“You mean that I made him leave the Service? Yes, I could not afford to go on supporting an extravagant young ass.”
“Owen is not brilliant, Uncle Dick, but he is no fool.”
“A fool and another man’s money are soon parted. Life was made too easy for the chap—very different to what I found it at his age. I had no hunters, no dozens of silk shirts, and rows of polo boots; I never was to be met lounging down Piccadilly as if the whole earth belonged to me.”
“Well, at least, Uncle Dick, you were never compelled to give up a profession you adored, when you were barely five-and-twenty.”
“I’ve given up a lot,” he answered forcibly, “and when I was older than him; but never mind me; we are talking of Owen. After leaving the Hussars, Kesters took him on, and got him a capital billet in the City—a nice soft berth, ten to four, but my gentleman could not stand an office stool and tall hat, and in five months he had chucked——”
Leila nodded. It was impossible to deny this indictment.
“So then it was my turn again; and I thought a little touch of real work would be good for the future Sir Owen Wynyard, and, after some trouble, I heard of a likely opening in the Argentine on the Valencia Estancia, well out of the way of towns and temptation—a horse-breeding ranch, too. You see I studied the fellow’s tastes, eh?” And Sir Richard twirled his eyeglasses by the string—a trick of his when he considered that he had scored a point.
“I gave him his passage and outfit, and put a few hundreds into the concern as a spec. and to insure him an interest, and within twelve months here he is back again on my hands—the proverbial rolling stone!” He cleared his throat, and continued: “Now, Leila, my girl, you have a head on your shoulders, and you know that these rolling stones find their way to the bottom, and I am going to block my specimen in good time. I suppose he told you what I said to him yesterday?”
“Yes; he came straight to Mount Street from seeing you.”
“He has got to shift for himself for two years, to earn his bread, with or without butter, to guarantee that he does not take a penny he has not worked for, that he does not get into debt or any matrimonial engagement; should he marry a chorus-girl, by Jove I’ll burn down Wynyard! If, by the end of that time, he turns up a steady, industrious, independent member of society, I will make him my agent—he shall have an adequate allowance, the house to live in, and most of my money when I am dead!”