"What's that?"
"Make friends with him, and ask him to wait till you die."
"No, no, no!" said Sir Simon, irritably. "He must keep away from me for a time. After all, he is the son of his father, and, bad as Walter was, I loved him for his mother's sake. As for the Italian woman—"
"Mrs. Gore! She is dead."
"I know she is. But her brother Guiseppe is alive, and a scoundrel he is. The other day he came to the Hall and tried to force his way into the house. A gambler, a rogue, Durham—that's what Guiseppe is."
"What is his other name?"
"Tolomeo! He comes from Siena."
"I understood Mrs. Gore—your son's wife—came from Florence."
"So she said. She declared she was the member of a decayed Florentine family. But afterwards I learned from Guiseppe that the Tolomeo nobles are Sienese—and a bad lot they are. He is a musician, I believe—a plausible scamp. I hope he has not got hold of Bernard."
"Bernard is his nephew."