Part 113 (2/2)
”What did Sir Patrick say to you about Geoffrey this afternoon--while I was out of the room?”
”Only what he said to _you._ He thought their position toward each other here a very deplorable one. He considered that the reasons were serious for our interfering immediately.”
”Sir Patrick's own opinion, Julius, goes farther than that.”
”He has not acknowledged it, that I know of.”
”How _can_ he acknowledge it--to us?”
The door opened, and Geoffrey entered the room.
Julius eyed him closely as they shook hands. His eyes were bloodshot; his face was flushed; his utterance was thick--the look of him was the look of a man who had been drinking hard.
”Well?” he said to his mother. ”What brings you back?”
”Julius has a proposal to make to you,” Lady Holchester answered. ”I approve of it; and I have come with him.”
Geoffrey turned to his brother.
”What can a rich man like you want with a poor devil like me?” he asked.
”I want to do you justice, Geoffrey--if you will help me, by meeting me half-way. Our mother has told you about the will?”
”I'm not down for a half-penny in the will. I expected as much. Go on.”
”You are wrong--you _are_ down in it. There is liberal provision made for you in a codicil. Unhappily, my father died without signing it. It is needless to say that I consider it binding on me for all that. I am ready to do for you what your father would have done for you. And I only ask for one concession in return.”
”What may that be?”
”You are living here very unhappily, Geoffrey, with your wife.”
”Who says so? I don't, for one.”
Julius laid his hand kindly on his brother's arm.
”Don't trifle with such a serious matter as this,” he said. ”Your marriage is, in every sense of the word, a misfortune--not only to you but to your wife. It is impossible that you can live together. I have come here to ask you to consent to a separation. Do that--and the provision made for you in the unsigned codicil is yours. What do you say?”
Geoffrey shook his brother's hand off his arm.
”I say--No!” he answered.
Lady Holchester interfered for the first time.
”Your brother's generous offer deserves a better answer than that,” she said.
”My answer,” reiterated Geoffrey, ”is--No!”
He sat between them with his clenched fists resting on his knees--absolutely impenetrable to any thing that either of them could say.
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