“Yes, I did. So now, perhaps, you will understand why I take such an interest in her—why Mr. Haydon takes an interest in her. Simply because she is his niece.” 245
“Oh, she is—is she? And he came here, found her dying, or next door to it, and never claimed her.”
“No; that is a little way of his,” acknowledged his partner. “If she had really died, he never would have said a word about it, for it would have caused him a lot of troublesome explanation at home. But I guess he knew I would be likely to come across her. She is the very image of what her mother was. He told me the whole story of how he found her here, and all. And now he wants to do the proper thing and take her home with him.”
“The devil he does!” growled Overton. “Well, why do you come to me about it?”
“Your influence with her was one thing,” answered Mr. Seldon, with a dubious smile at the dark face before him. “This protégée of yours has a will of her own, it seems, and refuses utterly to acknowledge her aristocratic relations, refuses to be a part of her uncle’s household; and we want your influence toward changing her mind.”
“Well, you’ll never get it,” and the tone was decided as the words. “If she says she is no relation to anybody, I’ll back her up in it, and not ask her her reasons, either. If she doesn’t want to go with Mr. Haydon, she is the only one I will allow to decide, unless he brings a legal order from some court, and I might try to hinder him even then. She willingly came under my guardianship, and when she leaves it, it must be willingly.”
“Oh, of course there will be no coercion about the matter,” explained Mr. Seldon, hastily. “But don’t you, yourself, think it would be a decided advantage for her to live for a while with her own relatives?” 246
“I am in no position to judge. I don’t know her relatives. I don’t know why it is that she has not been taken care of by them long ago; and I am not asking any questions. She knows, and that is enough; and I am sure her reasons for not going would satisfy me.”
“Well, you are a fine specimen to come to for influence,” observed the other. “She has a grudge against Haydon, that is the obstacle—a grudge, because he quarreled with her mother long ago. I thought that as you have done so much for her, your word might have weight in showing her the folly of it.”
“My word would have no more weight than yours,” he answered, curtly. “All I have done for her amounts to nothing; and I’ve an idea that if she wanted me to know her family affairs, she would tell me.”