The parlour-maid took Mr. Wonham to the study. He had been in the drawing-room before, but had got bored, and so had strolled out into the garden. Now he was in better spirits, as a man ought to be who has knocked down a man. As he passed through the hall he sparred at the teak monkey, and hung his cap on the bust of Hermes. And he greeted Mrs. Elliot with a pleasant clap of laughter. “Oh, I’ve come with the most tremendous news!” he cried.
She bowed, but did not shake hands, which rather surprised him. But he never troubled over “details.” He seldom watched people, and never thought that they were watching him. Nor could he guess how much it meant to her that he should enter her presence smoking. Had she not said once at Cadover, “Oh, please smoke; I love the smell of a pipe”?
“Would you sit down? Exactly there, please.” She placed him at a large table, opposite an inkpot and a pad of blotting-paper.
“Will you tell your ‘tremendous news’ to me? My brother and my husband are giving the boys their dinner.”
“Ah!” said Stephen, who had had neither time nor money for breakfast in London.
“I told them not to wait for me.”
So he came to the point at once. He trusted this handsome woman. His strength and his youth called to hers, expecting no prudish response. “It’s very odd. It is that I’m Rickie’s brother. I’ve just found out. I’ve come to tell you all.”
“Yes?”
He felt in his pocket for the papers. “Half-brother I ought to have said.”
“Yes?”