"And made bad matters worse," said Leonard. "You're in a hole, Jack, I'm afraid. Moss won't wait; there are other bills, and there's the I. O. U. of last night, and you've lost the money you had, and you've asked this young girl to love you. You mean to marry her--I say, you mean to marry her. On what? How can you go to her father--who already doesn't seem altogether prepossessed in your favor--and ask him to give his daughter to a penniless gentleman? Mind--a gentleman! If you were a woodman like himself, your being hard up wouldn't matter. You could take an ax, or whatever they use, and earn your living. But you can't go and ask him to let her share your over-due bills and I. O. U.'s."
"What shall I do, Len? My darling, my darling!"
Leonard sighed. His heart--the heart of as true a friend as ever the world held--ached for the wild, thoughtless youth.
"Was Lady Bell there?" he asked, quietly.
"Lady Bell! I see what you mean!" he groaned. "Len, you are in love yourself, and yet you ask me to sell myself----"
"Jack, much as I care for you, I swear that I am thinking as much of her good and happiness as of your own. If you marry her--which, after all, you _cannot_--if you could you would make her life miserable; if you marry Lady Bell, you will at least make _her_--happy."
Jack paced up and down for a moment. Then he turned, white and haggard, and held out his hand:
"You are right. Would to Heaven you were not! I see it, I cannot help it. I will not make her life miserable. But--but--I must go and tell her. Heaven help us both!"
Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise. Quite ignorant and unconscious of all that was going on in London, Stephen remained down at the Hurst.
What he had written to his mother was quite true; as a matter of fact Stephen was far too clever to write direct falsehoods--he was kept at Hurst Leigh very much against his will.
Squire Ralph had left him everything--money, house, lands, everything excepting the few legacies to servants, and Stephen had been hard at work, and was still hard at work ascertaining how much that everything was.
And, as day followed day, and disclosure succeeded disclosure, he became fascinated and possessed by the immense wealth which had fallen into his hands, or, say rather, which he had seized upon.