“You want help, I suppose?”
“I have not a halfpenny, sir! I want something to live on until his lordship comes back.”
His tone changed as he said this, growing hard and almost defiant. The rector noted the alteration, and did not like it. “But why come to me?” he said, more coldly than he had yet spoken. “Why do you not go to Lord Dynmore’s steward, or agent, or his solicitor, my man?”
“They would tell of me,” was the curt answer. “And likely enough I should lose my place.”
“Still, why come to me?” Lindo persisted—chiefly to learn what was in the man’s mind, for he had already determined what he would do.
“Because you are rector of Claversham, sir,” the applicant retorted at last. And he rose suddenly and confronted the parson with an unpleasant smile on his pale face—“which is in my lord’s gift, as you know, sir,” he continued, in a tone rude and almost savage—a tone which considerably puzzled his companion, who was not conscious of having said anything offensive to the man. “I came here, sir, expecting to meet an older gentleman, a gentleman of your name, a gentleman known to me, and I find you—and I see you, do you see, where I expected to find him.”
“You mean my uncle, I suppose?” said Lindo.
“Well, sir, you know best,” was the odd reply, and the man’s look was as odd as his words. “But that is how the case stands; and, seeing it stands so, I hope you will help me, sir. I do hope, on every account, sir, that you will see your way to help me.”
The rector looked at the speaker with a slight frown, liking neither the man nor his behavior. But he had already made up his mind to help him, if only in gratitude to his patron, whose retainer he was; and this, though the earl would never know of the act, nor possibly approve of it. The man had at least had the frankness to own the folly which had brought him to these straits, and Lindo was inclined to set down the oddity of his present manner to the fear and anxiety of a respectable servant on the verge of disgrace. “Yes,” he said coldly, after a moment’s thought, “I am willing to help you. Of course I shall expect you to repay me if and when you are able, Felton.”
“I will do that,” replied the man rather cavalierly.