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210 THE ADVENTURES OP PHILIP
die ; he might have a fancy to go abroad again ; he might be transported
for forgery or some other rascaldom, Dr. Firmin would console
himself ; and he trusted to the chapter of accidents to get rid
of his friend. But Hunt, aware that the woman was alive whom
he had actually, though unlawfully, married to Firmin, became an
enemy whom it was necessary to subdue, to cajole, or to bribe, and
the sooner the Doctor put himself on his defence the better. What
should the defence be? Perhaps the most effectual was a fierce
attack on the enemy; perhaps it would be better to bribe him.
The course to be taken would be best ascertained after a little
previous reconnoitring.
" He will try and inflame Caroline," the Doctor thought, " by
representing her wrongs and her rights to her. He will show her
that, as my wife, she has a right to my name and a share of my
income. A less mercenary woman never lived than this poor little
creature. She disdains money, and, except for her father's sake,
would have taken none of mine. But to punish me for certainly
rather shabby behaviour ; to claim and take her own right and position
in the world as an honest woman, may she not be induced to
declare war against me, and stand by her marriage ? After she left
home, her two Irish half-sisters deserted her and spat upon her ;
and when she would have returned, the heartless women drove her
from the door. Oh, the vixens ! And now to drive by them in
her carriage, to claim a maintenance from me, and to have a right
to my honourable name, would she not have her dearest revenge
over her sisters by so declaring her marriage ?"
Firmin's noble mind misgave him very considerably on this
point. He knew women, and how those had treated their little
sister. Was it in human nature not to be revenged ? These
thoughts rose straightway in Firmin's mind, when he heard that
the much dreaded meeting between Caroline and the chaplain had
come to pass.
As he ate his dinner with his guest, his enemy, opposite to him,
he was determining on his plan of action. The screen was up, and
he was laying his guns behind it, so to speak. Of course he was as
civil to Hunt as the tenant to his landlord when he comes with no
rent. So the Doctor laughed, joked, bragged, talked his best, and
was thinking the while what was to be done against the danger.
He had a plan which might succeed. He must see Caroline
immediately. He knew the weak point of her heart, and where
she was most likely to be vulnerable. And he would act against
her as barbarians of old acted against their enemies, when they
brought the captive wives and children in front of the battle, and
bade the foe strike through them. He knew how Caroline loved