This conversation with a cautious man like Mr. Andrews pretty well convinced Mr. Brading that, whoever the culprit might be, it was not Arthur Murray, and what Mr. Bristow told him simply confirmed his opinion. So, after the talk with Arthur, he resolved to end the affair by writing to Lady Mary to say that he would bear the loss of the money, and no more was to be said about it, as there did not seem to be much chance of the thief ever being discovered.
Mr. Brading thought he had ended the matter when he wrote this letter, but he reckoned without Lady Mary. She was still fuming and fretting over what she had heard from Mr. Andrews about the money being ready for her whenever her lawyer was ready to transact the necessary business. And now to hear that Arthur was not to be dismissed from his situation, made her boil with rage against the world in general and Arthur in particular. And she handed the letter to Adrian when he came in.
"Well, that's all right. You don't want any more than that, do you?" he said, tossing it back across the table to his mother.
"Indeed I do!" she said. "I want those Murrays out of the way. What do they want to stop here for, now the property is all wasted?"
"Oh, let the boy alone, and don't be a fool!" politely answered her son, with a sleepy yawn.
"It is my business and not yours, and so don't you interfere!"
"Very well, do as you like; but if you begin to stir up that dirty water again, I shall go to London and get out of it, though I did post the letter, for I have heard enough about it, and don't mean to be dragged into it again."
Lady Mary had heard this threat more than once lately, and so she only smiled in a fashion that made Adrian feel pretty certain that she intended to take some action that would necessitate his being called as a witness.
And so, when the servant went to tell him Lady Mary wanted to speak to him, she found his room strewn from end to end with clothes and boots and slippers, but he had gone!
In point of fact, he was on his way to London, for he knew he would not find it convenient to answer questions if too closely pressed. And so he thought a visit to his uncle just now would be better for himself, and for his mother too, if she could only think so—a truth she would learn later on, he feared.