“But, my dear Theo, so I have always done! I am not a lost heir, returning to oust him from a position he thought his own!”
“Not lost, but I fancy he did think the position might well be his,” Theo replied.
“He seems to me an excessively foolish young man, but he cannot be such a saphead as that!” expostulated Gervase. “Only I could succeed to my father’s room!”
“Very true, but dead men do not succeed,” said Theo dryly.
“Dead men!” Gervase exclaimed, startled and amused.
“My dear Gervase, you have taken part in more than one engagement, and you will own that it could not have been thought surprising had you met your end upon a battlefield. It was, in fact, considered to be a likely contingency.”
“And one that was hoped for?”
“Yes, one that was hoped for.”
The Earl’s face was inscrutable; after a moment, Theo said: “I have shocked you, but it is better to be plain with you, I think. You cannot have supposed that they loved you!”
“Not Lady St. Erth, no! But Martin — !”