Audley felt confidence. He rose at the clergyman's entrance, and
asked to speak to him in another room, so he was taken into the
little back dining-room, and began--'This is a very unpleasant
business, Mr. Audley; this gentleman is very much annoyed, and
persuaded that he has a right to carry off his nephew; but as I told
him, it all turns upon the father's expressions. Have you any written
authority from him?'
Mr. Audley had more than one letter, thanking him, and expressing
full satisfaction in the proposed arrangements for Fernando; and this
Mr. Bruce thought was full justification, together with the youth's
own decided wishes. The words were likewise clear, by which William
Travis had given consent to his son's Baptism, but there was no
witness of them. Mr. Bruce explained that Alfred Travis, who seemed
to regard Fernando as the common property of the brothers, had come
to him in what he gently termed 'a great state of excitement,'
complaining of a Puseyite plot. He had evidently taken umbrage at the
tone of the letters he had opened for his brother, and had been
further prejudiced by some Dearport timber merchant he had met at
Liverpool, who had told him how the parson had got hold of his
nephew, and related a farrago of gossip about St.
Pages:
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279