"She will not go," asserted his lordship.
"No?" returned the baronet. "Who, think you, will prevent her?"
"Tom Moore, or I am much mistaken," answered Brooking, confidently.
"Tut!" said Sir Percival, incredulously. "You do not give my tact sufficient consideration. I 'll wager the objections Mr. Moore may see fit to make will prove of no avail in influencing the lady. In fact, if I do say it myself, my plans are clever enough to discount the efforts of a dozen bogtrotters, let alone one and he a rhymester. To begin with I have read and gone in raptures over old Robin Dyke's verses. Egad, I have pronounced them beautiful, and really they are not half bad, Brooking. If they were not so crammed with anarchy they would sell in London. The old boy is a socialist, you know. Yes, i' faith, he bastes the Prince and Castlereagh soundly," and this ardent royalist chuckled gleefully at the memory.
"Then you have broached the subject to Mr. Dyke?" asked Lord Brooking, as they continued their stroll in the direction of the schoolhouse. Sir Percival nodded his head.
"Yes, Brooking, the old scribbler is half persuaded already. I have promised him my support and patronage in London if he comes."
"And the girl?"
"I am tempting Bessie with the promise of a place at Old Drury, where, as you know, I am not without influence. Stab me! with her eyes and rosy red cheeks she would need neither paint nor powder to make her an ornament to the boards. Like most clever women, she has ambitions of a histrionic nature. She will come to London, Brooking, and once there!--once there--she is mine, dear lad, she is mine."
Brooking's anger and disgust refused to be longer pent up beneath his calm, almost indifferent, demeanor.
"What a low scoundrel you are!" he ejaculated, much to Sir Percival's surprise. The baronet for a moment regarded him quizzically, as though suspicious that this uncomplimentary description of his character was intended as a humorous remark, but seeing severity in his lordship's face, he smiled pleasantly and refused to take offence.