Page:The Semi-attached Couple.djvu/144



" you think Reginald Stuart very much out of spirits?" said Lady Portmore, when she was lingering over the breakfast-table, after the other ladies had withdrawn and Lord Teviot and Stuart had gone out shooting.

"Yes, I think he is," said Ernest, "rather out of spirits, and very much out of cash, I suspect; the old story of cause and effect."

"Poor fellow!" continued Lady Portmore; "it is a very deplorable case, for I don't believe that tiresome, poky brother of his. Lord Weybridge, will help him. In fact, between ourselves, I don't like Lord Weybridge; he is so hypocritical, he always pretends to be on good terms with our friend Reginald, and yet he lets him go on, distressed to the last degree for money."

"He did pay his debts once, you know, £16,000."

"Yes, but that was years ago; when Stuart was so young he hardly knew what he was spending. I have heard him say twenty times that he had no more idea how he spent all that money than the man in the moon. But now that he is older and wiser, I feel certain that if Lord Weybridge were to pay off what he owes, and give him something reasonable to live on, he would be very steady."

"Weybridge has six boys of his own, you must remember," said Lord Beaufort.

"Now, my dear Beaufort, do not you join to run down poor Stuart; you can have no idea of his position. There you are, an only son, with a large allowance, and Lord Eskdale ready to pay your debts at any moment."