“It’s necessary, though, when one’s not quite acting on the square.”
“What do you mean, Sep?” and Rees turned on him quite fiercely. “Do you think I’m such a skunk as not to give Lord St. Austell what belongs to him, shamefully as he has treated me?”
“Oh, no, no, Rees, I forgot for the moment,” answered Sep.
And he looked up into his friend’s handsome face with amused curiosity. Did Rees really believe in his own integrity still?
CHAPTER IX.
The rain continued to fall in torrents all day long after Rees Pennant’s discovery of the mysterious drain. He took Sep Jocelyn home with him, and they waited in fiery impatience for the evening, unable to settle to any occupation or amusement but that of speculating on the marvels they might find. Godwin was away; Hervey was reading in his own room; Deborah was, if the truth must be known, cooking in the kitchen before dinner, brushing Rees’s macintosh afterwards. The only person, therefore, who interfered with their excited tête à tête was Mrs. Pennant, who noticed her darling son’s restlessness, and was curious as to the cause.
“Well, my little mother,” said Rees, throwing his arms around her and giving her a more affectionate hug than he had bestowed upon her of late, “and supposing I tell you that I see a prospect of helping you, of doing more for you than either Godwin the grumpy or Hervey the heroic! What would you say then, mother?”
“My dear boy, I should only say that you were doing what I always expected of you,” said she, too much delighted by this welcome change in his manner towards her to be very curious as to the precise meaning of these large promises.
“And without becoming any man’s servant, either,” continued Rees, whose strong point was not prudence.
Sep twitched his friend’s sleeve warningly unseen by Mrs. Pennant.