'Was ever man
so beset as I? Is there nobody else that knew them, nobody else in
whom they had any confidence? Solitary as their lives were, is
there no one person who would serve my purpose?'
'IS there, Christopher?' said the Notary.
'Not one, Sir,' replied Kit.--'Yes, though--there's my mother.'
'Did they know her?' said the single gentleman.
'Know her, Sir! why, she was always coming backwards and forwards.
They were as kind to her as they were to me. Bless you, Sir, she
expected they'd come back to her house.'
'Then where the devil is the woman?' said the impatient gentleman,
catching up his hat. 'Why isn't she here? Why is that woman
always out of the way when she is most wanted?'
In a word, the single gentleman was bursting out of the office,
bent upon laying violent hands on Kit's mother, forcing her into a
post-chaise, and carrying her off, when this novel kind of
abduction was with some difficulty prevented by the joint efforts
of Mr Abel and the Notary, who restrained him by dint of their
remonstrances, and persuaded him to sound Kit upon the probability
of her being able and willing to undertake such a journey on so
short a notice.
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