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BELGRAVIA

SEPTEMBER 1873

THROUGH FIRE AND WATER

A Tale of City Life

BY FREDERICK TALBOT

AUTHOR OF 'THE WINNING HAZARD,' ' JACK PUGH'S LEGACY,' ETC.

CHAPTER VIII.

'For look you, sir, you know not which way you shall go.'

'M glad I've seen you before I went in,' said John, beginning hurriedly to speak before Edward could arrange his ideas, and whilst he was yet hesitating to encounter the cruel task before him. I'm glad I've seen you; because it's probable I may save a very painful scene a scene that would be very painful to me, I assure you; yes, indeed, very painful. I assure you I will feel it very much."' Here John's face assumed an expression of extreme sensibility and self-compassion.

'What do you mean?' cried Edward hoarsely.

'Well, my dear sir, I've been thinking very painfully over the matter, prayerfully, too, I might say,' said John, throwing a rapid glance at Edward to see how he took it; and I have very reluctantly indeed, in fact with great violence to my own feelings-being, as you know, a man of very tender feelings-but I have come to the conlusion, reluctantly, as you may know-'

'Well,' said Edward, looking in a dazed way at his face. 'Well-'

'That it won't do. My engagement with your sister must be broken off. I don't know how I shall bear it, indeed, for I was very deeply attached to her-very. A most excellent young woman, and calculated to make any one happy and comfortable in the highest degree. I can't tell you how I feel the disappointment; but there are considerations higher than those of mere earthly affection; there's the duty I owe my parents and-and my godfather. All my prospects in life depend upon them, all my chance of the living of Pump

THIRD SERIES, VOL. I. F.S. VOL. XXI.

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trisaint, besides the legacy I'm sure to have. Now, Edward, as a dutiful son, I ask you, how can I go against that?'

'You told us your father approved,' said Edward in a faint voice. He realised the situation now. Heavens! was this the man at whose feet they must crawl, whose mercy and forbearance they were bound to implore?

So he had, in a way. I hadn't given him all the particulars, and perhaps I wasn't explicit enough as to your position, and so on. But when my father and my godfather-Sir Pantlin Jones, you know, baronet and member of parliament-when they came to see the house you lived at, and all that; and really it hadn't struck me, but when I come to look at it, I see that it would be a descent now, wouldn't it, from Sir Pantlin Jones of Pumptrisaint to Hulse of Ebbsfleet Wharf? Well, I told them your father was a wharfinger, but it seems that the drain-pipes upset my godfather. I begged of them to see Lucy, who is such a sweet girl that they couldn't help being pleased with her. But it was no use. He's so impatient, is Sir Pantlin. "John," he said to me, "byif you marry a bricklayer's daughter, I'll disown you for ever."

'O, he said that, did he ?' cried Edward, white with suppressed passion, his sense of helplessness and powerlessness making his rage glow all the more fiercely. And what did you say?'

'What could I say, my dear fellow ? I did try to explain that they were pipes and tiles, and not bricks, that your father dealt in, and that very respectable people sold such things in London; but it was not a morsel of good.'

'Then you mean to say—'

'I want you to take this letter to your sister. Break it to her as gently as you can, my dear fellow, for I daresay she'll feel it as much as I do; only give her to understand that this is final; and ask her to pity me.'

'Pity you, you infernal scoundrel!'

'What!' shouted John.

'You lying cozening scoundrel!'

The word roused all the fiery blood of the Welshman. With the back of his hand he smote Edward in the mouth, and in a moment his lips were streaked with blood. With the rapidity of lightning, Edward returned the buffet with a left-handed blow, delivered so straight and true that, as Jones threw back his head to avoid it, it fell upon him just under the right ear, so that he dropped heavily to the ground.

The candle had fallen over in the scuffle; all was silent after the first crash of the fall of the man, and all was dark.

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John!' cried Edward, in alarm.

where are you? what are you doing? sake, speak!'

John, have I hurt you?

Speak to me; for Heaven's