Well,
ma'am?"
"In that letter Maude said she wished me to have charge of her children,
if she died; and begged you to take notice that she said it," continued
the dowager. "Perhaps you'll say you never had that letter?"
"On the contrary, madam, I admit receiving it," he replied. "I daresay I
have it still. Most of Maude's letters lie in my desk undisturbed."
"And, admitting that, you refuse to act up to it?"
"Maude wrote in a moment of pique, when she was angry with me. But--"
"And I have no doubt she had good cause for anger!"
"She had great cause," was his answer, spoken with a strange sadness that
surprised both the dowager and Lady Hartledon. Thomas Carr was twirling
his wine-glass gently round on the white cloth, neither speaking nor
looking.
"Later, my wife fully retracted what she said in that letter," continued
Val. "She confessed that she had written it partly at your dictation,
Lady Kirton, and said--but I had better not tell you that, perhaps."
"Then you shall tell me, Lord Hartledon; and you are a two-faced man, if
you shuffle out of it."
"Very well. Maude said that she would not for the whole world allow her
children to be brought up by you; she warned me also not to allow you to
obtain too much influence over them."
"It's false!" said the dowager, in no way disconcerted.
"It is perfectly true: and Maude told me you knew what her sentiments
were upon the point.
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