"Why?" asked Durham, bluntly. He found Mrs. Gilroy something of a mystery, and did not know what was the bond between her and Sir Simon. "Never you mind. I have my reasons, so let things remain as they are. Bernard can marry Miss Malleson when I am dead if he chooses." "He thinks he has been disinherited?" "Yes! I told him so. The truth will come as a pleasant surprise." "Won't you take him back into favor and tell him?" urged Durham. "No! not at present. If we met, there would only be more trouble. He has a temper inherited from his Italian mother, and I have a temper also. He behaved very rudely to me, and it's just as well he should suffer a little. But I don't want him to go to the war. He must be bought out." "I fear Bernard is not the man to be bought out." "Oh, I know he is brave enough, and I suppose being bought out at the eleventh hour when war is on is not heroic. All the same, I don't want him to be shot." "You must leave things to chance," said Durham decidedly. "There is only one way in which you can make him give up his soldiering." "What's that?" "Make friends with him, and ask him to wait till you die." "No, no, no!" said Sir Simon, irritably. "He must keep away from me for a time. After all, he is the son of his father, and, bad as Walter was, I loved him for his mother's sake. As for the Italian woman--" "Mrs. Gore! She is dead." "I know she is. But her brother Guiseppe is alive, and a scoundrel he is. The other day he came to the Hall and tried to force his way into the house. A gambler, a rogue, Durham--that's what Guiseppe is." "What is his other name?" "Tolomeo! He comes from Siena." "I understood Mrs. Gore--your son's wife--came from Florence." "So she said. She declared she was the member of a decayed Florentine family. But afterwards I learned from Guiseppe that the Tolomeo nobles are Sienese--and a bad lot they are. He is a musician, I believe--a plausible scamp. I hope he has not got hold of Bernard." "Bernard is his nephew." "I know that," snapped the old man. "All the same, the uncle is sadly in want of money, and would exercise an undue influence over Bernard." "I don't think Gore is the man to be controlled," said Durham, sagely. "You don't know. He is young after all. But you know, by the will, I have put it out of Bernard's power to assist Tolomeo. If he gives him as much as a shilling the money is lost to him and goes to Lucy." "That is rather a hard provision," said Durham, after a pause. "I do it for the boy's good," replied Gore, rising; "but I must get home now. By the way, about that lease," and the two began to talk of matters connected with the estate. Sir Simon after this refused to discuss his erring grandson, but Durham, who was friendly to Bernard, insisted on recurring to the forbidden subject. However it was just when the old man was going that he reverted to the bone of contention, "I wish you would let me tell Bernard that you are well disposed toward him."