Kimberley learned these circumstances in an interview with Mr. Begg. A few days afterwards he drove up desperately to the castle and asked for a private interview with his lordship.
"My lord," he said, when they were alone, "I want to ask your lordship's acceptance of these papers."
The earl understood them at a glance. Kimberley had bought his debts.
"I ask you to take them now," Kimberley went on, "before I say another word."
He rose, walked to the fire, and dropped the papers on the smouldering coal. The earl seized the papers and rescued them, soiled but unsinged.
"Kimberley," he said, "I dare not lay myself under such an obligation to any man alive."
"They are yours, my lord," replied Kimberley. "I shall never touch them again. You're under no obligation to me, my lord. But"--he blushed and stammered--"I want to ask you for the hand of Lady Ella."
It took Windgall a full minute to pull himself together. He had schooled himself to the trembling hope that Alice might be chosen; but Ella! "Forgive me," he began, "I was unprepared--I was not altogether unprepared--" Then he lapsed into silence.
"I will submit your proposal to my daughter," he said after a time, "but--I am powerless--altogether powerless."
Kimberley went home in a tremor of nervous anxiety, and Windgall sent for his daughter.