She told him of Una's premonitions about Dick. Told him, in short,
what it was that Una desired to talk to him about.
"You bade her come to me?" he said.
"Of course. After your promise to me."
He was silent and very thoughtful for a moment. "I wonder that
Una needed to be told that she had in me a friend," he said slowly.
"I wonder to whom she would have gone on her own impulse?"
"To Count Samoval," Miss Armytage informed him.
"Samoval!" he rapped the name out sharply. He was clearly angry.
"That man! I can't understand why O'Moy should suffer him about the
house so much."
"Terence, like everybody else, will suffer anything that Una wishes."
"Then Terence is more of a fool than I ever suspected."
There was a brief pause. "If you were to fail Una in this," said
Miss Armytage presently, "I mean that unless you yourself give her
the assurance that you are ready to do what you can for Dick, should
the occasion arise, I am afraid that in her present foolish mood she
may still avail herself of Count Samoval. That would be to give
Samoval a hold upon her; and I tremble to think what the consequences
might be. That man is a snake - a horror."
The frankness with which she spoke was to Tremayne full evidence of
her anxiety.
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