"I am very glad. Medway is a man full of queer kinds of goodness. When the Robinsons and Blundells, when Joan Attwood and Kitty Errol and all the rest of the beauties, hear the news, may I be there to see? Is it talkable yet?"
"No, not yet. Maria has told no one but me, and I have told no one but you. Medway is to see my father and mother; after that—perhaps. He has not called since the arrangement; he told me 'he was doing the best thing under the circumstances.'"
"Of course he is. Medway understands women. He knows that he is making more progress absent than he would present. Come, now, things are not so bad, socially. Mrs. Gordon and Angelica Jacobus will look after Maria; and, though women can always be abominable enough to their own sex, I think Maria will soon be beyond their shafts. Now, it is business I must speak of. Patrick Huges, my agent, is robbing me without rhyme or reason. I had just sent him packing when I met you. The position is vacant. Will you manage my affairs for me? The salary is two hundred pounds a year."
"Madame, the offer is a great piece of good fortune. From this hour, if you wish it, I will do your business as if it were my own."
"Thank you, Neil. In plain truth, it will be a great kindness to me. We will go over the rascal's accounts to-morrow, and he will cross the river to-night if he hears that Neil Semple is to prosecute the examination."
Then Neil rose to leave. Madame's sympathy and help had made a new man of him; he felt able to meet and master his fate, whatever it might be. At the last moment she laid her hand upon his arm. "Neil," she asked, "Has not this great outrage opened your eyes a little. Do you still believe in the justice or clemency of the King?"
"It was not the King."
"It was the King's representatives. If such indignity is possible when we are still fighting, what kind of justice should we get if we were conquered?"
"I know, I know. But there is my father. It would break his heart if I deserted the royal party now. They do not know in England——"
"Then they ought to know; but for many years I have been saying, 'England was mad'; and she grows no wiser."