“Maybe,” Wetherell said, his face still hidden. “I don’t deny that.”
“As it is,” with a deep breath, “I am taken by surprise. I do not know what to say. I find it hard to say anything in the first flush of the matter.” And Vaughan looked from one to the other. “So, for the present, with Sir Robert’s permission,” he continued, “and without any slight to his generosity, I will take leave. If he is good enough, to repeat on some future occasion, this very handsome—this uncalled for and generous offer, which he has now outlined, I shall know, I hope, what is due to him, without forgetting what is due also to myself. In the meantime I have only to thank him and——”
But the belated congratulation which was on his lips and which might have altered many things, was not to be uttered.
“One moment!” Sir Robert struck in. “One moment!” He spoke with a hardness born of long suppressed irritation. “You have taken your stand, Mr. Vaughan, strictly on the defensive, I see——”
“But I think you understand——”
“Strictly on the defensive,” the baronet repeated, requiring silence by a gesture. “You must not be surprised therefore, if I—nay, let me speak!—if I also say a word on a point which touches me.”
“I wouldn’t!” Wetherell growled in his deep voice; and for an instant he raised his huge face, and looked stolidly at the wall before him.
But Sir Robert was not to be bidden. “I think otherwise,” he said. “Mr. Vaughan, the election to-morrow touches me very nearly—in more ways than one. The vote you have, you received at my hands and hold only as my heir. I take it for granted, therefore, that under the present circumstances, you will use it as I desire.”
“Oh!” Vaughan said. And drawing himself up to his full height he passed his eyes slowly from one to the other with a singular smile. “Oh!” he repeated—and there was a world of meaning in his tone. “Am I to understand then——”
“I have made myself quite clear,” Sir Robert cried, his manner betraying his agitation.