And even then I should have been afraid, he is such a determined
fellow; but uncommonly clever. Stay!" said he, yielding to a sudden and
inexplicable desire to see Edward, and discover if his criminality had in
any way changed his outward appearance. "I'll go with you. I can hasten
things. If Edward goes, he must be off, as soon as possible, to Liverpool,
and leave no trace. The next packet sails the day after to-morrow. I noted
it down from the _Times_."
Maggie and he sped along the road. He spoke his thoughts aloud:
"I wonder if he will be grateful to me for this. Not that I ever mean to
look for gratitude again. I mean to try, not to care for anybody but Frank.
'Govern men by outward force,' says Mr. Henry. He is an uncommonly clever
man, and he says, the longer he lives, the more he is convinced of the
badness of men. He always looks for it now, even in those who are the best,
apparently."
Maggie was too anxious to answer, or even to attend to him. At the top of
the slope she asked him to wait while she ran down and told the result of
her conversation with him. Her mother was alone, looking white and sick.
She told her that Edward had gone into the hay-loft, above the old, disused
shippon.
Maggie related the substance of her interview with Mr. Buxton, and his wish
that Edward should go to America.
"To America!" said Mrs. Browne. "Why that's as far as Botany Bay.
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