"But you wouldn't be putting anything right by paying me money. You would only be making me share your difficulties—your great and very disagreeable difficulties; and that, with all the good will in the world towards you, my dear Edward, I won't do."
The Squire saw it dimly, and what he saw did not please him. Nor was his light enough to prevent him from pressing his point.
When Lord Sedbergh had combated it for some time, with firm good humour, he said more seriously, "Can't you see that if this story were ever to come out, and I had taken your money, I should be in a very awkward position?"
"It never will come out now."
"That's your risk, Edward. I may be a monster of selfishness, but I won't make it mine."
When the Squire left the club half-an-hour later, his face was not that of a man who had been set free of a debt of seven thousand pounds.
CHAPTER IV
THIS OUR SISTER
"Clinton. On the 16th inst. the Lady Susan Clinton, aged 28."