I came today only because things are particularly rotten,
financially, just now. And I don't even want to hold
you to a quarter--I leave that entirely to you.
But after all that's been said and done--I put it to you
as one man to another--you are morally bound to help
me out."
"How do you mean?--'all that's been said and done'?"
Thorpe asked the question in some confusion of moods.
Perhaps it was the ethical force of Lord Plowden's appeal,
perhaps only a recurring sense of his earlier affection for
the man--but for the moment he wavered in his purpose.
The peer flushed a little, as he looked at the floor,
revolving possible answers to this query. His ear had been
quick to seize the note of hesitation in Thorpe's tone.
He strove anxiously to get together considerations which
should tip the fluttering balance definitely his way.
"Well," he began slowly, "I hardly know how to put it.
Of course there was, in the first place, the immense
expectation of fortune which you gave me, and which I'm
afraid I've more than lived up to. And then, of course,
others shared my expectations. It wasn't a thing
one could very well keep to oneself. My mother and my
sister--especially my sister--they were wonderfully
excited about it. You are quite the hero in their eyes.
And then--you remember that talk we had, in which you said
I could help you--socially, you know.
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