But there was Jack Treves. Did she say anything in her letter about
Jack Treves? With fingers that trembled a little, he turned over the
page, and there, about half-way down, he espied the name of the
trainer's son. After that he resumed his reading of the letter at
the place where he had left off, his heart fluttering foolishly, the
written words upon the page dancing before his eyes.
"And now, just a few words on another subject," so the letter went
on. "It's a thing that I can write better than I can speak--it's
about Jack Treves and that thousand pounds. It's true I got the
money from him, and that there's a sort of promise of marriage
between us. It's not only because he helped me to buy back Castor,
but there has been a vague kind of understanding, for the last year
or two, that I am to marry him some day. My father wants it. You'll
respect my confidence, I know, so I will tell you that there's a
considerable debt, and it must be paid off somehow."
"The old blackguard!" commented Mostyn forcibly, when he reached this
point. "He's selling his daughter to pay off his debts--that's just
what it means. But to sell her to a low-down bounder like young
Treves--it's cruel and disgusting. And she, I don't believe she
cares for Treves a bit, really, and she's probably angry with herself
now because she's bound the fetters all the tighter about her by
going to him in one of those tempestuous tempers of hers and
borrowing a thousand pounds. A curse upon the money--if only Rada
had taken it back!"
Mostyn had thrust the notes away in his safe at the Grange that
night, and there they had remained. It was a foolish thing to have
done, no doubt, but he could not bring himself to touch the money--it
was like fire to his fingers.
Mostyn continued his reading. "The truth is, that I don't love
anyone--at least, I don't think I do. It did not seem to me to
matter if I married Jack Treves or not. He would do as well as
another--since I had to marry some day. And just now my mind is far
too full of other matters--of Castor, for instance, whom I think I
love better than any man upon earth--to think of marriage, or
anything of the sort. Jack understands that, and he's promised not
to bother me till after the Derby next year. I like him for that;
it's nice of him, don't you think so?
"Now, Mr. Clithero, I think I've explained everything as well as I
can. You'll come back to the Grange soon, won't you? We'll be
friends, and try not to quarrel again."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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