Vernon winced on hearing her pronounce his trade name. "I am at your service," he said in a low voice.
"And in my hands," rejoined Lady Corsoon briskly. "What would the world say if it knew that Arthur Vernon was a private inquiry agent, making his money out of people's secrets?"
"You take me for The Spider, apparently," said Vernon with spirit, and anxious, through pride, to repel the odious accusation. "I make money by helping people to keep their secrets, not by betraying them. I am on the side of the law, not of the criminal. Upon my word, I can't see that a man who carries on an honest business to preserve secrets and to save unfortunate people from blackmail is worse than--if indeed as bad as--a City rogue who trades unscrupulously on people's weakness for gambling."
Lady Corsoon changed colour at the last words, and evidently was about to make a remark thereon. However, she checked herself sharply and replied with feigned carelessness, "Very well argued, Mr. Vernon. But people are prejudiced against those who seek to know secrets."
"Because everyone has a turned-down page in his or her Book of Life," cried the young man. "I--in my business--prevent that page being read by those who wish to be paid for the reading. I don't want my business known, but I am not ashamed of it."
"Because my father lost all his money, and I had scarcely enough to live upon," retorted the young man quickly and proudly.
Vernon started. "How do you know that?" he demanded sharply. Lady Corsoon tapped his arm again. "In my own way I have been doing a little detective business. You were so persistent in following Lucy from house to house, and so decidedly refused to receive my 'No' for her answer, that I made inquiries to see why you could have the courage to offer a young girl a ruined fortune. I learned, indeed, that you were ruined by your father, but I learned also that Sir Edward Vernon, of Slimthorp, in Worcestershire, is your uncle. He has a good income and no wife and is eighty years of age. The chances are that you will succeed him."
"He cannot keep me out of the title," said Vernon bitterly, "but you should have gained more information, Lady Corsoon. My uncle hated my father because my father married the woman he loved, and he hates me because I am the son of that woman. I do not hope to inherit the money, and what is a title without money? I did not explain what you have discovered, else I should have done so, since it seemed useless to put forward all that as a plea for an engagement to your daughter."