Could anything be more vague and unsatisfactory? But that it was so of set purpose he felt fully assured. Then, before he knew what had happened, he found his card back in his fingers. Although the man did not say so, her ladyship had evidently refused to receive it. It was plain that she was bent on insulting him as often as he should afford her an opportunity of doing so. He had to set his teeth hard in order to keep back the imprecation that rose to his lips as he tore the card in a dozen pieces and flung the fragments from him.
Three days later he called again. This time he sent in no card, but contented himself with a verbal message. The answer brought him was in precisely the same terms as before: "Sir Everard is neither better nor worse than usual." This time he was more sad than angry when he turned away from Great Mornington Street.
He felt that it would be hard, very hard, to be compelled to break entirely with his uncle. Not once, but fifty times, he said to himself: "This is not his doing, but hers. He would never treat me so of his own accord. I durst wager twenty to one he has never been told that I called; and even were I to write to him, the chances are that my letter would not reach him. Still, it's worth the attempt, for I want him to know that, although he has thought well to cast me adrift, my affection for him is robust enough to survive all the shocks of chance and change. He may, if he so choose, sever the chain which binds him to me, but he cannot, against my will, sever the one which binds me to him!"
A few days later Burgo wrote to Sir Everard as under:
"My dear Uncle,--You will, I hope, need no assurance on my part that I was extremely grieved to hear from Lady Clinton that since your return from abroad your health has been in such an unsatisfactory state.
"Since my interview with her ladyship I have called twice in Great Mornington Street, but only to be told that there was no improvement in your condition.
"I had hoped on one or the other occasion of my calling to have been permitted to see you, if only for a few minutes, and that I, your sister's son, to whom for the last eighteen years you have filled a father's part, should be debarred from doing so seems indeed hard to credit.
"That I have done anything to forfeit a continuance of your affection and esteem I am wholly unaware, and in conclusion I can but assure you that the dearest hope I have is that the bond which has so long existed between us should remain intact and wholly unaffected by any extraneous circumstances whatever.
"Ever your affectionate Nephew,
"Burgo Brabazon."