They faced each other in the shabby room—white-faced. "What do you mean by the truth?" asked Byfield at last.
"The truth—that your money buys the clothes she wears and the food she eats; that every copper she drops into the hand of a beggar is so much of your money. Who is to tell her that?" Simon Quarle did not flinch as he stood waiting for his answer.
"You put the thing crudely, Mr. Quarle," said Gilbert at last. "I admit that on the face of it the thing may be reduced to that; you have surprised my secret, and you probably know as well as I do that I am paying the small sum of money for this little whim—which pleases me and can do no harm to anyone else. Stop—don't interrupt me; I repeat that it can do no harm to anyone else, while on the other hand it may do a great deal of good. The money is nothing to me—what it can buy means a great deal to her."
"But the end—the end of it!" persisted Quarle. "What of that?"
"Let the end take care of itself," replied Gilbert. "I would not have said so much as this to any other man; but I do you the justice to believe that you are honestly very fond of her, and that you would do a great deal on your own account to help her. Therefore I say that for the present the matter must be left where it is."
"What was the original intention in your mind—apart from merely helping her; what did you purpose doing?" demanded Quarle.
"I planned a holiday for the girl—and God knows she needed it badly. Our friend Meggison probably—certainly misunderstood me."
"Exactly." Quarle nodded slowly, and grinned. "It was the purpose of our friend Meggison to misunderstand you," he said. "Meggison, for the first time in his life, finds a rich man with a soft spot in his heart; it is a chance not to be missed. He proceeds to lie to everyone; to his daughter, who believes in him completely—to others only too willing to believe him. He displays some money; he has a house in the country to which he is to go—— By the way—that house in the country?"
"Is mine," said Gilbert. "I originally intended that Meggison should take the girl down there for a few weeks; that they should then return to their own house. You know for yourself what he has done."
"The question is not so much what he has done as what you are going to do," said the other. "The bubble must burst some day, you know."