Part 68 (1/2)
”You don't understand what a wretched sc.r.a.pe I'm in--”
”I don't yet; but you're going to tell me--”
”Philip, I can't--I simply cannot. It's so contemptible--and you warned me--and I owe you already so much--”
”You owe me a little money,” observed Selwyn with a careless smile, ”and you've a lifetime to pay it in. What is the trouble now; do you need more? I haven't an awful lot, old fellow--worse luck!--but what I have is at your call--as you know perfectly well. Is that all that is worrying you?”
”No--not all. I--Neergard has lent me money--done things--placed me under obligations... . I liked him, you know; I trusted him... .
People he desired to know I made him known to. He was a--a trifle peremptory at times--as though my obligations to him left me no choice but to take him to such people as he desired to meet... . We--we had trouble--recently.”
”What sort?”
”Personal. I felt--began to feel--the pressure on me. There was, at moments, something almost of menace in his requests and suggestions--an importunity I did not exactly understand... . And then he said something to me--”
”Go on; what?”
”He'd been hinting at it before; and even when I found him jolliest and most amusing and companionable I never thought of him as a--a social possibility--I mean among those who really count--like my own people--”
”Oh! he asked you to introduce him into your own family circle?”
”Yes--I didn't understand it at first--until somehow I began to feel the pressure of it--the vague but constant importunity... . He was a good fellow--at least I thought so; I hated to hurt him--to a.s.sume any att.i.tude that might wound him. But, good heavens!--he couldn't seem to understand that n.o.body in our family would receive him--although he had a certain footing with the Fanes and Harmons and a few others--like the Siowitha people--or at least the men of those families. Don't you see, Philip?”
”Yes, my boy, I see. Go on! When did he ask to be presented to--your sister?”
”W-who told you that?” asked the boy with an angry flush.
”You did--almost. You were going to, anyway. So that was it, was it?
That was when you realised a few things--understood one or two things; was it not? ... And how did you reply? Arrogantly, I suppose.”
”Yes.”
”With--a--some little show of--a--contempt?”
”Yes, I suppose so.”
”Exactly. And Neergard--was put out--slightly?”
”Yes,” said the boy, losing some of his colour. ”I--a moment afterward I was sorry I had spoken so plainly; but I need not have been... . He was very ugly about it.”
”Threats of calling loans?” asked Selwyn, smiling.
”Hints; not exactly threats. I was in a bad way, too--” The boy winced and swallowed hard; then, with sudden white desperation stamped on his drawn face: ”Oh, Philip--it--it is disgraceful enough--but how am I going to tell you the rest?--how can I speak of this matter to you--”
”What matter?”
”A--about--about Mrs. Ruthven--”
”_What_ matter?” repeated Selwyn. His voice rang a little, but the colour had fled from his face.
”She was--Jack Ruthven charged her with--and me--charged me with--”