‘Certainly, certainly,’ said Kilpatrick.
‘I’ll give five pounds. You have my leave, Peebles, to say so, and to ask for subscriptions in my name.’
‘I’ll give five,’ said Dulcie.
‘I shall be glad to follow so good an example,’ said Conseltine. He strove hard to speak in his usual smooth fashion, but his voice sounded harsh and unsteady to his own ears. He gave Richard an angrily prompting look, and the boy tried to speak, but his tongue rattled against the roof of his mouth. ‘I thought you would,’ said Conseltine, quickly interpreting the inarticulate sound issuing from his son’s throat as an expression of charitable sympathy. ‘Put Richard and myself down for ten pounds, if you please, Mr. Peebles.’
‘I thank ye, Lady Dulcie and gentlemen,’ said Peebles. ‘It’s good to hae feeling hearts, and the means of proving that ye hae them. I’ll let ye know any later news—if the body’s found, or anything o’ that kind.’
‘What the devil’s the matter with you?’ his lordship asked of Richard, with sudden acerbity. Richard was as white as death, and shivering like a leaf.
‘It’s the heat, or—or something,’ he managed to stammer out.
‘Let me help you to your room, my boy,’ said his father.
He rose, and supported Richard from the table, hiding as well as he could his pitiable condition.
‘You cowardly fool!’ he hissed in his ear, when he had got him to his own chamber and locked the door. ‘Do you want to ruin us? What are ye afraid of, ye shaking poltroon?’