. "As you say, it's a good thing I have some
of my own." He had his fingers in his waistcoat pocket, and was
wondering which of the coins that he felt there would prove to be gold.
It was an important question. "Don't vex yourself about me, Aunt
Harriet. Kiss me and say good-bye: there isn't much time, is there? Tell
Sissy--" he stopped abruptly.

"What?" said the old lady.

"Tell her--I don't know. You'll let me hear how she is. You've been very
good to me, Aunt Harriet. It's best as it is about Sissy, isn't it,
seeing how things have turned out?"

He caught up his luggage and went quickly out, but only to turn and
pause irresolutely in the doorway.

"I'll not say anything about Horace: we are best apart. But Lottie! I
liked Lottie: we were very good friends when she was a school-girl. She
is very young still. Perhaps she didn't understand. I ought to say this,
because you never knew her, and I did."

And having said it, he went away with a light on his sombre face. Mrs.
Middleton looked up at Hammond with streaming eyes and shook her head:
"I shall never like that girl: I shall never have anything to do with
her. Godfrey was right."

"In what way?"

"Percival was his favorite always."

"I'll look after him," said Hammond; and with a quick pressure of her
hand he followed the young man down stairs.

As they drove away Percival sat erect and grave, with a face as darkly
still as if it were moulded in bronze. He went away from the dear old
house without one backward glance: Horace might be looking out. He never
spoke, and when they reached the station he took his ticket and got into
the carriage without the least reference to Hammond, who followed him
quietly. There was no one else with them. The silence was unbroken till
they drew near their journey's end, when Thorne took out his ticket and
examined it curiously. "I wonder if I shall ever see another?" he said.

"Another what?"

"First-class ticket. I ought to have gone third."

"You get an opportunity of studying character, no doubt. But I think
this is better to-day," said Hammond.

Percival was silent for a moment. Then he spread all his money on his
open hand and eyed it: "What do you think of that for a fortune, eh,
Godfrey?"

Godfrey glanced at the little constellation of gold and silver coins.
"Wants a little more spending," he said. "Two-pence halfpenny is the
mystic sum which turns to millions. So Lisle has swindled you, has he? I
thought as