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570 THE ADVENTURES OP PHILIP
"Oh, you are still hankering after him," says the chaplain,
winking a bloodshot eye.
" Hankering after that old man ! What should I care for him ?
As if he haven't done me harm enough already !" cries poor Caroline.
"Yes. But women don't dislike a man the worse for a little
ill-usage," suggests Hunt. No doubt the fellow had made his own
experiments on woman's fidelity.
"Well, I suppose," says Brandon, with a toss of her head,
" women may get tired as well as men, mayn't they ? I found out
that man, and wearied of him years and years ago. Another little
drop out of the green bottle, Mr. Hunt ! It's very good for aguefever,
and keeps the cold fit off wonderful !"
And Hunt drank, and he talked a little more—much more:
and he gave his opinion of the elder Firmin, and spoke of his
chances of success, and of his rage for speculations, and doubted
whether he would ever be able to lift his head again—though he
might, he might still. He was in the country where, if ever a
man could retrieve himself, he had a chance. And Philip was
giving himself airs, was he? He was always an arrogant chap,
that Mr. Philip. And he had left her house? and was gone ever
so long ? and where did he live now ?
Then I am sorry to say Mrs. Brandon asked, how should she
know where Philip lived now ? She believed it was near Gray's
Inn, or Lincoln's Inn, or somewhere ; and she was for turning the
conversation away from this subject altogether ; and sought to do
so by many lively remarks and ingenious little artifices which I can
imagine, but which she only in part acknowledged to me, for you
must know that as soon as her visitor took leave—to turn into the
"Admiral Byng" public-house, and renew acquaintance with the
worthies assembled in the parlour of that tavern—Mrs. Brandon ran
away to a cab, drove in it to Philip's house in Milman Street, where
only Mrs. Philip was at home, and after a banale conversation
with her, which puzzled Charlotte not a little, for Brandon would
not say on what errand she came, and never mentioned Hunt's
arrival and visit to her, the Little Sister made her way to another
cab, and presently made her appearance at the house of Philip's
friends in Queen Square. And here she informed me how Hunt
had arrived, and how she was sure he meant no good to Philip, and
how she had told certain—certain stories which were not founded
in fact—to Mr. Hunt ; for the telling of which fibs I am not about
to endeavour to excuse her.
Though the interesting clergyman had not said one word regarding
that bill of which Philip's father had warned him, we believed
that the document was in Hunt's possession, and that it would be