At Love's Cost
Page 256"Then what's he here for?" retorted another man whose loss amounted to
a few hundreds, but who was more excited and venomous than those who
had many thousands at stake. "He's all right. He's a lord--a pretty
lord!--and I'm told the gentleman he's next to is his future
father-in-law, and is rolling in money--"
"Order! order!" called Griffenberg.
But the man declined to be silenced.
"Oh, it's all very well to call 'Order!' But I've a question to ask. I
want to know whether it's true that Sir Stephen--blow 'Lord
Highcliffe,' Sir Stephen's good enough for me!--made over a hundred
us is ruined by this company, and we don't see why we should be sheared
while Lord Highcliffe gets off with a cool hundred thousand. I ask the
question and I wait for an answer."
Stafford rose, his pale, handsome face looking almost white above his
black frock-coat and black tie.
"Sit down! Don't answer him," said Griffenberg.
"It is quite true," he said. "The money--a hundred thousand pounds--was
given to me. It was given to me when my father"--his voice broke for a
moment--"was in a position to give it, was solvent--"
"Order! order!" said Griffenberg.
"And I am informed that the gift was legal, that it cannot be
touched--"
"Of course it can't! Trust Sir Stephen to look after his own!" wailed
the man.
"But I yield it, give it up," said Stafford in the same level voice.
Falconer started from his seat and laid a hand on Stafford's arm.
"Don't be a fool!", he whispered in his thick voice.
But Stafford did not heed him.
"When my father"--his voice again shook for a moment, but he mastered
his emotion--"made the deed, he thought himself a rich man. If he were
alive to-day"--there was a pause, and the meeting hung on his
words--"he would entirely agree with what I am doing. I give up the
deed of gift, I relinquish it. My lawyers have made me the proper
document, and I now give it to your chairman. It is all I possess; if I
had more, I would give it to you. My father was an honourable man, if
he were here now--"