"They have! It is very obliging of them, I am sure, to settle my affairs for me, even to the disposal of my daughter! Pray what nice little destiny may they have carved out for Mrs. Ashley or for my son?"
Cyril chafed at the words. He would have liked, just then, to strike Mr. Ashley, as he had struck William. "Would I ever have demeaned myself to enter a glove manufactory, disgracing my family, had I known I was to be only a workman in it?" he cried. "No, sir, that I never would. I am rightly served, for putting myself out of my position as a gentleman."
Mr. Ashley, but for the pity he felt, could have laughed outright. He really did feel pity for Cyril. He believed that the unhappy way in which the young Dares were turning out might be laid to the fault of their rearing, and this had rendered him considerate to Cyril. How considerate he had for a long while been, he himself alone knew: Cyril perhaps suspected.
"It is a shame!" cried Cyril. "To be dealt with in this way is nothing less than a fraud upon me. I was led to expect that I should be made your partner."
"Wait a bit, Cyril. I am willing to put you right upon the point. The proposal, that you should be placed here, emanated in the first instance from your father. He came to me one day, here, in this very room, saying that he concluded I should not put Henry to business, and thought it would be a fine opening for his son Cyril. He hinted that I should want some one to succeed me; and that you might come to it with that view. But I most distinctly disclaimed endorsing that hint in the remotest degree. I would not subscribe to it so much as by a vague 'Perhaps it may be so.' All that I conceded upon the point was this. I told Mr. Dare that when the time came for me to be looking out for some one to succeed me—if it ever did come—and I found his son—you—had served me faithfully, was upright in conduct and in heart—one, in short, whom I could thoroughly confide in—why, then he should have the preference over any other. So much I did say, Cyril, but no more."
"And why won't you give me the preference, sir?"
Mr. Ashley looked at him, apparently in surprise that he could ask the question. He bent his head forward, and spoke in a low tone, but one full of meaning.
"Upright in conduct and in heart, I said, Cyril. It was an absolute condition."
Cyril's gaze fell before Mr. Ashley's. His conscience may have pricked him, and he had the grace to look ashamed of himself. There ensued a pause.
Presently Cyril looked up. "Then I am to understand, sir, that all hope of being your partner and successor is over?"