“And you would like to be on hand to protect her?”
“Yes.”
Randolph Leslie smiled.
“You seem to take a great deal of interest in Florence, if I may make as free with her name as you do.”
“Yes; I do, Mr. Leslie.”
“If you were only a little older I might suspect the nature of that interest.”
“I am older than she is.”
“In years, yes. But a young lady of seventeen, brought up as she has been, is older by years than a boy of eighteen. I don’t think you need apprehend any harm to Miss Linden, except that Mr. Waring may cheat her out of her rightful share of the inheritance. Is her uncle in good health?”
“No, sir; he is a very feeble man.”
“Is he an old man?”