Here was an instrument ready to his hand, if he chose to use it properly.
“Oh, I understand. No, I do not deny it; I wish that I could do so, for your sake and for Una’s,” he said gravely.
“Speak plainly,” said Gideon Rolfe, hoarsely.
“I will,” said Stephen. “Plainly then, Mr. Newcombe has chosen to fall in love with—your daughter! That accounts for his constant attendance upon her.”
Gideon Rolfe’s face worked.
“I will take her back,” he said, grimly.
Stephen smiled.
“Softly, softly. There are two to that bargain, my dear Mr. Rolfe. For Miss Una to go back to a state of savagery in Warden Forest is impossible. You, who have seen her in her new surroundings, and the change they have wrought in her, must admit that.”
Gideon Rolfe wiped the perspiration from his brow.
“I know that she is changed,” he said. “She is like a great lady now. I see her dressed in rich silks and satins, and coming and going in carriages, with servants to wait upon her, and I know that she is changed, and that she has forgotten the friends of her childhood—forgotten those who were father and mother to her——”