It is only due to him to
say that he has managed it beautifully!"
So, after vanquishing Betteredge and Mr. Bruff, Ezra Jennings vanquished
Mrs. Merridew herself. There is a great deal of undeveloped liberal
feeling in the world, after all!
At breakfast, Mr. Bruff made no secret of his reasons for wishing that
I should accompany him to London by the morning train. The watch kept
at the bank, and the result which might yet come of it, appealed so
irresistibly to Rachel's curiosity, that she at once decided (if Mrs.
Merridew had no objection) on accompanying us back to town--so as to be
within reach of the earliest news of our proceedings.
Mrs. Merridew proved to be all pliability and indulgence, after the
truly considerate manner in which the explosion had conducted itself;
and Betteredge was accordingly informed that we were all four to travel
back together by the morning train. I fully expected that he would have
asked leave to accompany us. But Rachel had wisely provided her faithful
old servant with an occupation that interested him. He was charged
with completing the refurnishing of the house, and was too full of his
domestic responsibilities to feel the "detective-fever" as he might have
felt it under other circumstances.
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