"Well then, I'll return to my hotel to dine, and Gilbert shall accompany me."
"No thank you," Gilbert said, "I shall sup with my mother, and go early to bed."
"You had better accept the invitation, Gilbert. Our supper will not be very recherché," Gratian said; "we do not sit down to a royal feast here, we live above such vanities."
"I dare say he will not be fastidious after his farmhouse life," said Lord Maythorne, scornfully. "How was your charge; is he walking without leading strings yet?"
Gilbert bit his lip and struggled for composure; but his mother watched him anxiously. Lord Maythorne's irony was hard for her to bear sometimes, and she never knew how Gilbert would take it.
"My dear boy, there is a wise proverb which in English sounds a little harsh, scarcely courteous; in French it is less abrupt: 'Chargez de vos affaires.' There are other renderings: 'Don't put your fingers into other people's pies.'"
Poor Gilbert sprang forward and raising his voice said:
"I will not submit to your impertinence. What right have you to treat me like this? I saw you, a man almost double my age—"
"Gently, gently my dear boy, not double; nay, nay—"
"I say, I saw you trying to ruin a poor, weak fellow, who, weak as he was, trusted you, and I tried to save him. I wonder you are not ashamed to speak thus; you are—"