Part 51 (1/2)
”Well, my dear sir,” he said, extending his hand with the utmost cordiality, ”I am glad to meet you in your own proper sphere at last; I always thought you were far too good looking for a secretary!
But, joking aside, my dear boy, let me a.s.sure you that as the son of Harold Scott Mainwaring, one of the most royal fellows I ever knew, I congratulate you and wish you success.”
Deeply touched by Mr. Thornton's kindness and his allusion to his father, the young man thanked him with considerable emotion.
”That is all right,” the elder man responded heartily; ”I was very sorry not to have met you in London, but I heard the particulars of your story from Winifred, and--well, I consider her a very level-headed young woman, and I think you are to be congratulated on that score also.”
”No one is better aware of that fact than I,” said the young man, warmly, and pa.s.sed on to meet the young ladies, while Mr. Thornton turned to confront the frowning face of Ralph Mainwaring.
”h.e.l.lo, Mainwaring! What's the matter? You look black as a thunder-cloud! Did you have something indigestible for luncheon?”
”Matter enough I should say,” growled the other, unsuccessfully trying to ignore Mr. Thornton's outstretched hand, ”to find you hobn.o.bbing with that blackguard!”
Mr. Thornton glanced over his shoulder at the young people with a comical look of perplexity. ”Well, you see how it is yourself, Mainwaring: what is a fellow to do? This is a house divided against itself, as it were, and no matter what my personal sentiments towards you might be, I find myself forced to maintain a position of strict neutrality.”
”Neutrality be d.a.m.ned! you had better maintain better parental government in your own family!”
”As you do in yours, for instance.”
”You know very well,” continued Ralph Mainwaring, flus.h.i.+ng angrily, ”that if you had forbidden Edith marrying Hugh under present conditions, he would have got down off his high horse very quickly.”
”That is something I would never do,” Mr. Thornton replied, calmly, ”for two reasons; first, I have never governed my daughter by direct commands and prohibitions, and, second, I think just as much of Hugh Mainwaring without his father's money as with it; more, if it is to be accompanied with the conditions which you imposed.”
”Then am I to understand,” demanded the other, angrily, ”that you intend to go against me in this matter?”
”My dear Mainwaring,” said Mr. Thornton, much as he would address a petulant child, ”this is all the merest nonsense. I am not going against you, for I have no part in this contest; my position is necessarily neutral; but if you want my opinion of the whole matter, I will tell you frankly that I think, for once in your life, you have bitten off more than you can swallow, and you will find it so before long.”
”Perhaps it might be just as well to reserve your opinion till it is called for,” the other answered, shortly.
”All right,” returned Mr. Thornton, with imperturbable good humor; ”but any time that you want to wager a thousand or so on the outcome of this affair, remember the money is ready for you!”
The conversation changed, but Ralph Mainwaring was far more chagrined and annoyed than he would have acknowledged. Mr.
Thornton's words rang in his ears till they seemed an augury of defeat, and, though outwardly as dogged and defiant as ever, he was unable to banish them, or to throw off the strange sense of depression which followed.
Meanwhile, amid the discordant elements surrounding them, Harold Mainwaring and Winifred Carleton found little opportunity for any but the most desultory conversation, but happily there was little need for words between them. Heart can speak to heart through the subtle magnetism of a hand-clasp, or the swift flash from eye to eye, conveying meanings for which words often prove inadequate.
”You wrote that you were confident of victory, and your looks bear it out,” she said, 'with a radiant smile; ”but I would have come just the same, even had there been no hope of success for you.”
”I need no a.s.surance of your faith and loyalty,” he replied, gazing tenderly into her luminous eyes, ”but your coming will make my triumph ten times sweeter.”
”Of course you will spend the evening with, us at our hotel,--uncle cabled for apartments at the Savoy,--and I am all impatience to learn whatever you are at liberty to tell me concerning your case, for there must have been some wonderful developments in your favor soon after your arrival in this country, you have seemed so much more hopeful; and do not let me forget, I have something to show you which will interest you. It is a written statement by Hugh Mainwaring himself regarding this identical will that is causing all this controversy.”
”A statement of Hugh Mainwaring's!” Harold repeated in astonishment; ”how did it come into your possession?”
”That is the strangest part of it,” she replied, hurriedly, for they had now reached the carriages in waiting for them. ”I received it through the mail, from America, a few days before I left London, and from--you cannot imagine whom--Mr. Merrick, the detective.
How he ever knew my address, or how he should surmise that I was particularly interested in you,” she blushed very prettily with these words, ”is more than I can understand, however.”
”I think I can explain that part of it,” said Harold, with a smile; ”but how such a statement ever came into his hands is a mystery to me. I will see you this evening without fail,” and, a.s.sisting Miss Carleton into the carriage, he bade her au revoir, and hastened to rejoin young Mainwaring.