"I have known Strode all my life, and he always treated me badly. As a boy I lived near his father's place at Wargrove, and my father liked me to associate with him, as he was of better birth than I. We studied at the same school and the same college, and, when we went into the world, Strode's influence introduced me into aristocratic circles. But my own talents aided me also," said Hill, with open vanity, "I can do everything and amuse any one. When I stopped at Lord Ipsen's----"
"My mother told me of that," said Allen with a gesture of repugnance, "and I don't want to hear the story again."
"I'm not going to tell it," retorted his father tartly, "my idea was to explain a popularity you will never attain to, Allen. However, I'll pass that over. I married your mother, and Strode married Lady Jane Delham, with whom I also was in love--and I would have made her a much better husband than Strode," said the little man plaintively.
"Go on, please," said Mask, glancing at his watch. "There isn't much time. I have to go out to luncheon."
"Always thinking of yourself, Mask," sneered Hill, "you always did, you know. Well, I saw little of Strode for some time. Then I lent him money and saw less of him than ever. Then he----"
"You told me all this before," interposed Allen, who began to think his father was merely playing with him.
"I'll come to the point presently," said Hill with great dignity; "let me say, Allen, that although I hated Strode, and had good cause too--yes, very good cause--I liked Eva. When you wished to marry her, I was pleased. She wrote to her father about the marriage. He sent her a cablegram saying he was coming home----"
"And when he did arrive at Southampton he told her she was not to think of the marriage."
"He told me also," said Hill, "and long before. He wrote from the Cape telling me he would not allow you to marry Eva."
"Allow me!" said Allen indignantly.