Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/24

 Beresford had replied, "and by the time I've sold my books and things I shall have fully another hundred."

"You're going to sell everything," gasped Mrs. Edward Seymour.

"Yes, all but the clothes I wear and an extra suit I shall carry with me," Beresford had smilingly retorted, enjoying the look of consternation upon his cousin's face. "When I leave London there will not remain in it a shilling's worth of my property."

"Richard, you're a fool." Lady Drewitt seemed to find comfort in the phrase. "Your poor dear mother was a fool too. She" Lady Drewitt broke off suddenly and gazed searchlngly at her nephew.

"When did this ridiculous idea first take possession of you?" she had demanded, with the air of a counsel for the prosecution about to make a great point.

"I've been a vagabond all my life," he had confessed with a smile. "I've never been really respectable, you know."

Lady Drewitt's jaws had met with a snap. Lord Drewitt gazed at her with interest. Neither he nor Beresford had ever permitted themselves to be overawed by their aunt. They were the only two relatives she possessed who were not ill at ease in her presence.

"You're Irish," she continued relentlessly, addressing Beresford in a voice that savoured of accusation.