Part 36 (1/2)

”'Quite true, my lord,' says Dad. 'But you know you'd give more than a hundred thousand to keep the family name out of the courts. You don't want the papers to get hold of it. ”A Cabinet Minister's son sued for Breach-of-Promise”--you know the sort of stuff--and Lottie's portrait in ”The Sketch.”'

”'I am afraid we are wasting time, Mr. Lottingar,' says his lords.h.i.+p.

'If your daughter will sign a doc.u.ment, which I will draw up for her, renouncing all claims to my son, and undertaking not to molest him for the future, I will give her a cheque for five thousand pounds. If not, I must bid you good-afternoon.'

”'A hundred thousand!' says Dad.

”'I think you are acting foolishly,' says the old man, getting up. 'If you refuse my offer I shall go up to town now, and call on my solicitor to-morrow morning; and I think it highly probable, from what I see of your surroundings here, and from what I know of your antecedents already, that I shall be able to make it exceedingly risky for you to face the publicity of the law courts in any capacity whatsoever. In fact, I should not be surprised if you had to leave the country.'

”My word, Jack, he was fine! He dropped each word out of his mouth like a little lump of ice. But old Dad stood up to him. He simply chuckled.

”'No, no, my lord, it won't do,' he said. 'I have laid my plans farther ahead than you think. Now, look here. If you don't sign that little cheque I'm asking for, Lottie here will walk straight out of this house, take her motor, pick up your son, who is waiting for her at the roadside this minute, and drive straight to Lindley, where they will be married by special licence this very afternoon. Your son has got that licence in his pocket now. And when the two are firmly tied up, you'll realise two things, my lord,--first, that it's hardly the thing to rake up the past life of your daughter-in-law's father; and secondly, that a wife is a deal more expensive to buy off than a _fiancee_.'

”After that there was a _very_ long pause. Dad was top dog again, and the old Earl was thinking it out. Suddenly he turned to me. He said,--

”'You say my son has a special licence in his pocket?'

”'Yes,' I said.

”'And you have asked him to wait by the roadside for you this afternoon, in case of--contingencies?'

”'Yes.'

”'You must possess great influence over him.'

”'She does,' says Dad, before any one else could speak.

”The old man took not the slightest notice, but went on talking to me.

”'If you married my son you would demand a large sum--'

”'Two hundred thousand quid,' says Dad.

”'You would demand a large sum,' goes on the Earl, acting as if he and I were alone together, 'as a condition of your living apart from him and refraining from molesting him. Would you?'

”The words began to stick in my throat a bit, but I said, 'Yes.'

”'I think,' he went on, 'that you told me just now that you were deeply attached to my son?'

”This time I just nodded.

”'Then you mean to say,' he says, looking at me in a way that simply made me feel faint, 'that you would marry a young man whom you profess to love, and, having blackmailed him to the fullest possible extent, would readily consent to live apart from him, leaving him prevented by the law of the land from ever taking a wife of his own station and fulfilling his duty to society and posterity, so long as you remained alive? For the sake of a sum of money you would deliberately wreck the life of a foolish but good-hearted young man, who has paid you the highest honour that a man can pay a woman; and with his life you would wreck the fortunes of an ancient and honourable house? Would you do that?”

”His face was like iron, Jack, but there were tears in his eyes. I sat gripping the arms of my chair. Suddenly Dad struck in,--

”'Come, come, my lord! you are simply wasting words. Which is it to be?

Will you settle this matter, or must Lottie take the final step?'

”The old man said nothing, but looked at me. And then suddenly I found my voice. I boiled over, for I had realised at last what an awful thing I was going to do--awful for him, and awful for me. Somehow I didn't feel as if I could back Dad any longer. It flashed across me what I had been trying to do--sell myself! I'm not a great saint, Jack, but, thank G.o.d! I realised in time that there are things in this world that money can't buy. I just stood up and said,--