have thought twice before he gambled away his fortune on the
turf; and he might have been alive here among us, instead of dying an
exile in a foreign land," said Sir Patrick, finishing the sentence which
the other had begun. "No more of that! Let's talk of something else.
Lady Lundie wrote to me about you the other day. She told me your aunt
was dead, and had left you heir to her property in Scotland. Is that
true?--It is?--I congratulate you with all my heart. Why are you
visiting here, instead of looking after your house and lands? Oh! it's
only three-and-twenty miles from this; and you're going to look after
it to-day, by the next train? Quite right. And--what? what?--coming back
again the day after to-morrow? Why should you come back? Some special
attraction here, I suppose? I hope it's the right sort of attraction.
You're very young--you're exposed to all sorts of temptations. Have you
got a solid foundation of good sense at the bottom of you? It is not
inherited from your poor father, if you have. You must have been a mere
boy when he ruined his children's prospects. How have you lived from
that time to this? What were you doing when your aunt's will made an
idle man of you for life?"

The question was a searching one. Arnold answered it, without the
slightest hesitation; speaking with an unaffected modesty and simplicity
which at once won Sir Patrick's heart.

"I was a boy at Eton, Sir," he said, "when my father's losses ruined
him. I had to leave school, and get my own living; and I have got it,
in a roughish way, from that time to this. In plain English, I have
followed the sea--in the merchant-service."

"In plainer English still, you met adversity like a brave lad, and you
have fairly earned the good luck that has fallen to you," rejoined Sir
Patrick. "Give me your hand--I have taken a liking to you. You're not
like the other young fellows of the present time. I shall call you
'Arnold.' You mus'n't return the compliment and call me 'Patrick,'
mind--I'm too old to be treated in that way. Well, and how do you get on
here? What sort of a woman is my sister-in-law? and what sort of a house
is this?"

Arnold burst out laughing.

"Those are extraordinary questions for you to put to me," he said. "You
talk, Sir, as if you were a stranger here!"

Sir Patrick touched a spring in the knob of his ivory cane. A little
gold lid flew up, and disclosed the snuff-box hidden inside. He took a
pinch, and chuckled satiri