"I have told you. I was sent for."
"By----"
"Isaac. You are as curious as ever, Georgina. But now, can you tell me why I am sent for; for that is a puzzle to me. I fear----"
He stopped suddenly. Miss Beauclerc raised her eyes to his face. There was a shade of uneasiness in his tones, as if he were ill at ease.
"I know nothing about it," she answered, earnestly. "I did not even know you were sent for. I would tell you if I did know."
He nodded an acknowledgment, courteously enough, but very abstractedly, as if he thought little of Georgina or of anything she could tell him, and walked on alone, never once looking back. She leaned her forehead against a tree, and gazed after him; her wild love shining forth from her yearning blue eyes; her whole heart longing to call after him ere he should be quite beyond view, and the day's sunshine have gone out in darkness: "Oh, stay with me, my love! stay with me!"
He went on to the house, straight into the presence of Isaac, who was then in his own room, and learnt why he had been summoned. That his embarrassments would, of necessity, become known to his brother some time, he had entertained no shadow of doubt; but he was one of those high-bred, honourable men who look upon debt as little less than crime; and now that the moment had come, it brought him terrible mortification.
"I have no excuse to offer," he said. "But do not think worse of me than you can help. Not one shilling of it has gone in dishonour."
That he spoke the truth Isaac knew, and his heart went out to him--him whom he had ever loved as a son.
"I will set you straight, only be more cautious in future," he said, never speaking, in his generosity, one word of reproach. "And, Frederick, this had better be kept from your mother. It would pain her, and perhaps alarm Anne. Don't you think it is time you married? There's nothing to wait for. I'm sure---- I fancy at least--that Anne is ready."