"Very well, do as you like, only let me know, for I don't mean to be mixed up in such a disgraceful affair. I shall go to London and stay with my uncle Lismore for a little while. So give me due notice of the police being put on the job and I am off."
He suited the action to the word and lounged out of the morning-room and went upstairs, for it had just occurred to him that he might as well have his portmanteau packed in readiness in case his mother should forget to inform him that she had consulted the police, and he should be taken unawares, which would certainly be awkward.
Lady Mary sat considering the position of her affairs for a minute, and then resolved to call upon Mr. Andrews and find out, if she could, just what he meant by the letter she had received from him.
In answer to her question whether she could see Mr. Andrews, she was shown to his private room, and was received by the lawyer with no small surprise. "I have come to say that I am very much astonished at the terms of your letter," she said.
"Indeed, my lady! What was there so astonishing in it?" asked the old man.
"Well, you know I have lent my money—"
"At a very fair interest," interrupted the lawyer.
"Well, yes, I suppose it was," admitted the lady. "But still I always understood, since I took up the other mortgages, that the land would fall into my hands eventually. Poor Charles said many times, 'You will foreclose, Mary, when it suits you.'"
"Certainly, and you have given me due notice of your intention to do so, and I have replied that we, on our side, are prepared to pay over the amount due on all the land given as security."
"But you can't do it!" stamped Lady Mary.