“Very badly, sir,” Adam replied. “I hope to emerge free of debt, and that, I’m afraid, is the best that can be said.”
“I feared as much. I saw your father in Brooks’s, not a sennight before the accident — ” He broke off, and after a moment’s hesitation said: “I want to speak to you about that. It caused the deuce of a lot of talk: mere humbug to pretend it didn’t! It was bound to do so, and it was bound to bring his creditors down on you like a swarm of locusts.” He cast another of his shrewd glances at Adam. “Ay, you’ve been having a devilish time of it. But that’s not what I want to say. I’ve thought about that accident a great deal. He didn’t mean it. He may have been all to pieces, but I’m as sure as I sit here that he wasn’t riding to break his neck. That’s what you’ve been thinking, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know!” Adam said. “I try not to think of it!”
“Well, you’ll think of it now, my boy!” said Oversley trenchantly. “If he had meant to put a period to his existence he’d have found a surer way to do it than that! Good God, no man knew better than Bardy Lynton that riding for a fall is no more likely to end in a broken neck than in a broken shoulder! No, no, he never meant it! I knew Bardy! He was too game to cry craven, and too much of a right one, for all his faults, to leave you to stand the roast!” He paused, and laid his hand on Adam’s knee, gripping it slightly. “God knows you’ve cause enough, but don’t think too hardly of him! He came into his inheritance too young. When a lad of his cut is as well-breeched as he was, and has no check on him — ”
“Oh, no, no!” Adam said quickly. “Good God, what right have I — ? I didn’t know how serious matters were, but I knew it wasn’t high water with him: he often said we should soon be under the hatches. I didn’t heed him — there always seemed to be enough money — and all I cared for was a pair of colours! If I had thought less of that, and more of Fontley — ”
“Now, that’s enough!” Oversley interrupted. “You’re not a sapskull, so don’t sit there talking sickly balderdash to me! There was nothing you could have done, and if you’re thinking Bardy wanted you at home you’re out! Let alone that he was proud of you — lord, you should have seen him when you were mentioned in one of the despatches! — he didn’t want you to discover how far he had drifted into Dun territory. Always thought he could make a recover, and set all to rights! And I’m bound to own he had some astonishing runs of luck,” added his lordship reflectively. “The pity was — But so it always is with your true gamester! Well, well, mum for that! But if you mean to set the blame for this afterclap at any other door than your father’s, set it at Stephen’s rather than your own! What that young rip cost Bardy, first and last — ! I tell you that, Adam, but well say no more about it: the poor lad’s accounts are wound up now.”
There was a short silence. Adam broke it. “I don’t know. But there is one matter for which I must blame myself, sir — as much as you do, I dare say.”
Oversley replied with a heartiness assumed to conceal embarrassment: “No, I don’t. I’m not going to pitch any gammon about not knowing what you mean. The round tale is that I ought never to have let you make up to that girl of mine — and so I knew!” He smiled wryly. “You know, Adam, there’s no one I’dliefer have for a son-in-law than you, if the dibs had been in tune, but I knew they weren’t, and I ought to have hinted you away as soon as I saw which quarter the wind was in. The fact is I thought it was just a flirtation, and the lord knows you needed something to divert you at that time! I never supposed it would last, once you’d rejoined. And it’s my belief it wouldn’t have done so — at any rate with Julia! — if it hadn’t been for this shocking business, because there’s no denying that Julia’s a taking little puss, and she don’t want for suitors. She’s had ’em all dangling after her, ever since she came out, and has had as many silly nicknames foisted on to her as poor William Lamb’s wife. Sprite — Sylph — Zephyr — ! Pshaw!” said his lordship, imperfectly disguising his pride. “Enough to rum the chit’s head! Now, I don’t say she wasn’t cut up when you went back to Spain: she was. In fact, her mother would have it that she’d mope herself into a decline, but that was all flim-flam! A girl who has a dozen posies sent her in a day don’t go into a decline! And if you ask me — and I don’t say it to wound you, Adam! — she’d have forgotten that interlude if it hadn’t been for some chucklehead calling her the Unattainable. That grassed us, of course. Took to thinking herself pledged to a gallant soldier, and made such a hero of you as would have made the hair rise on your scalp! And then poor Bardy was killed, and there was no keeping it from her that you were in the suds. So now she’s declaring that she’ll never give you up, which pretty well gaps me — or it would, if I didn’t know you too well to think — Damme, Adam, this is a devilish hard thing to say to you, but — ”
“You needn’t say it, sir!” Adam interrupted, rising, and going with a quick, uneven step to the window. “Of course it’s impossible! I’ve known that ever since I first saw my father’s man of business. I should have come to you immediately — I beg your pardon! I hoped things might not be as bad as Wimmering described. In fact they are worse. I’m not in a position to offer for anyone. I never dreamed I could say it, but I wish — yes, with all my heart! — that she had forgotten me!” His voice shook; he made a gallant attempt to conceal his emotion, saying: “I shouldn’t then have been obliged to cry off, which I must do — and came here to do.”
Lord Oversley, rising also, and going to him to lay a hand on his shoulder, said: “I know, my boy, I know! And if I were a rich man — ”
He was interrupted. The door opened suddenly; a male voice was heard to exclaim: “No, dash it, Julia, you can’t — !” and he and Adam turned to see that Miss Oversley was standing on the threshold, one hand clasping the door-knob, the other holding her riding-whip and gloves.
For a moment or two she remained there, her lips parted in eagerness, her eyes, almost too large for her little delicate face, full of light. The picture she presented was lovely indeed. She was a slim creature, so fragile that it was easy to understand why her admirers called her Sylph. Even the feathery curls peeping from under a hat like a shako were ethereal; and her severely cut riding-dress seemed merely to emphasize her fairy-like charm.
Adam stood gazing at her, his heart in his eyes. She let her, whip and gloves fall, and ran forward, uttering in a soft, joyful voice: “I knew it! You couldn’t be so close to me and I not know! Adam!”
Entering the room in her wake, her brother Charles interpreted this for his father’s ear, saying in an undervoice: “Saw the hat in the hall, and guessed how it was! Darted off before I knew what she meant to do.”
She would have thrown herself into Adam’s arms, but he prevented her, catching her hands in a painful grip, and holding her at a distance. He was very pale, and could not command his voice to speak more than her name. He bent his head to kiss her hands, his own shaking.
Lord Oversley said bracingly: “A little less in alt, Julia, if you please! We are all glad to see Adam home again, but there isno occasion for these transports. I don’t think you and Charlie met when you were last in England, Adam, but I dare say you haven’t forgotten each other.”
His heir, nobly seconding this attempt to create a diversion, said immediately: “Lord, no! That is, I remember you, Lynton, though you might not remember me. How do you do?”
Adam released Julia’s hands. He was still pale, but he replied with tolerable composure: “Of course I remember you! I own, however, that I might not have recognized you again.”