human
Mind you go by the 5 P.M. train, Marie said.
gpt
That will take you into Liverpool at 10.15. There's an hotel at the railway-station. Didon has got our tickets under the names of Madame and Mademoiselle Racine. We are to have one cabin between us. You must get yours to-morrow. She has found out that there is plenty of room.
human
I'll be all right.
gpt
Pray don't miss the train that afternoon. Somebody would be sure to suspect something if we were seen together in the same train. We leave at 7 A.M. I shan't go to bed all night, so as to be sure to be in time. Robert,--he's the man,--will start a little earlier in the cab with my heavy box. What do you think is in it?
human
Clothes,
gpt
Yes, but what clothes?--my wedding dresses. Think of that! What a job to get them and nobody to know anything about it except Didon and Madame Craik at the shop in Mount Street! They haven't come yet, but I shall be there whether they come or not. And I shall have all my jewels. I'm not going to leave them behind. They'll go off in our cab. We can get the things out behind the house into the mews. Then Didon and I follow in another cab. Nobody ever is up before near nine, and I don't think we shall be interrupted.
human
If the servants were to hear.
gpt
I don't think they'd tell. But if I was to be brought back again, I should only tell papa that it was no good. He can't prevent me marrying.
human
Won't your mother find out?
gpt
She never looks after anything. I don't think she'd tell if she knew. Papa leads her such a life! Felix! I hope you won't be like that.
human
I'm all right, said Felix, feeling very uncomfortable at the time. This great effort of his life was drawing very near. There had been a pleasurable excitement in talking of running away with the great heiress of the day, but now that the deed had to be executed,--and executed after so novel and stupendous a fashion, he almost wished that he had not undertaken it. It must have been much nicer when men ran away with their heiresses only as far as Gretna Green. And even Goldsheiner with Lady Julia had nothing of a job in comparison with this which he was expected to perform. And then if they should be wrong about the girl's fortune! He almost repented. He did repent, but he had not the courage to recede.
gpt
How about money though?
human
You have got some?
gpt
I have just the two hundred pounds which your father paid me, and not a shilling more. I don't see why he should keep my money, and not let me have it back.
human
Look here, said Marie, and she put her hand into her pocket.
gpt
I told you I thought I could get some. There is a cheque for two hundred and fifty pounds. I had money of my own enough for the tickets.
human
And whose is this?
gpt
It is papa's cheque. Mamma gets ever so many of them to carry on the house and pay for things. But she gets so muddled about it that she doesn't know what she pays and what she doesn't. Felix looked at the cheque and saw that it was payable to House or Bearer, and that it was signed by Augustus Melmotte.
human
If you take it to the bank you'll get the money, said Marie.
gpt
Or shall I send Didon, and give you the money on board the ship?
human
I think Didon had better get the money, he said,
gpt
If the money did not come he would not go down to Liverpool, nor would he be at the expense of his ticket for New York.
human
You see, he said,
gpt
I'm so much in the City that they might know me at the bank. To this arrangement Marie assented and took back the cheque.
human
And then I'll come on board on Thursday morning, he said,
gpt
Oh dear, yes;--without looking for us. And don't know us even till we are out at sea. Won't it be fun when we shall be walking about on the deck and not speaking to one another! And, Felix;--what do you think? Didon has found out that there is to be an American clergyman on board. I wonder whether he'd marry us.
human
Of course he will.
gpt
Won't that be jolly? I wish it was all done. Then, directly it's done, and when we get to New York, we'll telegraph and write to papa, and we'll be ever so penitent and good; won't we? Of course he'll make the best of it.
human
But he's so savage; isn't he?
gpt
When there's anything to get;--or just at the moment. But I don't think he minds afterwards. He's always for making the best of everything;--misfortunes and all. Things go wrong so often that if he was to go on thinking of them always they'd be too many for anybody. It'll be all right in a month's time. I wonder how Lord Nidderdale will look when he hears that we've gone off. I should so like to see him. He never can say that I've behaved bad to him. We were engaged, but it was he broke it. Do you know, Felix, that though we were engaged to be married, and everybody knew it, he never once kissed me!