“You’re not contemplating marrying her, are you?” queried Robert hesitatingly.
“I hadn’t come to that,” answered Lester coolly.
They looked at each other quietly for a moment, and then Robert turned his glance to the distant scene of the city.
“It’s useless to ask whether you are seriously in love with her, I suppose,” ventured Robert.
“I don’t know whether I’d be able to discuss that divine afflatus with you or not,” returned Lester, with a touch of grim humor. “I have never experienced the sensation myself. All I know is that the lady is very pleasing to me.”
“Well, it’s all a question of your own well-being and the family’s, Lester,” went on Robert, after another pause. “Morality doesn’t seem to figure in it anyway—at least you and I can’t discuss that together. Your feelings on that score naturally relate to you alone. But the matter of your own personal welfare seems to me to be substantial enough ground to base a plea on. The family’s feelings and pride are also fairly important. Father’s the kind of a man who sets more store by the honor of his family than most men. You know that as well as I do, of course.”
“I know how father feels about it,” returned Lester. “The whole business is as clear to me as it is to any of you, though off-hand I don’t see just what’s to be done about it. These matters aren’t always of a day’s growth, and they can’t be settled in a day. The girl’s here. To a certain extent I’m responsible that she is here. While I’m not willing to go into details, there’s always more in these affairs than appears on the court calendar.”
“Of course I don’t know what your relations with her have been,” returned Robert, “and I’m not curious to know, but it does look like a bit of injustice all around, don’t you think—unless you intend to marry her?” This last was put forth as a feeler.
“I might be willing to agree to that, too,” was Lester’s baffling reply, “if anything were to be gained by it. The point is, the woman is here, and the family is in possession of the fact. Now if there is anything to be done I have to do it. There isn’t anybody else who can act for me in this matter.”
Lester lapsed into a silence, and Robert rose and paced the floor, coming back after a time to say: “You say you haven’t any idea of marrying her—or rather you haven’t come to it. I wouldn’t, Lester. It seems to me you would be making the mistake of your life, from every point of view. I don’t want to orate, but a man of your position has so much to lose; you can’t afford to do it. Aside from family considerations, you have too much at stake. You’d be simply throwing your life away—”