agree with him). "I
shall allow you to meet him first, and give you the opportunity of
breaking your conduct to him. I know how it will wring his paternal
heart!" and the Doctor shook his head sadly, and turned away.

With a curious mixture of shame, anger, and impatience, Paul turned the
handle of the dining-room door. He was to meet Dick face to face once
more. The final duel must be fought out between them here. Who would be
the victor?

It was a strange sensation on entering to see the image of what he had
so lately been standing by the mantelpiece. It gave a shock to his sense
of his own identity. It seemed so impossible that that stout substantial
frame could really contain Dick. For an instant he was totally at a loss
for words, and stood pale and speechless in the presence of his
unprincipled son.

Dick on his side seemed at least as much embarrassed. He giggled
uneasily, and made a sheepish offer to shake hands, which was
indignantly declined.

As Paul looked he saw distinctly that his son's fraudulent imitation of
his father's personal appearance had become deteriorated in many
respects since that unhappy night when he had last seen it. It was then
a copy, faultlessly accurate in every detail. It was now almost a
caricature, a libel!

The complexion was nearly sallow, with the exception of the nose, which
had rather deepened in colour. The skin was loose and flabby, and the
eyes dull and a little bloodshot. But perhaps the greatest alteration
was in the dress. Dick wore an old light tweed shooting-coat of his, and
a pair of loose trousers of blue serge; while, instead of the formally
tied black neckcloth his father had worn for a quarter of a century, he
had a large scarf round his neck of some crude and gaudy colour; and the
conventional chimney-pot hat had been discarded for a shabby old
wide-brimmed felt wideawake.

Altogether, it was by no means the costume which a British merchant,
with any self-respect whatever, would select, even for a country visit.

And thus they met, as perhaps never, since this world was first set
spinning down the ringing grooves of change, met father and son before!

14. _An Error of Judgment_

"The Survivorship of a worthy Man in his Son is a Pleasure scarce
inferior to the Hopes of the Continuance of his own Life."
_Spectator._

"Du bist ein Knabe--sei es immerhin
Und fahre fort,