“What?” demanded the Elder. “I will give her whatever she wants. What is it?”
The way in which he shouted it made the Younger look out of the window.
“Youth,” he replied.
There was a silence. There was such a silence that the Younger knew he had been a fool. He turned around with the intention of smoothing things over a bit, and the look which he caught on the Elder’s face deepened his pang.
But the marquis, giving him no time, passed it off.
“Eh, my young friend, you have hit it on the head. But never mind. I have not made myself the talk of the town for nothing. And Miss Susannah shall find it out. I will go on as I have begun. I will pay her such attention, I will give her such presents, that even she—even she—will find that she is compromised. Then I will tell you whom she will marry.”
And with this delicate intimation he stalked away.
V
This was how it came to the Younger that more might lie in experiments than one foresaw. He did not like at all that insinuation that the marquis would catch Susannah by foul means if not by fair. But, however he might dislike the Elder’s tactics, the Younger felt his own share of the responsibility.
The two men met one morning at the gate of the villino—the Younger going in, the Elder coming out. They exchanged ceremonious salutations, as usual.