"I'll cut Basil out of my will. I shall leave the property to Theodore."
"That is a matter for your own consideration," said Patricia coldly. "Now it's time for your beef-tea, and I must go and get it."
"I shan't take it," cried the Squire childishly.
"Mr. Colpster, for a man of your years you are very silly."
"My years--my years; you reproach me with those!"
"I reproach you with nothing," said Miss Carrol, tired of the futile argument. "Can't you see that if you go on like this I must leave?"
"No, don't," he implored, with wild eyes. "I'll be good."
"Very well," she said, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Now I shall get your beef-tea," and for that purpose she left the room.
Left alone, Mr. Colpster whimpered a little. He was old, he was sick, and he was very sorry for himself. He had sought to woo a girl who was young enough to be his daughter, and his wooing had taken the fashion of trying to bribe her with house and land and money. To this insult she had retorted by showing him the mother that is hidden in every woman, married or unmarried. He felt like a naughty boy who had been put in the corner, and at his age he did not like the new experience. He could have kicked himself for having gone on his knees to be whipped, for that was what it amounted to. In the darkness--it was evening, and there was no light in the big bed-room save that of the fire--he flushed and burned with shame. How, indeed, could she, having found her mate in a young man of her own age, beautiful and ardent as she was, be expected to accept his Philistine offer of beeves and land?
The Squire, with all his oddities, was a gentleman, and as he came from a brave race he was a man. His age, his fantasy about refounding the family, his sickness, had all landed him in this slough. It behoved him, if he wished ever again to look his ancestors' portraits in the face, to get out of the quagmire and reassert his manhood as well as his good breeding. Patricia should marry Basil and become his niece-in-law. Mara could be given an income to indulge in her fantasies, and he could live at Beckleigh with Mr. and Mrs. Colpster, which was to be the married name of the young couple. In the middle of these visions, Patricia returned with the beef-tea and a lamp. The naughty boy came out of his corner to beg pardon.