‘He said,’ Polson returned, desperately, ‘that he wanted to see Mr. Jervase, and that he meant to see him. He said my father would wish anybody in hell who tried to hide him. That’s all, sir.’
‘And you, Jervase,’ said the General, ‘never heard of this man?’
‘Never in my life,’ Jervase answered bluntly. ‘The world’s gone mad, I fancy. Everybody’s making a fuss about a thing that’ll be forgotten in a week’s time. Why didn’t you,’ he continued, turning sternly upon Polson, ‘why didn’t you tell me about this?’
‘A man can’t make a shindy about it every time he has a turn-up with a tramp,’ Polson answered. ‘I didn’t think it worth while to talk about it.’
‘Polson,’ said the General, ‘I’ve known you since you were no higher than my knee, and I’ve never had a shadow of a reason to doubt your word. I don’t want you to turn informer and I shan’t ask you another question. You had better leave your father and myself to talk this out together.’
‘No, sir,’ said Polson, ‘there’s trouble in the house, and I’m going to stay here, unless I get my father’s orders to go away.’
Now John Jervase was undoubtedly a good deal of a rogue, but no man is all of a piece, and he had one or two good characteristics. Amongst them was a true and deep affection for his only son, and if at the beginning of his career he had had any such hope of honour and credit as his son had bidden fair to bring him as he neared the close of it, he would have made a better man. Polson’s quietly expressed resolve pinched him a little inwardly, and he gave the boy a glance of gratitude.
‘I don’t say go, lad—I say stay. I’ve honoured and respected General Boswell since we first came to be neighbours, twenty years ago; and now I should have a very poor eye indeed if I couldn’t see that he’s on the way to lose his respect for me, if events don’t change his mind. But if there’s anything to be browt against Jack Jervase, let Jack Jervase’s lad stand by and hear it, and see how his father takes the ackisation.’
‘Very well, Jervase,’ said the General. ‘We will have it so. I have an interest in this affair, and I must tell you plainly that your manner is so very strange that I feel scarcely comfortable under it. You are a business man, and you must not object to my using business terms. Very nearly the whole of my fortune is invested in your hands. If your credit is seriously shaken, and, above all, if it is shaken by such a charge as is now being brought against the firm, my daughter and I are on the verge of ruin. It wouldn’t greatly matter about an old campaigner like myself, for I am not yet so far broken that I can’t still run in harness. But I have my little girl to think of, and for her sake I am going to do my duty, as a business man, however unpleasant it may be to me to do it.’
‘The scandal can’t touch you, sir.’ The General smiled sternly.