"It would be no breach of confidence," said Olive, "although it was not my intention to reveal to you the lady's name at present. However, having been frank with you so far, I may as well continue to be so. The lady to whom I refer is Miss Eleanor Lloyd--of course, a perfect stranger to you. Her father died a few months ago, and left her a fortune of twenty thousand pounds."
All Gerald's self-control was needed to keep him from betraying himself to the pair of keen eyes that were fixed so steadily on him. He turned his head away, and affected to be deeply considering the words he had just heard. He wanted time to recover himself.
Up to a few moments ago, not the slightest suspicion had entered his mind that the offer which Kelvin had made him through Miss Deane had sprung from anything but a feeling of genuine friendship on the lawyer's part; and even when Olive had propounded her theory that he ought to recoup his fortunes by marrying an heiress, he had looked upon it as so much quiet chaff on her part, never thinking that any serious meaning was attached to her words.
But the mention of Eleanor Lloyd's name had changed all this. Suddenly he seemed to see a pitfall at his feet. His mind, ever active in moments of emergency, at once whispered certain questions to him, not one of which he could answer to his own satisfaction. What object had Kelvin in view in offering to procure for a man whom he I knew only as a nameless adventurer a situation of trust and responsibility in the house of such a man as Sir Thomas Dudgeon? What object had Olive Deane in view in trying to persuade this same nameless adventurer to make love to and win the hand of Eleanor Lloyd? Was it with Kelvin's knowledge and sanction that Miss Deane was thus trying to persuade him? or was she doing it merely in furtherance or some hidden scheme of her own? Was Miss Deane aware, as Kelvin undoubtedly was, that Eleanor was not the heiress people believed her to be, nor any relation of Jacob Lloyd; and if so, what could her object possibly be in trying to bring Jack Pomeroy and Miss Lloyd together? Finally, came the oft-recurring questions: Why had not Kelvin written to him as Gerald Warburton, the real heir; and why had he neglected to reveal the contents of the sealed packet to Eleanor? There seemed to be something under the surface that at present he could in no wise fathom. He could not rid his mind of the suspicion that there was some hidden link of connection between the concealment of the sealed packet by Kelvin, and the evident desire of Olive Deane that he should win Eleanor for his wife. And yet how could there be any such link of connection? In any case, he would meet stratagem with stratagem. It should be a case of diamond cut diamond.
He would still be Jack Pomeroy to them, and would seem, for a little while at least, to fall in with all their views and wishes.
"Really, Miss Deane," he said at last, "you have piqued my curiosity in the strangest possible way. I hardly know in what terms to answer you, The position of this Miss Lloyd, who is so far above me in the social scale, would seem to render utterly absurd and Quixotic on my part any advances that I might make with the view of ultimately winning her hand."
"Of course, if you are lacking in boldness and audacity," said Miss Deane, with the faintest possible sneer, "those are qualities which no one can lend you for the occasion, and the sooner we bring our interview to an end the better. But if your hesitation arises from the fact of your being short of funds, you need be under no apprehension on that score. Pardon me for speaking so plainly, but my cousin gave me to understand that you were not one of the richest of individuals--he insinuated, in fact, that you were almost penniless."
"Not for the first time in my life, Miss Deane--in fact, I rather like being penniless, it keeps the circle of one's friends and acquaintances so limited and select."
"To begin with--my cousin Matthew must lend you fifty pounds."
"Fifty pounds! I like the first item of your programme vastly."