But Adrian need not have dreaded the interview to which his host had summoned him. Mr. Dutton’s face was a little graver than usual, but his manner was even more kind. He was a man to whom justice seemed the highest good, who had himself suffered most bitterly from injustice. He was forcing himself to be perfectly fair with the lad, and it was even with a smile that he motioned toward a chair opposite himself. The chair stood in the direct light of the lamp, but Adrian did not notice that.
“Do not fear me, Adrian, though for a moment I forgot myself. For you, personally--personally--I have only great good will. But--will you answer my questions, believing that it a painful necessity which compels them?”
“One word more. Beyond the fact, which you confided to Margot, that you were a runaway, I know no details of your past life. I have wished not to know and have refrained from any inquiries. I must now break that silence. What--is your father’s name?”
As he spoke the man’s hands gripped the arms of his chair more tightly, like one prepared for an unpleasant answer.
The questioner waited a moment, during which he seemed to be thinking profoundly. Then he rallied his own judgment. It was an uncommon name, but there might be two men bearing it. That was not impossible.
A longer silence than before, broken by a long drawn “A-ah!” There might, indeed, be two men of one name, but not two residing at that once familiar locality.
“Adrian, when you asked my niece that question about her father, did you--had you--tell me what was in your mind.”
The lad’s face showed nothing but frank astonishment.
“Why, nothing, sir, beyond an idle curiosity. And I’m no end sorry for my thoughtlessness. I’ve seen how tenderly you both watch her mother’s grave, and I wondered where her father’s was. That was all. I had no business to have done it--”
“It was natural. It was nothing wrong, in itself. But--unfortunately, it suggested to Margot what I have studiously kept from her. For reasons which I think best to keep to myself, it is impossible to run the risk of other questions which may arouse other speculations in her mind. I have been truly glad that she could for a time, at least, have the companionship of one nearer her own age than Angelique or myself, but now--”