Michael Penfold was not burdened with _amour propre,_ but who has not got a little of it in some corner of his heart? "Miss Rolleston," said he, "I was born a gentleman, and was a man of fortune once, till false friends ruined me. I am in business now, but still a gentleman; and neither as a gentleman nor as a man of business could I leave a lady's letter unanswered. I never did such a thing in all my life. I never got your letter," he said, quite put out; and his wrath was so like a dove's that Helen smiled and said, "But I posted it myself. And my address was in it; yet it was not returned."
"Well, madam, it was not delivered, I assure you.
"It was intercepted, then."
He looked at her. She blushed, and said: "Yes, I am getting suspicious, ever since I found I was followed and watched. Excuse me a moment." She went to the window and peered through the curtains. She saw a man walking slowly by; he quickened his pace the moment she opened the curtain.
"Yes," said she, "it was intercepted, and I am watched wherever I go."
Before she could say any more a bustle was heard on the stairs, and in bounced Nancy Rouse, talking as she came. "Excuse me, Mr. Penfolds, but I can't wait no longer with my heart a bursting; it _is!_ it _is!_ Oh, my dear, sweet young lady; the Lord be praised! You really are here alive and well. Kiss you I must and shall; come back from the dead; there--there--there!"
"Nancy! my good, kind Nancy," cried Helen, and returned her embrace warmly.
Then followed a burst of broken explanations; and at last Helen made out that Nancy was the landlady, and had left Lambeth long ago.
"But, dear heart!" said she, "Mr. Penfolds, I'm properly jealous of you.
To think of her coming here to see you, and not me!"
"But I didn't know you were here, Nancy." Then followed a stream of inquiries, and such warm-hearted sympathy with all her dangers and troubles, that Helen was led into revealing the cause of it all.
"Nancy," said she, solemnly, "the ship was willfully cast away; there was a villain on board that made holes in her on purpose, and sunk her."
Nancy lifted up her hands in astonishment. But Mr. Penfold was far more surprised and agitated.
"For Heaven's sake, don't say that!" he cried.
"Why not, sir?" said Helen; "it is the truth; and I have got the testimony of dying men to prove it."
"I am sorry for it. Pray don't let anybody know. Why, Wardlaws would lose the insurance of 160,000 pounds."
"Arthur Wardlaw knows it. My father told him."
"And he never told me," said Penfold, with growing surprise.
"Goodness me! what a world it is!" cried Nancy. "Why, that was murder, and no less. It is a wonder she wasn't drownded, and another friend into the bargain that I had in that very ship. Oh, I wish I had the villain here that done it, I'd tear his eyes out."
Here the mite of a servant bounded in, radiant and giggling, gave Nancy a triumphant glance, and popped out again, holding the door open, through which in slouched a seafaring man, drawn by Penfold's advertisement, and decoyed into Nancy's presence by the imp of a girl, who thought to please her mistress.
Nancy, who for some days had secretly expected this visit, merely gave a little squeak; but Helen uttered a violent scream; and, upon that, Wylie recognized her, and literally staggered back a step or two, and these words fell out of his mouth--"The sick girl!"
Helen caught them.
"Ay!" cried she; "but she is alive in spite of you. Alive to denounce you and to punish you."
She darted forward, and her eyes flashed lightning.
Look at this man, all of you," she cried. "Look at him well. THIS IS THE
WRETCH THAT SCUTTLED THE _Proserpine!"_