"They were wise omissions on your part." Then, as if he were thinking aloud, he exclaimed, "A noble-hearted fellow!"
"What a pity it is that he can get nothing to do," observed Clem. "I suppose that he and his sister and his niece are living on his savings; but that is a sort of thing which can hardly go on for ever."
"An idea has just come to me," replied Edward, "which may or may not lead to something that will benefit him; but it would be premature to enter into any particulars till after I have had the chance of a talk with Lord Elstree."
"One thing more remains to be done," said Clem, presently.
"Eh? And what may that be, pray?"
"The refunding of the twelve thousand pounds insurance money."
"Good gracious, Clem! Have you taken leave of your senses?"
"I trust not. I am simply proposing to right a great wrong. I can quite understand that at the time you accepted the money you saw no other course open to you without exciting suspicions which you would have had no means of allaying except by making public a secret which it seemed to you must be concealed at every risk. It seems to me, however, that there is a way of getting out of the difficulty, and that without endangering your--or, as I may now call it, our--secret in any way."
"I have no objection to being enlightened," remarked Edward, dryly. "But pray don't forget that this is a matter in which your mother's and sister's interests are more deeply concerned than those of anyone else."
"That is a point I have by no means overlooked. In the first place, there need be no difficulty about refunding the money. Let it be divided into two or three sums, to be forwarded at intervals from different places. Of course, the sender would remain strictly anonymous. Then, as regards my mother and Fanny. They need never be made aware of the return of the money. The income which now accrues to them from its investment must continue to be paid with the same regularity as heretofore, the only difference being that you and I between us must make up the amount."