Part 63 (1/2)
He was ushered by a maid-servant into a comfortably but modestly furnished room, where he flung himself into an easy chair and waited.
In a few seconds a light step sounded outside; the door was pushed quickly open, and Madeline Grover came smiling and radiant into the room. The old lawyer rose slowly, and his face relaxed.
”This is an unexpected pleasure,” she said, brightly. ”Have you been hearing again from Sir Charles?”
”Not a word. It's the other man we have to deal with now.”
”What other man?”
”Why the man I sent the money to, of course.”
”Well, what of him?”
”He's in New York, and has nearly worried the life out of me this morning!”
”In New York!” and the hot blood rushed suddenly to her neck and face.
”In New York! And if he don't clear out soon there'll be complications!”
”Why has he come?”
”To look after his property, of course. Are you surprised?”
”I am a little. It never occurred to me that he might come to America.”
”Well, he has come, and the question is whether you are going to make--well, a clean breast of it, or allow him to ferret it out himself?”
”Oh! he must not know for the world!” she said, in a tone of alarm.
”He's bound to get to know sooner or later that somebody has made him a present of five thousand dollars----”
”No, it is only a loan,” she interrupted, quickly.
Mr. Graythorne laughed. ”A loan that was never to be paid, eh? A loan by an anonymous lender? Well, what's in a name? Call it a loan if the word pleases you better.”
”But you know what I mean. Some day, of course,--years and years hence, when nothing matters”--and she blushed uncomfortably; ”but just now nothing need be said or even hinted----”
”I understand,” he said, with a twitching of the lips.
”You know very well that he has property out West somewhere, which he is bound to come into possession of soon, and it seemed a pity that he should starve and perhaps die while waiting for it.”
”Well, yes; the motive does you credit.”
”You ascertained beforehand, as you know, that he would have plenty to pay me back with later on, and, after all, the sum was only a small one.”
”To you, perhaps.”
”But to him it would mean everything, and I owe him more than gold can ever pay. As I told you before, he saved my life and nearly lost his own in doing it.”
”Quite a pretty little romance, I own; worked up into a story it would read very well. But how about the present situation?”