‘Hush, hush, sir! As you say, your God has given it to you, and He doubtless had some purpose in so endowing you.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ muttered Jerome. ‘It is not my habit to speak in that manner; but I have been harassed almost to madness by the embarrassments and difficulties of my position. Sometimes I have wondered whether the last Wellfield was sent into the world to make a name and a fortune on the stage.’
‘I can well understand your feelings. Where are you staying?’ he added, suddenly. ‘At an inn? Will you not come and take shelter with us at Brentwood. They would be——’
‘I thank you. I am staying at the Abbey.’
‘Ah, at the Abbey? Then you simply came down here for a stroll. Will they turn you out of the Abbey as a polluted thing if you enter Brentwood to take a meal there?’
‘I don’t suppose they would; but at this moment I am waiting, and must continue to wait until she comes, for Miss Bolton, who has been kind enough to promise me her assistance in deciding what part of the lumber inside here is fit to keep and which is good only to be cast into the fire.’
‘You know Miss Bolton, then?’
‘I made her acquaintance, and that of her father, yesterday; and they asked me to stay with them until my business here was done.’
‘Her father is enormously rich.’
‘Is he? I knew he must be rich from the sum he paid my father for the Abbey. I did not know his wealth was “enormous.”’