“True; but I have altered my mind since then. I should be very sorry to part with young Ned, and if any harm were to happen to him, I think it would kill me, for the more I see of him the more I like the lad.”
“Ha, ha!” laughed Phillip; “there is no fear of that; the ship he would join will never sail more than ten miles out of port, so there’s no fear that your intended heir to the Darlington estates will come to harm.”
“The intended heir to my estates, Phillip Redgill!” said the old man. “Ned and his brother are poor orphans, and have no real claim on me.”
At this moment Ned entered the room quietly and heard all that had been said.
“I was only joking,” Phillip replied, with a dry laugh.
When his eye caught sight of Ned he changed countenance on the instant.
Ned gazed at him fixedly with a look of proud contempt.
“Phillip Redgill,” said Ned, defiantly, “I have by mere accident overheard all you have said.”
“What! an eavesdropper in the hall!” said Redgill, with a sneer.
“If you say so, you lie!” said Ned, fiercely; “and, to show you how little I think of you, how much I despise you, take that!” he said, slapping Redgill in the face, “and, if you dare, resent it.”