“It’s not capital now, sir,” said Eddy, finding his voice as his spirit began to come back to him.
“No, it’s not hanging,” said Rowland, with a slight smile; “but it’s ruin all the same. Now, look here.” He took the cheque from the envelope in which he had put it away, “and here.” He took from his pocket-book the guilty scrap of paper which Eddy had given to Evelyn. “Put these in the fire, and destroy them, and then we can talk.”
Eddy did what he was told with what scrupulous care it is unnecessary to describe, and poked the very films of the burned paper into the bottom of the fire. Then he turned to Mr. Rowland, his face reddened with the blaze, his eyes hot and scorched, his features working. He took the rich man’s hand and held it fast between his. “Tell me to do anything in the world,” he said, “whatever you please, and I’ll do it. I am your bond-slave, and will not call my soul my own unless you say I may.”
“Sit down, boy, and don’t talk nonsense,” said Rowland, himself considerably moved. “I am going to tell you to do several things, and I hope you will obey. But first, Eddy, if you were in such a terrible scrape, why were you such a little fool, when you had a man like me close at hand, not to come and ask for it. Would not that have been the wise way?”
“It would have been a very cheeky thing to do to come and ask a man, because he’s been kind to you, to give you a th—though, of course,” Eddy interrupted himself, in a low voice, “less might have done then.”
“A cheeky thing is better than a bad thing,” said Rowland sententiously. “Perhaps I might have been surprised: but now, my lad, let us get to the bottom of all this. If I take you in hand, I’ll have no half measures. How much do you want to clear you altogether, so that you shall be your own master when you come into your estate?”
“To clear me?” Eddy’s eyebrows went up altogether into his hair. “Well, sir,” he said, “that is a confusing question, for, you see, unlimited tick, that is to say, credit——”
“Don’t be a humbug, Eddy!”
“Well, I suppose you know what tick means,” the young man said, with a laugh, “not unlimited, by any means; though, to tell the truth, except for—I’m very nearly cleared.”
“Very nearly won’t do for me, neither will I have any exceptions; put them all down, every one, without any exceptions, and bring them to me. I’ll see you cleared: and now for what I want you to do.”