“We could find an agency, Miles, couldn’t we?—or a farm—”
“Thank you, dear aunt,” said Archie; “I don’t definitely answer, because Mr. Bowater must be consulted; but I have a business out there that I can do, and where I can make a competence that I can fairly offer to Jenny here. If I came home, as I am now, I should only prey on you in some polite form, and I don’t think Jenny would wish for that alternative. I must go back any way, as I have told her, and whether to save for her, or to make a home for her there, it must be for her to decide.”
They looked at Jenny. She was evidently prepared; for though her colour rose a little, her frank eyes looked at him with a confiding smile.
“But we must have justice done to you, my dear boy, whether you stay with us or not,” said Mrs. Poynsett.
“That might have been done if I had not been fool enough to run away,” said Archie; “having done so, the mass of people will only remember that there has been something against me, in spite of any justification. It is not worth while to blast Moy’s character, and show poor old Proudfoot what a swindler his son was, just for that. The old man was good to me. I should like to let it rest while he lives. If Moy would sign such an exculpation of me as could be shown to Mr. Bowater, and any other whom it might concern, I should be quite willing to have nothing told publicly, at least as long as the old gentleman lives.”
“I think Archie is right,” said Miles, in the pause, with a great effort.
“Yes, right in the highest sense of the word,” said Julius.
“It is Christian,” Anne breathed across to her husband.
“I don’t like it,” said Mrs. Poynsett.
“Let that scoundrel go unhung!” burst from Frank, who had failed to catch the spirit of his interpreter.