“Mark, my dear fellow, what’s all this?” said he, in a cheery tone and with a pleasant face. “Did not you know that I was here? I came down yesterday; landed from Hamburg only yesterday morning. How do you do, Mrs. Robarts? This is a terrible bore, isn’t it?”
Robarts, at the first moment, hardly knew how to speak to his old friend. He was struck dumb by the disgrace of his position; the more so as his misfortune was one which it was partly in the power of Lord Lufton to remedy. He had never yet borrowed money since he had filled a man’s position, but he had had words about money with the young peer, in which he knew that his friend had wronged him; and for this double reason he was now speechless.
“Mr. Sowerby has betrayed him,” said Mrs. Robarts, wiping the tears from her eyes. Hitherto she had said no word against Sowerby, but now it was necessary to defend her husband.
“No doubt about it. I believe he has always betrayed every one who has ever trusted him. I told you what he was, some time since; did I not? But, Mark, why on earth have you let it go so far as this? Would not Forrest help you?”
“Mr. Forrest wanted him to sign more bills, and he would not do that,” said Mrs. Robarts, sobbing.
“Bills are like dram-drinking,” said the discreet young lord: “when one once begins, it is very hard to leave off. Is it true that the men are here now, Mark?”
“Yes, they are in the next room.”
“What, in the drawing-room?”
“They are making out a list of the things,” said Mrs. Robarts.
“We must stop that at any rate,” said his lordship, walking off towards the scene of the operations; and as he left the room Mrs. Robarts followed him, leaving her husband by himself.