said he, and resumed his intelligent
inquiries. "These young persons to whom your children have become
engaged--they are hardly the matches you would have made at one time,
are they?"

"I'm afraid I was a bit of an ass at one time," Mr. Walkingshaw
confessed.

"I see, I see. And now, as to the engagements you have broken off--you
felt yourself inspired, prompted from within, as it were, to bring them
to an end, I take it?"

"You've put it deuced well," said Heriot.

"Did you feel in any way inspired from without--any visions or voices,
so to speak, any manifestations or appearances--anything of that kind?"

Mr. Walkingshaw looked a little puzzled.

"The voices of romance and love, and that sort of thing, I certainly
heard."

"Quite so, quite so, Mr. Walkingshaw. You heard them, did you? Well,
it's not every one who hears these things."

He smiled pleasantly, and Mr. Walkingshaw became confirmed in his
opinion that this was quite one of the most agreeable men he had met
for a long time.

"May I ask whether you propose to take any more steps to put this poor
world of ours to rights?" inquired Mr. Brown.

"He is taking control of the business again," said Andrew.

"Again?" retorted Heriot. "When did I ever lose control of the business,
I'd like to know? I've had my holiday, and now I'm going to make things
hum in the office."

"You are going to make them hum?" asked Mr. Brown. "Do you mean you are
going to override your partner's decisions, and so on?"

"My dear Mr. Brown, if I waited for his decisions, I'd be kicking up my
heels in the office half the day. Metaphorically speaking, my son is
somewhat like a man who fills his bath from a teacup instead of turning
on the tap. I don't override his decisions, I simply anticipate them."

"That is his account of it," said Andrew darkly.

"Well, well," smiled Mr. Brown, "I think I understand. And now, Mr.
Walkingshaw, may I ask if there is anything else you propose to do?"

This time he glanced at Andrew, as if courting information.

"He is altering his will," said the junior partner.

"Ah!" remarked his visitor again.

Mr. Walkingshaw drew himself up.

"That is my own affair," he said, with dignity.

"Quite so--quite so," replied Mr. Brown in that peculiarly soothing
voice he had at his command. "We would wish to make no inquiries into
that. Only, there's just one thing I'd like to know--you don't mean to
let the grass grow under your feet, I take it?"