"'Tis a thing not wholly in my keeping," replied Marius, kindling at the other's manner. "You are the elder—well, no more, but I will none of your money, my lord, and none of your influence to push me into some idle place at Court."
Rose Lyndwood loosened the pink mantle from his throat.
"You are a pragmatical fellow," he said calmly; "and must even do as you please. I shall expect to see you again when you are tired of virtue on a hundred a year."
"I do not put such a high value upon money," answered Marius hotly.
"Maybe," said my lord lazily; "but you have not yet tried to do without it." He rose suddenly. "I' God's name, Marius, let us have done with this prating; we each mean the same thing, I doubt not; why should we be discontented with one another? Stay in London and make the best of it; do what others do, 'tis the surest wisdom."
"What others do!" repeated his brother with quickened breath; "marry an heiress and gamble myself and her to ruin, take some woman for her fortune and make her life unendurable with my disdain while I spend her money on sordid pleasures; buy myself into a corrupt Ministry and fatten on the proceeds of Court intrigues. I have not the temper for these things, my lord."
The Earl laid his gloves and whip on the couch from which he had risen; he looked steadily at Marius.
"I shall begin to think that you came here to insult me," he said. "Now why, I wonder."
"I tell you that my way is not your way, my lord."