For to interfere with Nevitt now by legal means
would be to risk the discovery of his own share in the forgery.
And from that risk the startled and awakened young man shrank for
a thousand reasons; though the chief among them all was certainly
one that never would have occurred to any one but himself as even
probable.
He didn't wish Elma Clifford to know that the man she loved, and
the man who loved her, had become that day a forger's brother.
To be sure, he had only seen Elma once--that afternoon at the
Holkers' garden-party. But, as Cyril himself knew, he had fallen in
love with her at first sight--far more immediately, indeed, than
even Cyril himself had done. Blood, as usual, was thicker than
water. The points that appealed to one brother appealed also to
the other, but with this characteristic difference, that Guy, who
was the more emotional and less strong-willed of the two, yielded
himself up at the very first glance to the beautiful stranger,
while Cyril required some further acquaintance before quite giving
way and losing his heart outright to her. And from that first meeting
forward, Guy had carried Elma Clifford's image engraved upon his
memory--as he would carry it, he believed, to his dying day.
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