attitude which for generations has been sacred to the elderly
Briton, feet well apart, hands clasped beneath his coat-tails. His
stare raked Lord Dreever like a searchlight.
'Now, sir!' he said.
His lordship wilted before the gaze.
'The fact is, uncle--'
'Never mind the facts. I know them! What I require is an
explanation.'
He spread his feet further apart. The years had rolled back, and he
was plain Thomas Blunt again, of Blunt's Stores, dealing with an
erring employee.
'You know what I mean,' he went on. 'I am not referring to the
breaking-off of the engagement. What I insist upon learning is your
reason for failing to inform me earlier of the contents of that
letter.'
His lordship said that somehow, don't you know, there didn't seem to
be a chance, you know. He had several times been on the point--but--
well, some-how--well, that's how it was.
'No chance?' cried Sir Thomas. 'Indeed! Why did you require that
money I gave you?'
'Oh, er--I wanted it for something.'
'Very possibly. For what?'
'I--the fact is, I owed it to a fellow.'
'Ha! How did you come to owe it?'
His lordship shuffled.
'You have been gambling,' boomed Sit Thomas 'Am I right?'
'No, no. I say, no, no. It wasn't gambling. It was a game of skill.
We were playing picquet.'
'Kindly refrain from quibbling. You lost this money at cards, then,
as I supposed. Just so.'
He widened the space between his feet. He intensified his glare. He
might have been posing to an illustrator of 'Pilgrim's Progress' for
a picture of 'Apollyon straddling right across the way.'
'So,' he said, 'you deliberately concealed from me the contents of
that letter in order that you might extract money from me under
false pretenses? Don't speak!' His lordship had gurgled, 'You did!
Your behavior was that of a--of a--'
There was a very fair selection of evil-doers in all branches of
business from which to choose. He gave the preference to the race-
track.
'--of a common welsher,' he concluded. 'But I won't put up with it.
No, not for an instant! I insist upon your returning that money to
me here and now. If you have not got it with you, go and fetch it.'
His lordship's face betrayed the deepest consternation. He had been
prepared for much, but not for this. That he would have to undergo
what in his school-days he would have called 'a jaw' was
inevitable, and he had been ready to go through with it. It might hurt
his feelings, possibly, but it would leave his purse intact. A
ghastly development of this kind he had not foreseen.
'But, I say, uncle!' he bleated.
