'Yours very affectionately, 'GUY MORVILLE.'
'Well, what do you think of it? What would you do in my place--eh, Philip! What can he want of it, eh?' said Mr. Edmonstone, tormenting his riding-whip, and looking up to study his nephew's face, which, with stern gravity in every feature, was bent over the letter, as if to weigh every line. 'Eh, Philip?' repeated Mr. Edmonstone, several times, without obtaining an answer.
'This is no place for discussion,' at last said Philip, deliberately returning the letter. 'Come into the reading-room. We shall find no one there at this hour. Here we are.'
'Well--well--well,' began Mr. Edmonstone, fretted by his coolness to the extreme of impatience, 'what do you think of it? He can't be after any mischief; 'tis not in the boy; when--when he is all but--Pooh! what am I saying? Well, what do you think?'
'I am afraid it confirms but too strongly a report which I received yesterday.'
'From your sister? Does she know anything about it?'
'Yes, from my sister. But I was very unwilling to mention it, because she particularly requests that her name may not be used. I came here to see whether you had heard of Guy lately, so as to judge whether it was needful to speak of it. This convinces me; but I must beg, in the first instance, that you will not mention her, not even to my aunt.'
'Well, yes; very well. I promise. Only let me hear.'
'Young Harewood has, I fear, led him into bad company. There can now be no doubt that he has been gambling.'
Philip was not prepared for the effect of these words. His uncle started up, exclaiming--'Gambling! Impossible! Some confounded slander! I don't believe one word of it! I won't hear such things said of him,' he repeated, stammering with passion, and walking violently about the room. This did not last long; there was something in the unmoved way in which Philip waited till he had patience to listen, which gradually mastered him; his angry manner subsided, and, sitting down, he continued the argument, in a would-be-composed voice.
'It is utterly impossible! Remember, he thinks himself bound not so much as to touch a billiard cue.'
'I could have thought it impossible, but for what I have seen of the way in which promises are eluded by persons too strictly bound,' said Philip. 'The moral force of principle is the only efficient pledge.'
'Principle! I should like to see who has better principles than Guy!' cried Mr. Edmonstone. 'You have said so yourself, fifty times, and your aunt has said so, and Charles. I could as soon suspect myself.' He was growing vehement, but again Philip's imperturbability repressed his violence, and he asked, 'Well, what evidence have you? Mind, I am not going to believe it without the strongest. I don't know that I would believe my own eyes against him.'