“I hope the case may not be as desperate as you fear,” John said. “I am not acquainted with your grandson, but I have seen him, and I should judge him to be a weakling rather than a villain. May I say that one loose-screw can’t disgrace an honoured name?” He smiled, and added: “By all accounts my grandfather was one, but we think our name a good one, in spite of him!”
“Your grandfather! Ay, he was a rake and a gamester, but it was play or pay with him, and he rode straight at his fences! There was no bad blood in him, but in Henry there is more bad than good!” He lifted his hand, and let it fall again, in an impotent gesture. “I knew that years ago, when I pulled him out of that first, damnable scrape——But Jermyn was alive then. It never occurred to me that Jermyn would be killed, or that I should become the helpless wreck I am—so helpless that I can neither protect my granddaughter from the gallantry of the vulgar rogue my heir has introduced into my house, nor fling the pair of them out of it!”
“Don’t distress yourself, sir!” John said. “With or without your leave I shall take care of Nell; and as for your grandson and his bacon-fed crony, you have only to say the word, and I shall be happy to throw them out of the house for you! Now, if you choose!”
Sir Peter shook his head. He looked up at John under his brows, a smile twisting his lips. “No. No. Better not. There’s something afoot. That rogue has Henry under his thumb, and Henry’s afraid. While I live he has no right here, but when I die the place will be his—and I might die tomorrow.”
“I hope not, sir, but I’m at one with you in thinking that we shall do better to keep these gentry where we can watch what they are about. I don’t fear for Nell. She at least is no weakling, and she has very faithful guardians in Rose and Joseph.”
“She’s safe while I live,” Sir Peter said. His hand worked on the arm of his chair. “I did my best!” he said suddenly, as though in answer to a challenge. “Sent her up to her aunt for a season! A damned, insipid woman—nothing but pride and consequence, but she goes to all the ton parties! Sulky as a bear she was—but not too stiff-necked to pocket a handsome fee for her services! She had the infernal impudence to tell me my girl was a hoyden! Ha! Nell has too much force of mind for my lady’s taste! I could have dowered her then, but she didn’t take! No! And none of the town fribbles took her fancy! It was left for a libertine and a coxcomb—a Captain Sharp, if ever I saw one!—to tell me that he would be pleased to marry her! By God, if I could have my strength back for one minute——!”
John interposed, his eyes watchful on Sir Peter’s face, but his deep voice very calm. “Do I indeed seem to you to be a libertine and a coxcomb, sir? But I’ll swear I’m not a Captain Sharp!”
The fierce old eyes stared across at him. “Not you, fool! Coate!”
“What, does he offer marriage? There must be better stuff in the fellow than I guessed. But why tease yourself, sir? To be sure, it is an impertinence, but persons of low breeding, you know, have such encroaching ways! I wish you will leave me to deal with Coate, and tell me I have your permission to marry Nell!”
There was the glimmer of a smile in Sir Peter’s eyes. He said: “Does my permission count for so much with you?”