Stanislas McKay was a traitor and the son of a traitor; he had
been actually taken red-handed in a new and still deeper treachery,
and he must suffer for his crime.
At the end of the first fortnight McKay's relations and friends in
England had almost abandoned hope. This was what Mr. Faulks told Mrs.
Wilders, who called every day two or three times, always in the
deepest distress.
"Poor boy! poor boy!" she said, wringing her hands. "To be cut off
like this! It is too terrible! And nothing--you are sure nothing can
be done to save him?"
"Lord Essendine is making the most strenuous efforts; so are we. Even
Sir Humphrey Fothergill has been most kind; and the War Minister has
repeatedly telegraphed to Lord Raglan to leave no stone unturned."
"And all without effect? It is most sad!" She would have feigned the
same excessive grief with the Essendine lawyers, to whom she also paid
several visits, but the senior partner's cold eye and cynical smile
checked her heroics.
"You will not be the loser by poor McKay's removal," he said, with
brutal frankness, one day when she had rather overdone her part.
"As if I thought of that!" she replied, with supreme indignation.
"It is impossible for you not to think of it, my dear madam. It would
not be human nature. Why shouldn't you? Mr.
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