'Damn the equivalent!' cried Lord Forestfield, in an access of rage. 'Why don't you tell me what it is, sir? What is the use of beating about the bush in this way?'
'It is merely this,' said Uffington. 'I will tear up your notes of hand which I hold, and will regard the debt as cancelled for ever,--further, I will give you an undertaking that no steps shall be taken in regard to the mortgage on the Woodburn property for a number of years to be agreed upon,--provided that you, take back your wife--'
'What!' cried Lord Forestfield, springing from his seat; 'take back my wife! Is that the game you have been playing for? Take back my wife after all that I have gone through; all the exposure which I have suffered! Not if I know it. You have missed your mark, Sir Nugent Uffington.'
'The exposure which you have suffered is nothing to that which you will have to undergo at my hands if you do not accept these terms,' said Uffington coldly. 'Besides, in your vehemence you interrupted me before I had sufficiently explained myself. Do not think for an instant that I am stipulating for any reconciliation between you and Lady Forestfield. However much you may wish for it at a future time--and that time will surely come--it would be difficult to induce your wife to agree to it. I do not even suggest that there should be any meeting between you, as such a proceeding were much better avoided.'
'You're uncommonly good, I am sure,' said Forestfield grimly. 'What is it, then, that you require, may I ask?'
'I require you to abandon the divorce suit which you have instituted, and to take no further steps for procuring the confirmation of the decree nisi which you have obtained. Further, I require that Lady Forestfield be reinstated in her proper position as mistress of your house.'
'I thought you said there was to be no reconciliation, no meeting?' cried Forestfield.
'Nor need there be,' said Uffington. 'My notion is that Lady Forestfield should go to Woodburn and remain there for the present--your people being, of course, there to attend to her, and she being received and recognised as their mistress. She desires to live in the strictest privacy and to interfere with you in no way.'
'And suppose I were to refuse, what then?'
'For you, beggary, outlawry, and exposure--a state of life to which you have not been accustomed, and which I think would scarcely suit you.'