"Yes, that is something—better than a verdict of acquittal, eh?" and a softer light came into his eyes.
"I would rather be in our place, Ralph, bitter and humiliating as it is, than take the place of the oppressor."
"You are thinking of Sir John Hamblyn?" he questioned.
"They say he is being oppressed now," she answered, after a pause.
"By whom?"
"The money-lenders. Rumour says that he has lost heavily on the Turf and on the Stock Exchange—whatever that may be—and that he is hard put to it to keep his creditors at bay."
"That may account in some measure for his hardness to others."
"He hoped to retrieve his position, it is said, by marrying his daughter to Lord Probus," Ruth went on, "but she refuses to keep her promise."
"What?" he exclaimed, with a sudden gasp.
"How much of the gossip is true, of course, nobody knows, or rather how much of it isn't true—for it is certain she has refused to marry him; and Lord Probus is so mad that he refused to speak to Sir John or have anything to do with him."