"What a merry fellow you are, Parson," he grunted; "I'd give a guinea to know what you are laughing at."
"A guinea!" cried Goodridge. "You would give more than that, I'll warrant. Why, I was thinking that there's no more chance for Sir Geoffrey Beaudesert than there is—for—you, for example—or me!"
"You think not?" queried Aarons, passing over the personal application of the remark with a mental reservation.
"I know it," said Goodridge, with tipsy solemnity. "I'll take my oath on it."
"Your oath may be priceless," said Aarons, "but I can only pay for proof."
"And what," said Goodridge, setting down his empty glass, "may you be willing to pay for proof that Sir Geoffrey Beaudesert can not marry the Lady Prudence?"
Aarons eyed him warily. "I have a judgment against you, Parson, for forty-three pounds and costs. I will vacate the judgment and give you—five guineas. 'Tis a liberal offer for—I know not what."
For answer, the reverend gentleman leaned across the table, and extending his right hand within a few inches of Aarons' nose, snapped his fingers half-a-dozen times.
"That for your judgment!" he shouted truculently. "I'm in the Rules for life and you can neither keep me in nor let me out. Why, man, I've a score of judgments against me, and if you vacated yours, I should be no better off; nay, worse, for it might remind the creditors who have long since forgotten me. No, no, most excellent money-lender, my secret may be worth nothing or it may be worth much, but only cash can buy it—ready cash!"
Aarons, with a scowling brow, reflected. Was it worth a large sum to break off the match between those two headstrong young people? If Goodridge was to be believed the marriage was impossible, and no expenditure of his beloved gold was needed to prevent it. On the other hand, the triumph of proving to Prue some hidden treason of Sir Geoffrey's allured him, and the possibility that she might avenge herself by taking another and wealthier husband, included the probability of that other husband being the one to enlighten her and offer himself as the ready instrument of retaliation.