“I’m not down for a half-penny in the will.  I expected as much.  Go on.”

“You are wrong—­you are down in it.  There is liberal provision made for you in a codicil.  Unhappily, my father died without signing it.  It is needless to say that I consider it binding on me for all that.  I am ready to do for you what your father would have done for you.  And I only ask for one concession in return.”

“What may that be?”

“You are living here very unhappily, Geoffrey, with your wife.”

“Who says so?  I don’t, for one.”

Julius laid his hand kindly on his brother’s arm.

“Don’t trifle with such a serious matter as this,” he said.  “Your marriage is, in every sense of the word, a misfortune—­not only to you but to your wife.  It is impossible that you can live together.  I have come here to ask you to consent to a separation.  Do that—­and the provision made for you in the unsigned codicil is yours.  What do you say?”

Geoffrey shook his brother’s hand off his arm.

“I say—­No!” he answered.

Lady Holchester interfered for the first time.

“Your brother’s generous offer deserves a better answer than that,” she said.

“My answer,” reiterated Geoffrey, “is—­No!”

He sat between them with his clenched fists resting on his knees—­absolutely impenetrable to any thing that either of them could say.

“In your situation,” said Julius, “a refusal is sheer madness.  I won’t accept it.”

“Do as you like about that.  My mind’s made up.  I won’t let my wife be taken away from me.  Here she stays.”

The brutal tone in which he had made that reply roused Lady Holchester’s indignation.

“Take care!” she said.  “You are not only behaving with the grossest ingratitude toward your brother—­you are forcing a suspicion into your mother’s mind.  You have some motive that you are hiding from us.”

He turned on his mother with a sudden ferocity which made Julius spring to his feet.  The next instant his eyes were on the ground, and the devil that possessed him was quiet again.

“Some motive I’m hiding from you?” he repeated, with his head down, and his utterance thicker than ever.  “I’m ready to have my motive posted all over London, if you like.  I’m fond of her.”

He looked up as he said the last words.  Lady Holchester turned away her head—­recoiling from her own son.  So overwhelming was the shock inflicted on her that even the strongly rooted prejudice which Mrs. Glenarm had implanted in her mind yielded to it.  At that moment she absolutely pitied Anne!

“Poor creature!” said Lady Holchester.

He took instant offense at those two words.  “I won’t have my wife pitied by any body.”  With that reply, he dashed into the passage; and called out, “Anne! come down!”

Her soft voice answered; her light footfall was heard on the stairs.  She came into the room.  Julius advanced, took her hand, and held it kindly in his.  “We are having a little family discussion,” he said, trying to give her confidence.  “And Geoffrey is getting hot over it, as usual.”