Keep up your spirits, Iris--I have written to my brother."
Iris looked at him in dismay.
"Surely," she said, "you once told me you had written to your brother,
and he answered you in the cruellest manner through his lawyers."
"Quite true, my dear. But, this time, there is one circumstance in our
favour--my brother is going to be married. The lady is said to be an
heiress; a charming creature, admired and beloved wherever she goes.
There must surely be something to soften the hardest heart in that
happy prospect. Read what I have written, and tell me what you think of
it."
The opinion of the devoted wife encouraged the desperate husband: the
letter was dispatched by the post of that day.
If boisterous good spirits can make a man agreeable at the
dinner-table, then indeed Mr. Vimpany, on his return to the cottage,
played the part of a welcome guest. He was inexhaustible in gallant
attentions to his friend's wife; he told his most amusing stories in
his happiest way; he gaily drank his host's fine white Burgundy, and
praised with thorough knowledge of the subject the succulent French
dishes; he tried Lord Harry with talk on politics, talk on sport, and
(wonderful to relate in these days) talk on literature.
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