“We—ell,” said the co-trustee. He could not contradict this, which was certainly the truth, and had been remarked by everybody. “Perhaps there may be something in what you say; but that boy of yours is a capital fellow, Parke. How cleverly he brought his cousin in and set things on their right footing.”
John did not for a moment reply. It is always pleasant to hear your son praised, but when he is praised for seeing further, and showing better sense than yourself, it is perhaps not so pleasant. Mr. Parke had thought a great deal since those recent events, and had seen many things in a different light. Amid other things those festivities, in which Duke was the hero, now appeared to him in the light of an almost incredible piece of folly. He was glad to think that he had remonstrated at the time, but his remonstrances (which he did not now remember had been very feeble) were overborne. All the same he did not quite like it when his colleague so readily agreed. It would have been civil at least to say that nobody else thought so, and that it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Well!” he said, sharply, in a very different tone from that lingering monosyllable which expressed so unflatteringly an acquiescence in his own self-reproach. “We agree you see so far as that is concerned. And I am anxious to get back to my own house. Greenpark is our home, not this place, which belongs to my nephew. Now that his mother is quite restored she is the right person to make a home for him. There never can be any question as to her motives.”
“Parke! there never has been, so far as I am aware, the slightest question as to your motives.”
John waved his hand; he did not speak. Was it, perhaps, that he was not capable of doing so? He stood for a moment without saying anything, and then went on—
“Anyhow, it would be better for us all. One gets to think one has a right to things of which one has only the use. I don’t like it for the children. I am anxious to get home. And our tenants there are going: their time is up. I should like it to be settled at once. It was between you and me before an amicable arrangement. Now we can return to the original letter of the will, don’t you know? Mary must be the acting guardian as he wished. My brother,” John said with a faint sigh, which he endeavored to restrain, “had the most perfect confidence in his wife.”
“Talking of that,” said Mr. Blotting, “I hope, if you will allow me to say so, that you are not taking this important step without talking it over with Mrs. Parke. I know she is ill——”
“My wife and I are entirely of the same mind,” said John hastily. “I know her opinion,” he added, hesitating. “Lady Frogmore and she could not get on in the same house. They are very old friends, and there is a long-standing grievance——”
The lawyer laughed, as wise men do when the female element comes in. He thought he had now the key to the situation.
“Ah” he said, “I understand! the ladies are like that—very charming, but apt to have grudges, and hating each other like poison. They are all more or less like that.”