od with her father on the
point of departure. I saw their faces. I saw for the first time an
unmistakable look of love in his black eyes; it was more than gratitude
for the little attention; it was tender and beseeching--passionate. She
shrank from it in confusion, her glance fell on me; and, partly to hide
her emotion, partly out of real kindness at what might appear
ungracious neglect of an older friend, she flew off to gather me a few
late-blooming China roses. But it was the first time she had ever done
anything of the kind for me.

We had to walk fast to be back on the line before the men's return, so
we spoke but little to each other, and of course the afternoon was too
much occupied for us to have any talk. In the evening we went back to
our joint lodgings in Hornby. There, on the table, lay a letter for
Holdsworth, which had be en forwarded to him from Eltham. As our tea
was ready, and I had had nothing to eat since morning, I fell to
directly without paying much attention to my companion as he opened and
read his letter. He was very silent for a few minutes; at length he
said,

'Old fellow! I'm going to leave you!'

'Leave me!' said I. 'How? When?'

'This letter ought to have come to hand Sooner. It is from Greathed the
engineer' (Greathed was well known in those days; he is dead now, and
his name half-forgotten); 'he wants to see me about Some business; in
fact, I may as well tell you, Paul, this letter contains a very
advantageous proposal for me to go out to Canada, and superintend the
making of a line there.' I was in utter dismay. 'But what will Our
company say to that?' 'Oh, Greathed has the superintendence of this
line, you know; and he is going to be engineer in chief to this
Canadian line; many of the Shareholders in this company are going in
for the other, so I fancy they will make no difficulty in following
Greathed's lead. He says he has a young man ready to put in my place.'

'I hate him,' said I.

'Thank you,' said Holdsworth, laughing.

'But you must not,' he resumed; 'for this is a very good thing for me,
and, of course, if no one can be found to take my inferior work, I
can't be spared to take the superior. I only wish I had received this
letter a day Sooner. Every hour is of consequence, for Greathed says
they are threatening a rival line. Do you know, Paul, I almost fancy I
must go up tonight? I can take an engine back to Eltham, and catch the
night train. I should not like Greathed