“I would lift the mortgage to-morrow if I had the means. I have not at present.”
“Well, I am in the same box. You have just spoken as if the Mostyns and Rawdons had an equal interest in Rawdon Court. Very well, then, it cannot be far wrong for Fred Mostyn to have it. Many a Mostyn has gone there as wife and slave. I would dearly like to see one Mostyn go as master.”
“I shall get no help from you, then, I understand that.”
“I’m Mostyn by birth, I’m only Rawdon by, marriage. The birth-band ties me fast to my family.”
“Good morning, mother. You have failed me for the first time in your life.”
“If the money had been for you, Edward, or yours——”
“It is—good-by.”
She called him back peremptorily, and he returned and stood at the open door.
“Why don’t you ask Ethel?”
“I did not think I had the right, mother.”