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220 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
went away Hunt came sure enough. He had been drinking. He
was very rude, and Philip wouldn't bear it. Philip had a good
courage of his own and a hot blood. And Philip thought Hunt
was insulting her, the Little Sister. So he up with his hand and
down goes Mr. Hunt on the pavement. Well, when he was down
he was in a dreadful way, and he called Philip a dreadful name."
" A name ? what name ?" Then Caroline told the Doctor the
name Mr. Hunt had used; and if Firmin's face usually looked
wicked, I daresay it did not seem very angelical when he heard
how this odious name had been applied to his son. " Can he do
Philip a mischief ?" Caroline continued. " I thought I was bound to
tell his father. Look here, Dr. F., I don't want to do my dear boy
a harm. But suppose what you told me last night isn't true—as I
don't think you much mind !—mind—saying things as are incorrect,
you know, when us women are in the case. But suppose when you
played the villain, thinking only to take in a poor innocent girl of
sixteen, it was you who were took in, and that I was your real
wife after all 1 There would be a punishment ! "
" I should have an honest and good wife, Caroline," said the
Doctor, with a groan.
" This would be a punishment, not for you, but for my poor
Philip," the woman goes on. " What has he done, that his honest
name should be took from him—and his fortune perhaps ? I have
been lying broad awake all night thinking of him. Ah, George
Brandon ! Why, why did you come to my poor old father's house,
and bring this misery down on me, and on your child unborn ?"
" On myself, the worst of all," says the Doctor.
" You deserve it. But it's us innocent that has had, or will
have, to suffer most. 0 George Brandon ! Think of a poor child,
flung away, and left to starve and die, without even so much as
knowing your real name ! Think of your boy, perhaps brought to
shame and poverty through your fault !"
" Do you suppose I don't often think of my wrong ?" says the
Doctor, " That it does not cause me sleepless nights, and hours of
anguish ? Ah ! Caroline ! " and he looks in the glass. " I am not
shaved, and it's very unbecoming," he thinks ; that is, if I may
dare to read his thoughts, as I do to report his unheard words.
" You think of your wrong now it may be found out, I daresay
!" says Caroline. " Suppose this Hunt turns against you ?
He is desperate ; mad for drink and money ; has been in gaol—as
he said this very night to me and my papa. He'll do or say anything.
If you treat him hard, and Philip have treated him hard—
not harder than served him right, though—he'll pull the house
down and himself under it but he'll be revenged. Perhaps he drank