False Colours Read Online Free PDF Page A

desirable that his mother should apply to him for help in her financial difficulties, and he said so.
    ‘Good gracious, Kit, as though I hadn’t often done so!’ she exclaimed. ‘It is by far the most comfortable arrangement, because he is so rich that he doesn’t care how many of my bonds he holds, and never does he demand the interest on the loans he makes me! As for dunning me to repay him, I am persuaded such a notion never entered his head. He may be absurd, and growing fatter every day, but I have been used to depend on him for years, in all manner of ways! It was he who sold my jewels for me, and had them copied, for instance, besides—’ She stopped abruptly. ‘Oh, I wish I had never mentioned him! It has brought it all back to me! That was what made Evelyn go away!’
    ‘Ripple?’ he asked, wholly at sea.
    ‘No, Lord Silverdale,’ she replied.
    ‘For the lord’s sake, Mama—!’ he expostulated. ‘What are you talking about? What the deuce has Silverdale to say to anything?’
    ‘He has a brooch of mine,’ she said, sunk suddenly into gloom. ‘I staked it, when he wouldn’t accept my vowels, and continue playing. Something told me the luck was about to turn, and so it might have, if Silverdale would but have played on. Not that I cared for losing the brooch, for I never liked it above half, and can’t conceive why I should have purchased it. I expect it must have taken my fancy, but I don’t recall why.’
    ‘Has Evelyn gone off to redeem it?’ he interrupted. ‘Where is Silverdale?’
    ‘At Brighton. Evelyn said there was no time to be lost in buying the brooch back, so off he posted—at least, he drove himself, in his phaeton, with his new team of grays, and he said that he meant to go first to Ravenhurst, which, indeed, he did—’
    ‘Just a moment, Mama!’ Kit intervened, the frown returning to his brow. ‘Why did Evelyn feel it necessary to go to Brighton? Of course he was obliged to redeem your brooch—Silverdale must have expected him to do so!—but I should have supposed that a letter to Silverdale, with a draft on his bank for whatever sum the brooch represented, would have answered the purpose.’
    Lady Denville raised large, stricken eyes to his face. ‘Yes, but you don’t perfectly understand how it was, dearest. I can’t think how I came to be so addlebrained, but when I staked it I had quite forgotten that it was one of the pieces I had had copied! For my part, I consider Silverdale was very well served for having been so quizzy and disobliging about accepting my vowels, but Evelyn said that it was of the first importance to recover the wretched thing before Silverdale discovered that it was only a copy.’
    Mr Fancot drew an audible breath. ‘I should rather think he might say so!’
    ‘But, Kit!’ said her ladyship earnestly, ‘that is much more improvident than anything I should dream of doing! I set its value at £500, which was the value of the real brooch, but the copy isn’t worth a tithe of that! It seems to be quite wickedly extravagant of Evelyn to be squandering such a sum on mere trumpery!’
    Mr Fancot toyed for a moment with the idea of explaining to his erratic parent that her view of the matter was, to put it mildly, incorrect. But only for a moment. He was an intelligent young man, and he almost instantly realized that any such attempt would be a waste of breath. So he merely said, as soon as he could command his voice to say anything: ‘Yes, well, never mind that! When did Evelyn set forth on this errand?’
    ‘Dear one, you cannot have been attending! I told you! Ten days ago!’
    ‘Well, it wouldn’t have taken him ten days to accomplish it, if Silverdale was in Brighton, so it seems that he can’t have been there. Evelyn must have discovered where he was gone to, and decided to follow him.’
    She brightened. ‘Oh, do you think that is what happened? I have been a prey to the most hideous forebodings! But if Silverdale has gone to that