avely, "does your brother--does your sister
know of your desire to leave me? Would they approve, if you were sent
West?"

"Pardon me, Mr Ruthven, that question need not be discussed. I must be
the best judge of the matter. As for them, they were at least
reconciled to my going when you--drew back."

Mr Ruthven was evidently uncomfortable. He took up his bundle of
letters again, murmuring something about their not wishing it now.

"I understand you, sir," said Harry, with a very pale face. "Allow me
to say that as soon as you can supply my place--or at once, if you
like--I must go."

But Mr Ruthven was not listening to him. He had turned over his
letters till a little note among them attracted his attention. He broke
the seal, and read it while Harry was speaking. It was very brief, only
three words and one initial letter.

"Let Harry go. G."

He read it, and folded it, and laid it down with a sigh. Then he turned
to Harry, just as he was laying his hand on the door.

"What is it, Harry? I did not hear what you were saying."

"I merely said, sir," said Harry, turning round and facing him, "that as
soon as you can supply my place in the office, I shall consider myself
at liberty to go."

"But why should you wish to go?"

"There are several reasons. One is, I shall never stay anywhere on
sufferance. If I am not to be trusted at a distance, I shall certainly
not stay to give my employers the trouble of keeping an eye upon me."

His own eye flashed as he spoke.

"But, Harry, man, that is nonsense, you know."

It was not his master, but his friend, that spoke, and Harry was a
little thrown off his guard by the change in his tone.

"I do not think it is nonsense," said he.

"Harry, I have not been thinking of myself in all this, nor of the
interests of the firm. Let me say, once for all, that I should consider
them perfectly safe in your hands, in all respects. Harry, the world
would look darker to me the day I could not trust your father's son."

Harry made no answer.

"It is of you I have been thinking, in the hesitation that has seemed so
unreasonable to you. Harry, when I think of the home you have here, and
of the wretched changed life that awaits you there, it seems selfish--
wrong to wish to send you away."

Harry made a gesture of dissent, and muttered something about the
impossibility of staying always at home.

"I know it, my lad, but the longer you can stay at home--such a hom