"The child!" repeated Errington fiercely, "no! the child, which should have drawn us closer together, has put us farther asunder than ever. I longed for a child to succeed me in the estates, and, now I have obtained my desire, I wish it had never been born. I hate the child! It seems horrible, Eustace, but I do. I hate it."
"Don't talk like that, Guy," cried Eustace, springing to his feet, and laying his hand on his cousin's arm, "it's terrible--your own child!"
"My own child! my own child," repeated Guy with senseless reiteration. "Yes! my own child."
He thrust his hands into his pockets, and abruptly turning away, walked a short distance in order to conceal his emotion, while Eustace stood silently in the same place, wondering at his cousin's grief over what appeared to him to be such a trivial matter. It might seem so to him, but it certainly was not to Guy, whose whole nature was smarting under a sense of neglect and injury.
After a few moments Errington returned, with a hard look on his face, and a cynical laugh on his lips.
"I beg your pardon, Eustace," he said ceremoniously, "for troubling you about these affairs, but if I hadn't someone to talk to about it, I believe I should go mad. I went up to Aunt Jelly the other day, and told her what I am now telling you, but she didn't seem to think much of it."
"You make a mistake there," said Gartney, quickly. "Aunt Jelly thought a great deal about it. In fact, it is because she urged me to see what I could do, that I am down here."
"You can't do anything," replied Errington listlessly, "no one can do anything. Alizon and myself are an ill-wedded pair. The quick coupled with the dead. She is a perfect wife, a perfect mother, and I, in the eyes of the world possessing a treasure in the matrimonial way, am the most miserable devil alive."
Eustace felt a sudden pang of compunction at the idea of the misery he proposed to add to the unhappy young man's life, and after a short struggle between the generous and selfish instincts of his nature, the former triumphed, and he determined to do his best to reconcile husband and wife. With this new resolve in his mind, he approached Guy, and taking him by the arm, walked slowly across the beach with him towards Castle Grim.
"Come to the house, old fellow," he said kindly. "You are working yourself into a perfect state over nothing. Have luncheon with me, and then we'll drive over together, and I'll do my best to put things right."