“I don’t know, my dear boy,” said Mrs. Pennant, caressing his curly head with a trembling hand.
“He wanted me to become his steward—his land steward. What do you think of that?”
Godwin sprang up from the seat by his mother’s side.
“For heaven’s sake, Rees, don’t tell us you were such a fool as to refuse?”
“I did refuse, of course. It is not for me, the prospective head of the Pennant family, to become the paid dependent of any man.”
“Well, it’s better than being a pauper, head of the family or not. And that’s what mother and I have just discovered you to be.”
Mrs. Pennant’s tears began to flow again.
“He is right, Rees, I am afraid,” said she, in a sad, low voice. “Your father never would let us know the real state of his affairs, and we have just found out enough to make us fear that we are absolutely ruined.”
Rees looked from one face to the other in utter bewilderment. His mother drew his head tenderly to her breast.
“Your poor father, Rees, fell down dead in the drawing-room two hours ago.”