He turned when Donal entered. A fiercer flush overspread his
face, but almost immediately the look of rage yielded to one of
determined insult. Possibly even the appearance of Donal was a
relief to being alone with his father.
"Mr. Grant," stammered his lordship, speaking with pain, "you are
well come!--just in time to hear a father curse his son!"
"Even such a threat shall not make me play a dishonourable part!"
said Forgue, looking however anything but honourable, for the heart,
not the brain, moulds the expression.
"Mr. Grant," resumed the father, "I have found you a man of sense
and refinement! If you had been tutor to this degenerate boy, the
worst trouble of my life would not have overtaken me!"
Forgue's lip curled, but he did not speak, and his father went on.
"Here is this fellow come to tell me to my face that he intends the
ruin and disgrace of the family by a low marriage!"
"It will not be the first time it has been so disgraced!" retorted
the son, "--if fresh peasant-blood be indeed a disgrace to any
family!"
"Bah! the hussey is not even a wholesome peasant-girl!" cried the
father. "Who do you think she is, Mr. Grant?"
"I do not need to guess, my lord," replied Donal. "I came now to
inform your lordship of what I had myself seen."
"She must leave the house this instant!"
"Then I too leave it, my lord!" said Forgue.
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