“That’s final,” interrupted Hooper. “It’s bad enough—it’s shameful—it’s un-American, sir, to make any settlement at all.”
At “un-American” Lawrence took advantage of the fact that Hooper was not looking at him to indulge in a glance of contemptuous amusement. “Nobody but an American,” he said to himself, “could have dragged ‘un-American’ into such a discussion as this. The cad is dickering over his daughter like an old-clothes dealer over a bag of rags.”
Hooper was talking again—talking loudly: “Not a cent more! Not a d——n cent more! If they need more after they’re married, let ’em come to me for it. They’ll get it. But I ain’t fool enough to make ’em independent of me. I ain’t going to give ’em a chance to forget the hand that feeds ’em. No, sir; I want my daughter to continue to love me and think of me.”
There was no affectation in Lawrence’s astonishment at this view of affection and the way to keep it. “Poor devil,” he said to himself pityingly, “he’s been so perverted by his wealth that he actually doesn’t see he’s taking the very course that’ll make his children hate him.” But he ventured only, “I’m certain, sir, from what I know of your daughter and Lord Frothingham that money could have no influence with them one way or the other.”
Hooper smiled cynically. “It’s human nature,” he said. “The hand that feeds is the hand that’s licked. I’ll give ’em all they need whenever they need it. Do you suppose I’ve no pride in my daughter, in seeing that she makes a good appearance over there? But a million and a half is my outside figure for settlements.”
“Practically less than a hundred thousand over and above the debts,” replied Lawrence, irritatingly reverting to pounds. “That is, about four thousand a year for them to live on.”
“Forty to fifty thousand a year, including Jenny’s income,” corrected Hooper, standing up for dollars. “And while I don’t promise, still, if they behave, they can count on as much more from me.”
“Nine thousand a year,” said Lawrence, translating into pounds, “would hardly keep up Beauvais Hall in a pinched fashion. It would leave nothing for restoring the property; the Hall, for example, needs fifty thousand pounds at once to restore it.”
The reasonableness, the unanswerableness of this presentation of the case exasperated Hooper. “They’ll have to look to me afterward for that,” he said angrily. “I’ve said my last word.”
But Lawrence didn’t believe him. He saw that, though avarice was uppermost for the moment, the “cad’s craving” was a close second—then there was the daughter’s aid. She would have something to say to her father when she knew of the hitch in the negotiations. He rose. “There’s nothing further at present, Mr. Hooper. I shall be compelled strongly to advise Lord Frothingham against going on and engaging himself. I cannot do otherwise, consistently with my duty as the, as it were, guardian for the moment of his dignity and the dignity of his house. It may be that he will disregard my advice. But I don’t see how he can, careless in sordid things and impetuous though he is. The prospect for an unhappy marriage would be too clear. Good-morning, sir.”