In the meantime he will go home, and not a suspicion will
be roused. What else should he do, with such a property to look after?"
"My father will not see it so," answered Hester. "I doubt if he will
ever speak to him again. Certainly he will not except he show some
repentance."
"Has your father refused to have him home?"
"He has not had the chance. Nobody knows what has become of him."
"He'll have to condone, or compromise, or compound, or what do they call
it, for the sake of his family--for your sake, and my sake, my darling!
He can't be so vindictive as expose his own son! We won't think more
about it! Let us talk of ourselves!"
"If only we could find him!" returned Hester.
"Depend upon it he is not where you would like to find him. Men don't
come to grief without help! We must wait till he turns up."
Far as this was from her purpose, Hester was not inclined to argue the
point: she could not expect him or any one out of their own family to be
much interested in the fate of Cornelius. They began to talk about other
things; and if they were not the things Hester would most readily have
talked about, neither were they the things lord Gartley had entered the
house intending to talk about.
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