“Wait,” said his father, and he lifted his hand a moment and dropped it again. He was speaking in short, sharp sentences. “I know that you have great things before you, and that I am asking much from you. I do not wish you to think that I am ignorant of that. If nothing else will do I am willing to give up the house altogether to you and your wife. I do not know about your mother.”
Mary drew her breath hard. The words were like an explosion in her soul, and opened up unsuspected gulfs. Things must be desperate if her father could speak like that. He had not hinted a word of this during that silent strenuous ride they had had together when he had called for her suddenly at Great Keynes earlier in the afternoon. She saw Ralph give a quick stare at his father, and drop his eyes again.
“You are very generous, sir,” he said almost immediately, “but I do not ask for a bribe.”
“You—you are unlike your master in that, then,” said Sir James by an irresistible impulse.
Ralph’s face stiffened yet more.
“Then that is all, sir?” he asked.
“I beg your pardon for saying that,” added his father courteously. “It should not have been said. It is not a bribe, however; it is an offer to compensate for any loss you may incur.”
“Have you finished, sir?”
“That is all I have to say on that point,” said Sir James, “except—”
“Well, sir?”