“I am aware. I fulfilled my part to admiration when I put his name up for the two most exclusive clubs in London. I cannot remember having done as much for anyone else in the whole course of my existence.”
“You think you did well for Perry when you introduced him to a gaming club?” demanded Judith.
“Certainly.”
“No doubt you will still be thinking so when he has gamed the whole of his fortune away!”
“On one point you may rest assured, Miss Taverner: while I hold the purse-strings Perry will not game his fortune away.”
“And after? What then, when he has learned this passion for gaming?”
“By that time I trust he will be a little wiser,” said the Earl.
“I should have known better than to have come to you,” Judith said bitterly.
He turned his head. “Not at all. You were quite right to come to me. The mistake you made was in thinking that I did not know of Perry’s doings. He is behaving very much as I supposed he would. But you will no doubt have noticed that it is not causing me any particular degree of anxiety.”
“Yes,” said Miss Taverner, with emphasis. “I have noticed it. Your anxiety is kept for whatever it is that you are so busy with.”