"
"Yes," said the girl, while a little flush crept into her face. "I was
sorry for the old man. It was a painful story."
Colonel Barrington nodded. "It is one that is best forgotten--and you
do not know it all. Still, the fact that the man may settle among us
is not the worst. As you know, there was every reason to believe that
Geoffrey intended all his property at Silverdale for you."
"I have much less right to it than his son, and the colonial cure is
not infrequently efficacious," said Miss Barrington. "Lance may, after
all, quiet down, and he must have some good qualities."
The Colonel's smile was very grim. "It is fifteen years since I saw
him at Westham, and they were not much in evidence then. I can
remember two little episodes, in which he figured, with painful
distinctness, and one was the hanging of a terrier which had in some
way displeased him. The beast was past assistance when I arrived on
the scene, but the devilish pleasure in the lad's face sent a chill
through me. In the other, the gardener's lad flung a stone at a
blackbird on the wall above the vinery, and Master Lance, who I fancy
did not like the gardener's lad, flung one through the glass.
Geoffrey, who was angry, but had not seen what I saw, haled the boy
before him, and Lance looked him in the face and lied with the
assurance of an ambassador. The end was that the gardener who was
admonished cuffed the innocent lad. These, my dear, are somewhat
instructive memories.
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