"Heaven bless her, my darling!" murmured Blair.
"Just so," retorted Ambrose, with a cynical smile. "But when you say Heaven bless her, you mean that you wish Providence to pour out the good things of this life upon her with a liberal hand, but at the same moment you declare your intention of depriving her and her children of a large sum of money. Rather inconsistent, isn't it?"
Blair stood and looked down at him.
"What a head you have, Austin!" he said. "You ought to have been a lawyer. All this never struck me. I—I—never look forward to the future."
Austin Ambrose shrugged his shoulders.
"If we don't look forward to the future, the future has an awkward knack of looking back upon us!" he said indolently. "Depend upon it, my friend, that if you let the earl's money slip, you'll live to be sorry for it, not for your own sake, I dare say; you don't care about money, but for your wife and children's!"
"We shouldn't be paupers exactly!" said Blair, with a laugh.
"No!" assented Ambrose; and he shot a glance of envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness at the frank, handsome face. "No, you will be one of the richest men in England, but all the same——"
"And—and I hate anything like concealment and deceit," Blair broke in impatiently; "especially in connection with her."
Austin Ambrose nodded.