She smiled provokingly. “You’ve proved only you’re not an absolute devil, that’s all. You’ve not proved yourself a real man—not yet. Do you think it paid your debt to Carnac Grier that you helped get him into Parliament?”
His face became a little heated. “I’ll prove to you and to the world that I’m not an absolute devil in the Grier interests. I didn’t steal the property. I tried to induce John Grier to leave it to Carnac or his mother, for if he’d left it to Mrs. Grier it would have come to Carnac. He did not do it that way, though. He left it to me. Was I to blame for that?”
“Perhaps not, but you could have taken Carnac in, or given up the property to him—the rightful owner. You could have done that. But you were thinking of yourself altogether.”
“Not altogether. In the first place, I am bound to keep my word to John Grier. Besides, if Carnac had inherited, the property would have got into difficulties—there were things only John Grier and I understood, and Carnac would have been floored.”
“Wouldn’t you still have been there?”
“Who knows! Who can tell! Maybe not!”
“Carnac Grier is a very able man.”
“But of the ablest. He’ll be a success in Parliament. He’ll play a big part; he won’t puddle about. I meant there was a risk in letting Carnac run the business at the moment, and—”
“And there never was with you!”
“None. My mind had grasped all John Grier intended, and I have the business at my fingers’ ends. There was no risk with me. I’ve proved it. I’ve added five per cent to the value of the business since John Grier died. I can double the value of it in twenty years—and easy at that.”