Your father and I were at Eton together, and I
think I may say that we were always something more than lawyer and
client - a good deal more, a good deal more! He was a fine fellow
at heart - a fine, dear fellow. Bless me, to think that you are
his daughter!"
"It's very nice to hear you speak of him so, Mr. Cuthbert," she
said. "My father may have been very foolish - I suppose he was
really worse than foolish - but I think that he was most abominably
and shamefully treated, and so long as I live I shall never forgive
those who were responsible for it. I don't mean you, Mr. Cuthbert,
of course. I mean my grand-father and my uncle." Mr. Cuthbert shook
his head slowly.
"The Earl," he said, "was a very proud man - a very proud man."
"You may call it pride," she exclaimed. "I call it rank and brutal
selfishness! They had no right to force such a sacrifice upon him.
He would have been content, I am sure, to have lived quietly in
England - to have kept out of their way, to have conformed to their
wishes in any reasonable manner. But to rob him of home and friends
and family and name - well, may God call them to account for it,
and judge them as they judged him!"
I was against it," he said sadly, "always."
"So Mr. Davenant told me," she said.
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