"Keep them in your possession," said Lord Barminster quietly. "It would not do for them to be in my hands just at present. I will have confidence in you, and you shall have no cause to regret this day's work, I a.s.sure you."

Mr. Harker looked at him gratefully.

"Thank you, my lord," he said. "Your confidence is not misplaced; indeed, it is not my fault that you have not been placed in possession of the real facts of the case before this. I certainly think it would be best for me to retain them for the present. I would suggest now that we arrange a plan by which Jasper Vermont shall expose his villainy in the actual presence of your son; otherwise, we shall have difficulty, perhaps, to convince him on my bare word."

"That's true enough," put in Mortimer Shelton. "Adrien is so set on the man, that even with these proofs we shall hardly convince him of his treachery other than from Vermont's own mouth."

"Yes," said Lord Barminster with a sigh. "I think you are right. But how is this to be managed?"

"I have brought with me the girl, Jessica, to whom I referred just now, and her aunt, Miss Ada Lester," said Mr. Harker. "Both of them will be able to a.s.sist us, and I would suggest to your lordship that they be sent for, and brought into the Castle quietly. We should then be able to confront Vermont."

"Certainly," agreed Lord Barminster; and, crossing the room, he rang for his own confidential man.

"Simpson," he said, when the servant appeared, "I want you to drive down, yourself, to the station."

"The Windleham Hotel, your lordship," interrupted Mr. Harker respectfully. "I think, too, if your lordship would have no objection, a short note from me would be advisable."

"Certainly," agreed Lord Barminster. He directed Harker to a small desk, then turned once more to the waiting servant. "Bring the ladies back with you. Take them into the Octagon Room, and ask them to wait there."

Then, as Mr. Harker came forward with the note, he added, "Give this to a Miss Lester."

"Yes, my lord," said Simpson, and taking the letter with a deep bow, he departed on his mission.

CHAPTER XXV

Lord Barminster conducted Mr. Harker to the Octagon Room, so named from its peculiar shape.

"If you will wait here," he said courteously, "I will have some refreshment sent up to you and the ladies, when they arrive."

"Thank you, my lord," returned Mr. Harker gratefully.

Seating himself, he waited patiently for the arrival of Miss Lester and Jessica, secretly congratulating himself on the success of his interview. The time pa.s.sed quickly; and, while waiting, Lord Barminster and Mortimer Shelton held a hurried consultation with him as to the best method of exposing Vermont. Long before they had finished, Miss Lester and her niece had arrived, the former flushed with excitement and triumph at the prospect of at last, as she expressed it, "getting her own back" with Jasper.

Lord Barminster and Shelton descended to the terrace, where they found Lady Constance; and almost immediately after came Adrien, with his inevitable companion, Jasper Vermont.

Lord Barminster had already arranged for his three visitors to be in the morning-room, which opened on to the terrace, as they would there be within call, and also within earshot.

"A word with you, Mr. Vermont," began Shelton sternly.

Jasper smiled, as usual, and turned towards him.

"As many as you like, Mr. Shelton," he said smoothly.

Mortimer looked at him steadily; then he said in a voice which was hard as steel:

"Mr. Vermont, Lord Barminster has kindly allowed me to speak first. We have every reason to believe that you have had some connection with this affair of Harker's notwithstanding your profession of friendship for Adrien."

Mr. Vermont drew himself up proudly.

"I?" he said indignantly. "What should I have to do with moneylending?"

"Be careful," said Shelton sternly, "there are not people wanting who will fight for Leroy's honour even as it were their own."

Vermont smiled cynically.

"Indeed, Shelton," he said, "it is hardly for you to speak. After all, it was you who nearly ruined Adrien by your denial of the bill, not I."

Lord Barminster strode forward.

"You cowardly rascal," he exclaimed furiously; but Mortimer placed himself between them.

"My lord," he said, "leave him to me. If force is necessary, I will punish him."

Jasper smiled.

"You wrong me, Shelton," he said gently; "and not only me, but Adrien, whom you pretend to care for. I have stood his true friend, as he knows, and have done my best to keep trouble from him, when, indeed, none other could have done so. But I suppose this is all the grat.i.tude I can expect from you for the discharge of friendship's duties. Adrien will no longer be of the fashionable world, you think, after yesterday's case; and it is high time to get rid of his humble friend, Jasper Vermont."

Adrien, who had been talking to Lady Constance, now glanced appealingly towards Mortimer; but with a gesture, as if to silence him, Shelton turned to Vermont again.

"Friend!" he exclaimed bitterly. "A pretty friend! But no more of this.

I advise you to leave the Castle while you are safe, for we have sufficient proof here to send you to penal servitude."

"Yes," Lord Barminster repeated, "leave the house at once. If I find you within my grounds an hour hence, I will thrash you within an inch of your life, old man as I am."

Jasper Vermont's face grew livid with anger, and something approaching fear as well; he clenched his hands so tightly that the carefully manicured nails dug deep into his flesh. But with characteristic insolence he tried to brazen it out.

"Your grounds?" he exclaimed, in virulent scorn. "Your grounds, my lord!

First tell me where I shall find them. You have no grounds. Barminster Castle is in the hands of a moneylender; these lands, as far as the eye can reach, are the property of Mr. Harker, the City capitalist, by right of countless bills and deeds which your precious son has made over to him."

With an exclamation of pain and astonishment, Adrien gazed on the man whom he had so loved and trusted. There was no mistaking the bitter hatred that was in Vermont's tones. At last, his eyes were being opened to the man's true character.

Lord Barminster regarded him steadily.

"You're mad!" he said quietly.

"Oh, no, no!" laughed Vermont. "It is not I who am mad, but you, who foolishly handed over your wealth to your son before it was his by right. You should have let him wait till death had removed you, before you gave him full power over Barminster. Such lavish expenditure as his would empty the coffers of a nation. His folly has melted every stone of your precious Castle in the cup of pleasure, and has poured out the costly draught at the feet of his friends and parasites. Friends? He has never had any--leeches, perhaps, who have sucked him dry of all his possessions, and then deserted him."

"Speak for yourself, you cur." cried Shelton, "since it is you, and your dishonest management of his estates, that have brought him to this pa.s.s."

Jasper smiled sardonically.

"Say rather that it is I who have constantly warned him against every fresh extravagance, knowing full well what must happen. Ask him yourself, if you doubt my word; ask him whether I have not implored him, time and time again, to relinquish at least some of his many ruinous pleasures and follies; to deny himself at least one expenditure."

Adrien turned his dark eyes to his father's stern face.