CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
"VALE, ME AMA!"
The rest of our story is soon told.
Grenville and his companions, after numberless hardships, owing to theunprecedentedly heavy rains, at last reached Natal, where our friend hadthe satisfaction of acting as best man at his cousin's wedding.
A full notice of this interesting event was published in the Local Pressby some enterprising reporter. On the following day, a few hours afterthe issue of the sheet in question, Grenville, who was sittinglistlessly smoking in the hotel, was surprised by the advent of a smart,dapper-looking little man, who asked him if he was the "gentleman knownas Mr Alfred Leigh."
"No," replied Grenville; "do you really want my cousin?--for he's anewly-married man, you know."
"Yes, sir, I do want him," said the little man, bowing deferentially,"and he will wish to see me. Can you introduce me?"
"Certainly," said Grenville, rising lazily. "Whom shall I announce?"
"My name is Driffield, of the firm of Masterton and Driffield,solicitors," was the reply.
Leading the new arrival to Leigh's private sitting-room, Grenvillecircumspectly knocked at the door, and entering said, "My cousin, MrDriffield.--Alf, Mr Driffield, who is a lawyer, is anxious to meet you,and says you will be glad to see him."
"You misunderstood me, sir," said the little lawyer; "I observed thatyour cousin would wish to see me. The news I bring you, sir, is bothbad and good--bad, because your father and your brother are both dead;good, because I have to congratulate you upon your accession to thepeerage, Lord Drelincourt."
Poor Alf! it was indeed cruel news to strike him at the verycommencement of his wedded happiness; but his wife slipped her soft armsround his neck, and the lawyer considerately withdrew, Grenvillewhispering to him to wait his return in the smoke-room.
In few words Leigh told his cousin to find out all the solicitor had tocommunicate, and to do what he thought best; and then Grenville left himalone with his sorrow and his new-made wife.
The lawyer had little to tell. Lord Drelincourt and his son had beenkilled in a railway accident in Ireland, and advertisements had beeninserted in all the South African papers for the missing heir to thetitle, as his wanderings had been traced as far as Natal.
Grenville was favourably impressed with the little man, who hurried awayto cable his lordship's London solicitors, promising to return thatevening, which he did, and made himself so useful that before the newLord Drelincourt's departure for England he was made happy with a veryhandsome cheque.
Grenville next took passages by the Union Company's steamer _Tartar_,and saw his cousin and his bride safely off two days after, the formerin possession of a bill of lading for gold dust to the value of _aquarter of a million sterling_.
Words cannot describe poor Leigh's distress when he found that hiscousin had no intention of accompanying them to the Old Country.
"Dick, you're not going back to waste your life over her grave andamongst savages? Don't do it, old man," pleaded his cousin.
"Not I, Alf--I'm not made of that kind of stuff. If I do anything withreference to the matter, it will be in the direction of visiting SaltLake City and exterminating the whole cursed Mormon breed. I cannot yetcoop myself up in trim civilised England--I long for the keen breath ofthe mountain air and for the wide sweep of veldt as it spreads itsexpanse before me in all the weird mystery of the moonlight. No, dearold chap; you have someone else to take care of you now; but when youwant Dick Grenville, you know you've only to ask for him. Adieu, Alf;good-bye, Sister Dora. God bless you both! Vale, me ama!"
The End.
Into the Unknown: A Romance of South Africa Page 21