“Well, he didn’t. He went off with the woman instead.”
“That isn’t to say he’s with her now.”
“I’m surprised at you, Canon,” snorted Sir Luke. “Hanged if I ever thought to find you defending—er—vice.”
“And you haven’t found me doing so yet. But everything has to be determined on its own merits.”
“But there aren’t any merits in this case. It was a bad case, sir, a rotten bad case.”
“Well, we’ll say demerits then, if you prefer it. Now there are, or were, two extenuating circumstances in this particular one—the personality of the woman, and—heredity. For the first I have seen her, for the second, Hilary’s father. You knew him pretty well, Canterby, but I knew him even better than you did.”
“But what would you have me do? I daren’t put him into possession of large responsibilities. He has disgraced his family as it is. I can’t have him coming here one day, and disgracing it further.”
“You would rather put Percival into the position then?”
“Of course. He would fill it worthily. The other wouldn’t.”
“I don’t know about that. I am perfectly certain about one thing, and that is that Percival himself would never accept it at the expense of his cousin, if he knew he was to do so. That boy has a rarely chivalrous soul, and he used almost to worship Hilary.”