Sir Richard literally gasped with astonishment at this very plain speaking; but he was anxious to be at peace with the child, and proceeded:—
"You see, Dick, your father's marriage was a disappointment to me—you are too young to understand why—and I was naturally offended with him. I said I should never forgive him, but I should like to be friendly with him again, and let bygones be bygones. Now, I'm sure you'll try to forget what Lionel said, and come to the Manor House as usual?"
"No," said Dick stubbornly, "because I should always be thinking of how you hate mother!"
"Nonsense, my boy, I don't hate your mother now!" The words were out almost before Sir Richard was aware he had said them, so eager was he that Dick's frequent visits should not cease. "I think she must be a good woman if her son loves her so well," he continued, speaking gruffly to hide deep feeling, "and she has taught you to be honest and truth-loving—a gentleman at heart!"
Dick flushed, and a slight tremulous smile played around his mouth, whilst the hard, stern expression which had looked so out of place on his young face, disappeared altogether.
"There is no one like mother!" he said again. It was his favourite formula when speaking of her. "If you are sure, quite sure that you don't hate her, I will come to the Manor House as often as you like; and I shall know it is not true if Lionel says it again!"
"What were you quarrelling about?" Sir Richard enquired, with a return of his old, sharp manner.
"I would rather not say," Dick responded firmly; "please don't ask me, because I don't mean to tell!"
His grandfather did not press the question, supposing they had disagreed upon some unimportant matter. He turned the conversation into another channel; and seated on the faded velvet settee beyond which Dick had hidden, he watched the little boy draw the curtain back from Paul Gidley's picture.
"He was a soldier too, wasn't he?" Dick said softly, as he stood looking up into the martyr's face. "Uncle Theophilus says he was a soldier of Christ. He fought the good fight of faith; and a man must be very brave to do that!"