第178章 THE MOTHER'S MANOEUVRE (2)

You had better tell me at once what you are alluding to, for I'm resolved I'll have it out before we leave this room.' 'I wish I'd never married again,' she said, now fairly crying, and looking round the room, as if in vain search for a mouse-hole in which to hide herself.Then, as if the sight of the door into the store-room gave her courage, she turned and faced him.'You should not talk your medical secrets so loud then, if you don't want people to hear them.I had to go into the store-room that day Dr Nicholls was here; cook wanted a jar of preserve, and stopped me just as I was going out - I am sure it was for no pleasure of mine, for I was sadly afraid of stickying my gloves - it was all that you might have a comfortable dinner.' She looked as if she was going to cry again, but he gravely motioned her to go on, merely saying, - 'Well! you overheard our conversation, I suppose?' 'Not much,' she answered, eagerly, almost relieved by being this helped out in her forced confession.'Only a sentence or two.' 'What were they?' he asked.'Why, you had just been saying something, and Dr Nicholls said: "If he had got aneurism of the aortal his days are numbered."' 'Well.Anything more?' 'Yes; you said, "I hope to God I may be mistaken; but there is a pretty clear indication of symptoms, in my opinion."' 'How do you know we were speaking of Osborne Hamley?' he asked; perhaps in hopes of throwing her off the scent.But as soon as she perceived that he was descending to her level of subterfuge, she took courage, and said in quite a different tone to the cowed one which she had been using, - 'Oh! I know.I heard his name mentioned by you both before I began to listen.' 'Then you own you did listen?' 'Yes,' said she, hesitating a little now.'And pray how do you come to remember so exactly the name of the disease spoken of?' 'Because I went -- now don't be angry, I really can't see any harm in what I did - ' 'Then, don't deprecate anger.You went -- ' 'Into the surgery, and looked it out.Why might not I?' Mr Gibson did not answer - did not look at her.His face was very pale, and both forehead and lips were contracted.At length he roused himself, sighed, and said, - 'Well! I suppose as one brews one must bake?' 'I don't understand what you mean,' pouted she.'Perhaps not,' he replied.'I suppose that it was what you heard on that occasion that made you change your behaviour to Roger Hamley? I have noticed how much more civil you were to him of late.' 'If you mean that I have ever got to like him as much as Osborne, you are very much mistaken; no, not even though he has offered to Cynthia, and is to be my son-in-law.' 'Let me know the whole affair.You overheard, - I will own that it was Osborne about whom we were speaking, though I shall have something to say about that presently - and then, if I understand you rightly, you changed your behaviour to Roger, and made him more welcome to this house than you had ever done before, regarding him as proximate heir to the Hamley estates?' 'I don't know what you mean by "proximate."' 'Go into the surgery, and look into the dictionary then,' said he, losing his temper for the first time during the conversation.'I knew,' said she through sobs and tears, 'that Roger had taken a fancy to Cynthia; any one might see that; and as long as Roger was only a younger son, with no profession, and nothing but his Fellowship, I thought it right to discourage him, as any one would who had a grain of common sense in them; for a clumsier, more common, awkward, stupid fellow I never saw -to be called county, I mean.' 'Take care; you'll have to cat your words presently when you come to fancy he'll have Hamley some day.' 'No, I shan't,' said she, not perceiving his exact drift.'You are vexed now because it is not Molly he's in love with; and I call it very unjust and unfair to my poor fatherless girl.I am sure I have always tried to further Molly's interests as if she was my own daughter.' Mr Gibson was too indifferent to this accusation to take any notice of it.He returned to what was of far more importance to him.'The point I want to be clear about is this.Did you or did you not alter your behaviour to Roger in consequence of what you overheard of my professional conversation with Dr Nicholls? Have you not favoured his suit to Cynthia since then, on the understanding gathered from that conversation that he stood a good chance of inheriting Hamley?' 'I suppose I did,' said she, sulkily.'And if I did, I can't see any harm in it, that I should be questioned as if I were in a witness-box.He was in love with Cynthia long before that conversation, and she liked him so much.It was not for me to cross the path of true love.I don't see how you would have a mother love her child if she may not turn accidental circumstances to her advantage.Perhaps Cynthia might have died if she had been crossed in love; her poor father was consumptive.' 'Don't you know that all professional conversations are confidential? That it would be the most dishonourable thing possible for me to betray secrets which I learn in the exercise of my profession?' 'Yes, of course, you.' 'Well! and are not you and I one in all these respects? You cannot do a dishonourable act without my being inculpated in the disgrace.If it would be a deep disgrace for me to betray a professional secret, what would it be for me to trade on that knowledge?' He was trying hard to be patient; but the offence was of that class which galled him insupportably.'I don't know what you mean by trading.Trading in a daughter's affections is the last thing I should do; and I should have thought you would be rather glad than otherwise to get Cynthia well married, and off your hands.' Mr Gibson got up, and walked about the room, his hands in his pockets.