Carstares sipped his wine quietly, waiting for Miles' anger to evaporate, as it presently did, leaving him to glower balefully. Then he started to laugh.
"Oh, Miles, let me go my own road! I'm a sore trial to you, I know." Then suddenly sobering: "But I want you not to think so hardly of Dick. You know enough of him to understand a little how it all came about. You know how extravagant he was and how often in debt-can you not pardon the impulse of a mad moment?"
"That I could pardon. What I cannot forgive is his-unutterable meanness in letting you bear the blame."
"O'Hara, he was in love with Lavinia-"
"So were you."
"Not so deeply. With me 'twas a boy's passion, but with him 'twas serious."
O'Hara remained silent, his mouth unusually hard.
"Put yourself in his place," pleaded Jack. "If you-"
"Thank you!" O'Hara laughed unpleasantly. "No, Jack, we shall not agree on this subject, and we had best leave it alone. I do not think you need worry about him, though. I believe he is not in debt."
"Does he have fair luck with his racing and his-"
O'Hara smiled grimly.
"Dick is a very changed man, John. He does not keep racehorses, neither does he play cards, save for appearance's sake."
"Dick not play! What then does he do?"
"Manages your estates and conducts his wife to routs. When in town," bitterly, "he inhabits your house."
"Well, there is none else to use it. But I cannot imagine Dick turned sober!"
"'Tis easy to be righteous after the evil is done, I'm thinking!"
My lord ignored this remark. A curious smile played about his mouth.
"Egad, Miles, 'tis very entertaining! I, the erstwhile sober member-what is the matter?-am now the profligate: I dice, I gamble, I rob.
Dick the ne'er-do-weel is saint. He-er-lives a godly and righteous life, and-er-is robbed by his wife's relations. After all, I do not think I envy him overmuch."
"At least, you enjoy life more than he does," said O'Hara, grinning. "For ye have no conscience to reckon with."
Carstares' face was inscrutable. He touched his lips with his napkin and smiled.
"As you say, I enjoy life the more-but as to conscience, I do not think it is that."
O'Hara glanced at him sitting sideways in his chair, one arm flung over its back.
"Will ye be offended if I ask ye a question?"
"Of course not."
"Then-do ye intend to go back to this highroad robbery?"
"I do not."
"What then will you do?"
The shadows vanished, and my lord laughed.
"To tell you the truth, Miles, I've not yet settled that point. Fate will decide-not I."