Part 40 (2/2)
”I?” he said indignantly. ”What should I have to do with moneylending?”
”Be careful,” said Shelton sternly, ”there are not people wanting who will fight for Leroy's honour even as it were their own.”
Vermont smiled cynically.
”Indeed, Shelton,” he said, ”it is hardly for you to speak. After all, it was you who nearly ruined Adrien by your denial of the bill, not I.”
Lord Barminster strode forward.
”You cowardly rascal,” he exclaimed furiously; but Mortimer placed himself between them.
”My lord,” he said, ”leave him to me. If force is necessary, I will punish him.”
Jasper smiled.
”You wrong me, Shelton,” he said gently; ”and not only me, but Adrien, whom you pretend to care for. I have stood his true friend, as he knows, and have done my best to keep trouble from him, when, indeed, none other could have done so. But I suppose this is all the grat.i.tude I can expect from you for the discharge of friends.h.i.+p's duties. Adrien will no longer be of the fas.h.i.+onable world, you think, after yesterday's case; and it is high time to get rid of his humble friend, Jasper Vermont.”
Adrien, who had been talking to Lady Constance, now glanced appealingly towards Mortimer; but with a gesture, as if to silence him, Shelton turned to Vermont again.
”Friend!” he exclaimed bitterly. ”A pretty friend! But no more of this.
I advise you to leave the Castle while you are safe, for we have sufficient proof here to send you to penal servitude.”
”Yes,” Lord Barminster repeated, ”leave the house at once. If I find you within my grounds an hour hence, I will thrash you within an inch of your life, old man as I am.”
Jasper Vermont's face grew livid with anger, and something approaching fear as well; he clenched his hands so tightly that the carefully manicured nails dug deep into his flesh. But with characteristic insolence he tried to brazen it out.
”Your grounds?” he exclaimed, in virulent scorn. ”Your grounds, my lord!
First tell me where I shall find them. You have no grounds. Barminster Castle is in the hands of a moneylender; these lands, as far as the eye can reach, are the property of Mr. Harker, the City capitalist, by right of countless bills and deeds which your precious son has made over to him.”
With an exclamation of pain and astonishment, Adrien gazed on the man whom he had so loved and trusted. There was no mistaking the bitter hatred that was in Vermont's tones. At last, his eyes were being opened to the man's true character.
Lord Barminster regarded him steadily.
”You're mad!” he said quietly.
”Oh, no, no!” laughed Vermont. ”It is not I who am mad, but you, who foolishly handed over your wealth to your son before it was his by right. You should have let him wait till death had removed you, before you gave him full power over Barminster. Such lavish expenditure as his would empty the coffers of a nation. His folly has melted every stone of your precious Castle in the cup of pleasure, and has poured out the costly draught at the feet of his friends and parasites. Friends? He has never had any--leeches, perhaps, who have sucked him dry of all his possessions, and then deserted him.”
”Speak for yourself, you cur.” cried Shelton, ”since it is you, and your dishonest management of his estates, that have brought him to this pa.s.s.”
Jasper smiled sardonically.
”Say rather that it is I who have constantly warned him against every fresh extravagance, knowing full well what must happen. Ask him yourself, if you doubt my word; ask him whether I have not implored him, time and time again, to relinquish at least some of his many ruinous pleasures and follies; to deny himself at least one expenditure.”
Adrien turned his dark eyes to his father's stern face.
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