Presently Burgo spoke again.
"Your ladyship will pardon me, but, from what you have already said, I can only presume that when you asked me to come here to-day, it was because you were in a position to impart to me some information, or to put before me some definite proposition on my uncle's part with respect to my future. If such be the case, I shall be glad to listen to whatever message you may be charged with, with as little further preface as may be."
It was an audacious speech, and her ladyship felt it to be such; indeed, to her it seemed nothing less than a piece of consummate impertinence. She stared at him for a moment in icy surprise, but he met her gaze unflinchingly. Evidently there was more in this young man than she had given him credit for.
"When you were requested to call here to-day, Mr. Brabazon, it was not in order to obtain your assent to some proposition which I had been commissioned to lay before you (that would have been too ridiculous), but to inform you of the decision which your uncle has come to in respect of matters between yourself and him."
"That is the point, madam, about which I am anxious to be enlightened."
"Very well. Here is Sir Everard's decision in a nutshell. The allowance which his lawyer has been in the habit of paying you quarterly will cease from to-day, and in lieu thereof, and further, as a quittance in full of any imaginary claim which you may have assumed yourself to have on your uncle's pecuniary resources, he requests your acceptance of this cheque for one thousand guineas."
As her ladyship ceased speaking, she opened her porte-monnaie, which she had held clasped in one hand all this time, and extracted therefrom a narrow folded slip of paper, and rising, laid it on the table close by where Burgo was sitting. Then she resumed her seat.
It is not too much to say that Burgo was literally stunned. He repeated her ladyship's words automatically to himself before he could feel sure that he had heard aright. For a moment or two he saw everything through a haze, as one sees things in a half-dream, and when the film had cleared away it was to leave him conscious that Lady Clinton's eyes were fixed on him with a cynical and, as he fancied, somewhat contemptuous smile. The sight acted on him like an ice-cold douche, and brought him at once to himself.
"So," he said, speaking not without an effort, "the statement I have just heard from your ladyship's lips embodied my uncle's ultimatum, so far as I am concerned?"
"It is Sir Everard's ultimatum--the word is your own, Mr. Brabazon."