‘To fear indeed!’ laughed Maud, laying her little hands caressingly upon his two shoulders, and looking up at him with smiling eyes. ‘I don’t believe you know what fear is, Phil. I don’t believe you could be afraid of anything or anybody, you great, big, strong boy. You are like the everlasting Bayard one gets so tired of hearing about—sans peur et sans reproche—only you really are so; and half the people one hears it said of are nothing of the kind.’
He bent his head and kissed her on the forehead, and then strolled off by himself to think matters over.
His idea of asking Miss Marjory down, was a sudden inspiration on his part. He had felt that the present threatened crisis required very careful watching on his part, and that two heads were better than one. He had a great opinion of Miss Marjory’s shrewdness, and was confident that she would be a zealous partizan in any cause she had once taken up.
Circumstances prevented him from taking anyone else into his confidence. Much as he would be relieved by discussing the position with Maud or Mrs. Lorraine, he felt that he must not be weak enough to gratify the wish.
The fear and anxiety which it would occasion them, and the embarrassment his assumed relationship must cause, would be, he felt, too great a burden to ask them to bear, and they ought not to be put in so trying a position. Then every additional person let into the secret meant additional chances of its innocent betrayal; and more danger was certainly to be avoided, not courted.
Miss Marjory, however, did know all, and had promised her assistance if ever it should be required; and Tor felt as though that moment had now come.
So he wrote his letter, explaining what had occurred, asking Miss Marjory’s opinion as to the motive the stranger could have had in accusing him of the imposture, and speculating whether it was by accident or by design that he had found his way to Ladywell.
He concluded his letter thus:
‘I do not like to remind you of your promise to come and help me if danger threatened, because I do not yet know if there is any real danger to be apprehended. At the same time I promised to let you know if anything unforeseen occurred to disturb me, and that promise I now fulfil.
‘If you will accept an invitation to Ladywell for any time you think good to fix, I shall be more deeply in your debt than even at present; but I must not trespass too far upon your kindness, and plead my personal woes more than circumstances warrant. I will only add that a visit from you and your niece would be more of a pleasure and relief at this juncture than I can well express.