door to him herself; theirs was an old engagement of long standing, after the usual government clerk's fashion; and aunt emily didn't stand out so stiffly as many old maids do for the regular proprieties. very pretty ethel looked with her pale face and the red ribbon[pg 197] in her hair; very pretty, but cecil feared, as he looked into her dark hazel eyes, a little wearied and worn-out, for it was her music-lesson day, as he well remembered. her music-lesson day! ethel sutherland to give music-lessons to some wretched squealing children at the west-end, when all john cann's wealth was lying there, uncounted, only waiting for him and her to take it and enjoy it! the bare thought was a perfect purgatory to him. he must get that two hundred pounds to-night, or give up the enterprise altogether.
"well, ethel darling," he said tenderly, taking her pretty little hand in his; "you look tired, dearest. those horrid children have been bothering you again. how i wish we were married, and you were well out of it!"
ethel smiled a quiet smile of resignation. "they are rather trying, cecil," she said gently, "especially on days when one has got a headache; but, after all, i'm very glad to have the work to do; it helps such a lot to eke out our little income. we have so very little, you know, even for two lonely women to live upon in simple little lodgings like these, that i'm thankful i can do something to help dear aunt emily, who's really goodness itself. you see, after all, i get very well paid indeed for the lessons."
"ethel," cecil mitford said suddenly, thinking it better to dash at once into the midst of business; "i've come round this evening to talk with you about a means by which you can add a great deal with perfect safety to your little income. not by lessons, ethel darling; not by lessons. i can't bear to see you working away the pretty tips off those dear little fingers of yours with strumming scales on the piano for a lot of stupid, gawky school-girls; it's by a much simpler way than that; i know of a perfectly safe investment for that three hundred that you've got in new zealand four per cents. can you not have heard that new zealand securities are in a very shaky way just at present?"[pg 198]
"very shaky, cecil?" ethel answered in surprise. "why, mr. cartwright told me only a week ago they were as safe as the bank of england!"
"mr. cartwright's an ignorant old martinet," cecil replied vigorously. "he thinks because the stock's inscribed and the dividends are payable in threadneedle street that the colony of new zealand's perfectly solvent. now, i'm in the colonial office, and i know a great deal better than that. new zealand has over-borrowed, i assure you; quite over-borrowed; and a serious fall is certain to come sooner or later. mark my words, ethel darling; if you don't sell out those new zealand fours, you'll find your three hundred has sunk to a hundred and fifty in rather less than half no time!"
ethel hesitated, and looked at him in astonishment. "that's very queer," she said, "for mr. cartwright wants me to sell out my little bit of midland and put it all into the same new zealands. he says they're so safe and pay so well."
"mr. cartwright indeed!" cecil cried contemptuously. "what means on earth has he of knowing? didn't he advise you to buy nothing but three per cents., and then let you get some portuguese threes at fifty, which are really sixes, and exceedingly doubtful securities? what's the use of trusting a man like that, i should like to know? no, ethel, if you'll be guided by me—and i have special opportunities of knowing about these things at the colonial office—you'll sell out your new zealands, and put them into a much better investment that i can tell you about. and if i were you, i'd say nothing about it to mr. cartwright."
"but, cecil, i never did anything in business before without consulting him! i should be afraid of going quite wrong."
cecil took her hand in his with real tenderness. though he was trying to deceive her—for her own good—he loved[pg 199] her dearly in his heart of hearts, and hated himself for the deception he was remorsefully practising upon her. yet, for her sake, he would go through with it. "you must get accustomed to trusting me instead of him, darling," he said softly. "when you are mine for ever, as i hope you will be soon, you will take my advice, of course, in all such matters, won't you? and you may as well begin by taking it now. i have great hopes, ethel, that before very long my circumstances will be so much improved that i shall be able to marry you—i hardly know how quickly; perhaps even before next christmas. but meanwhile, darling, i have something to break to you that i dare say will grieve you a little for the moment, though it's for your ultimate good, birdie—for your ultimate good. the colonial office people have selected me to go to jamaica on some confidential government business, which may keep me there for three months or so. it's a dreadful thing to be away from you so long, ethel; but if i manage the business successfully—and i shall, i know—i shall get promoted when i come back, well promoted, perhaps to the chief clerkship in the department; and then we could marry comfortably almost at once."
"to jamaica! oh, cecil! how awfully far! and suppose you were to get yellow fever or something."
"but i won't, ethel; i promise you i won't, and i'll guarantee it with a kiss, birdie; so now, that's settled. and then, consider the promotion! only three months, probably, and when i come back, we can be actually married. it's a wonderful stroke of luck, and i only heard of it this morning. i couldn't rest till i came and told you."
ethel wiped a tear away silently, and only answered, "if you're glad, cecil dearest, i'm glad too."
"well now, ethel," cecil mitford went on as gaily as he could, "that brings me up to the second point. i want you to sell out these wretched new zealands, so as to[pg 200] take the money with me to invest on good mortgages in jamaica. my experience in west indian matters—after three years in the department—will enable me to lay it out for you at nine per cent.—nine per cent., observe, ethel,—on absolute security of landed property. planters want money to improve their estates, and can't get it at less than that rate. your three hundred would bring you in twenty-seven pounds, ethel; twenty-seven pounds is a lot of money!"
what could poor ethel do? in his plausible, affectionate manner—and all for her own good, too—cecil talked her over quickly between love and business experience, coaxing kisses and nine per cent. interest, endearing names and knowledge of west indian affairs, till helpless little ethel willingly promised to give up her poor little three hundred, and even arranged to meet cecil secretly on thursday at the bank of england, about colonial office dinner-hour, to effect the transfer on her own account, without saying a single word about it to aunt emily or mr. cartwright. cecil's conscience—for he had a conscience, though he did his best to stifle it—gave him a bitter twinge every now and then, as one question after another drove him time after time into a fresh bit of deceit; but he tried to smile and smile and be a villain as unconcernedly and lightly as possible. once only towards the end of the evening, when everything was settled, and cecil had talked about his passage, and the important business with which he was entrusted, at full length, a gleam of suspicion seemed to flash for a single second across poor ethel's deluded little brains. jamaica—promotion—three hundred pounds—it was all so sudden and so connected; could cecil himself be trying to deceive her, and using her money for his wild treasure hunt? the doubt was horrible, degrading, unworthy of her or him; and yet somehow for a single moment she could not help half-unconsciously entertaining it.[pg 201]
"cecil," she said, hesitating, and looking into the very depths of his truthful blue eyes; "you're not concealing anything from me, are you? it's not some journey connected with john cann?"
cecil coughed and cleared his throat uneasily, but by a great effort he kept his truthful blue eyes still fixed steadily on hers. (he would have given the world if he might have turned them away, but that would have been to throw up the game incontinently.) "my darling ethel," he said evasively, "how on earth could the colonial office have anything to do with john cann?"
"answer me 'yes' or 'no,' cecil. do please answer me 'yes' or 'no.'"
cecil kept his eyes still fixed immovably on hers, and without a moment's hesitation answered quickly "no." it was an awful wrench, and his lips could hardly frame the horrid falsehood, but for ethel's sake he answered "no."
"then i know i can trust you, cecil," she said, laying her head for forgiveness on his shoulder. "oh, how wrong it was of me to doubt you for a second!"
cecil sighed uneasily, and kissed her white forehead without a single word.
"after all," he thought to himself, as he walked back to his lonely lodgings late that evening, "i need never tell her anything about it. i can pretend, when i've actually got john cann's treasure, that i came across the clue accidently while i was in jamaica; and i can lay out three hundred of it there in mortgages; and she need never know a single word about my innocent little deception. but indeed in the pride and delight of so much money, all our own, she'll probably never think at all of her poor little paltry three hundred."
