"Don't you understand!" he said, earnestly, and in a low voice which
the click of the billiard balls prevented Stafford from hearing. "It is
for him! For my boy, Mr. Howard! It's for him that I have been working,
am still working. For myself--I am satisfied--as he said; but not for
him. I want to see him still higher up the ladder than I have climbed.
I have done fairly well--heaven and earth! if anyone had told me twenty
years ago that I should be where and what I am to-day--well, I'd have
sold my chances for a bottle of ale. You smile. Mr. Howard, it was
anything but beer and skittles for me then. I want to leave my boy
a--title. Smile again, Mr. Howard; I don't mind."
"I haven't a smile about me, sir," said Howard.
"Ah, you understand. You see my mind. I don't know why I've told you,
excepting that it is because you are Staff's friend. But I've told you
now. And am I not right? Isn't it a laudable ambition? Can you say that
he will not wear it well, however high the title may be? Where is there
such another young fellow? Proud--pride is too poor a word for what I
feel for him!"
He paused and sank back, but leant forward again.
"Though I've kept apart from him, Mr. Howard, I have watched him--but
in no unworthy sense. No, I haven't spied upon him."
"There was no need, sir," said Howard, very quietly.
"I know it. Stafford is as straight as a dart, as true as steel. Oh,
I've heard of him. I know there isn't a more popular man in
England--forgive me if I say I don't think there's a handsomer."
Howard nodded prompt assent.
"I read of him, in society, at Hurlingham. Everywhere he goes he holds
his own. And I know why. Do you believe in birth, Mr. Howard?" he
asked, abruptly.
"Of course," replied Howard.
"So do I, though I can't lay claim to any. But there's a good strain in
Stafford and it shows itself. There's something in his face, a certain
look in his eyes, in his voice, and the way he moves; that quiet yet
frank manner--oh, I can't explain!" he broke off, impatiently.
"I think you have done it very well," said Howard. "I don't like the
word--it is so often misapplied--but I can't think of any better:
distinguished is the word that describes Stafford."
Sir Stephen nodded eagerly.