"I've only heard that you're very--really very kind and--and just." She was summoning all her courage; she was full of deprecation and appeal.
She cast a look of dismay at me, and I came to her rescue. "Your son, of course, Lord Fillingford. We see him sometimes at Breysgate."
"I know you do." He shot out the words and shut his lips close after them.
She looked distressed and rather puzzled; after thawing a little, he had relapsed into frost at the first mention of his son. Alison seemed to think a diversion desirable.
"Before you go, I should like to show you our chapel. We have a little one of our own here. We use it in the early mornings sometimes, and for prayers after supper."
She jumped at the proposal, both for its own sake, I think, and for a refuge from her embarrassment.
"We'll be back directly," said Alison, as they left Fillingford and myself together.
Fillingford sat in silence for some moments. Then he said slowly, "I didn't know that your newcomer at Breysgate was so attractive."
Jenny had not reckoned on my being left alone with him. I had no instructions, and had to choose my own course. "I thought that perhaps Lacey would have told you about her?"
He looked me in the face with his heavy deliberate gaze. "We don't often speak of his visits to Breysgate." He paused and then added, with something of restrained vehemence in his tone, "I don't care to ask either the number or the object of his visits--and he hasn't volunteered any information to me on either point."
"His visits are frequent," I remarked. "As to their object----"
"I don't think we need discuss that--you and I, Mr. Austin."
"I was only going to say that we could neither of us do more than guess at it."
For a moment he lost his self-control. "I hope to Heaven my guess is wrong--that's all," he said hotly.
Surprised out of reserve, he leaned forward toward me, with a sudden look of eagerness in his eyes. "I should like to know what you mean by that--if you're at liberty to tell me."
"I'd sooner not. It would come better from your son, I think."
"I prefer not to talk to my son about the matter just now. I might wrong him. I have many worries just now--business and others--and I don't trust myself to discuss it with him with all the calmness which I should desire."