Chapter 32 - Page 2

am much concerned at what you tell me, and fear that Merton has got
into serious trouble. He is not deserving of much pity, I am afraid, but
I do feel sorry for his wife. That she should not have given you her new
address is a curious circumstance, as you say, and a rather disagreeable
one. I can understand their hiding themselves from a creditor, or any
other obnoxious person, but to hide themselves from you seems a senseless
proceeding. However, don't let us judge them too hastily. I shall send
off a note at once to Merton, addressed to Norland Square, asking him to
lunch with me at my club on Saturday next. No doubt he has left an
address with his landlady where letters are to be forwarded, and if he is
out of town, as you imagine, there will be time to get a reply before
Saturday; but I am sure he has not left London, and that I shall see him.
He knows that he has nothing to fear from me, and when he learns that I
am willing to assist him he will perhaps tell me what the trouble is. Of
course I shall not tell him that I have been in communication with you.
Will you be so good as to meet me in the Regent's Park--near the Portland
Road Station entrance--at eleven o'clock next Sunday? and I shall then
let you hear the result.

Yours very sincerely,

ARTHUR EDEN.

It was with a little shock of pleasure that Fan read this letter, so
ready had the writer been to show his sympathy, and so perfectly in
accord were their thoughts; and if these new benevolent designs of Mr.
Eden were to succeed, then how great a satisfaction it would always be to
her to think that she had been instrumental, in a secret humble way, in
her friend's deliverance from trouble! She thought it a little strange
that Mr. Eden should wish to tell her the news he would have by word of
mouth instead of by letter; but the prospect of a meeting was not
unpleasant. On the contrary, it consoled her to know that the
disappearance of Constance had not cast her wholly off from that freer,
sweeter, larger life she had known at Dawson Place and at Eyethorne,
which had made her so happy. A link with it still existed in this new
friendship; and although Arthur Eden could not take the place of
Constance in her heart, from among his own sex fate could not have
selected a more perfect friend for her. The link was a slender one, and
in the future there would probably be no meetings and few letters, but in
spite of that he was and always would be very much to her. With these
thoughts occupying her mind she wrote thanking him for his ready response
to her letter, and promising to meet him on the ensuing Sunday.

When the day at length arrived she set out at half-past ten to keep the
appointment, with many misgivings, not however because she, a