He
had, moreover, to keep Clara in the dark as to his real occupations
and prevent her from knowing his resorts in town. Lastly, as Mr.
Robert Delancey he had to deal with matters of a very delicate
nature indeed, in themselves quite enough to occupy a man's mental
energy. But our friend was no ordinary man. If you are not as yet
satisfied of that, it will ere long be made abundantly clear to you.
His spirits were as high as ever. When he said--with an ingenious
brutality all his own--that he was more than half glad to see his
wife, he, for a wonder, told the truth. But perhaps it was little
Jack who gave him most pleasure, and did .most to reconcile him to
the difficulties of his situation. In a day or two be conquered the
child's affections so completely that Jack seemed to care little for
his mother in comparison; Jack could not know the hardships she had
endured for his sake. Rodman--so we will continue to call him for
convenience' sake--already began to talk of what he would make the
lad, who certainly gave promise of parts. The result of this was
that for a week or two our friend became an exemplary family man.
His wife almost dared to believe that her miseries were over. Yet
she watched him with lynx eyes.
The 'Irish Dairy Company' flourished. Rodman rubbed his hands with a
sinister satisfaction when he inscribed among the shareholders the
name of Richard Mutimer, who invested all the money he had collected
from the East-Enders, and three hundred pounds of his own--not five
hundred, as he had at first thought of doing.
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