Mrs. Bernard Temple turned white.
"If you speak to him, Antonia," she said, "he will break off the match, and we shall be ruined—ruined."
"Very well, mother; you must have a conversation with him. One or other of us must have it, that is certain."
"Oh, you most terrible child! What am I to say to him?"
"Say this, and say it firmly. Say that you won't marry him unless he goes to see Squire Lorrimer, and makes an arrangement to lend him sufficient money to stay on at the Towers. The Drummonds will be delighted to get out of their bargain, and the Lorrimers will be saved. That's the plan of campaign. Either I undertake to see it through, mother, or you do. Now, which is it to be?"
"You must give me until to-morrow morning to think over your wild words. Really, my poor head is splitting."
Antonia went up and kissed her mother.
"You can come now, Pinkerton," she called out.