e's discovery may seem, it was the result of long months
and study of applied science, and certain dearly bought experiences, and
though Mr Deering blamed himself for not having noticed the little
addition which had thwarted all his plans and brought him to the verge
of ruin, he frankly avowed over and over again that he was indebted to
his old friend's nephew for his rescue from such a perilous strait.

He was off back to town that same day, and in a week the doctor, who was
beginning to shake his head and feel doubtful whether he ought to expect
matters to turn out so well, received a letter from the lawyer, to say
that there would be no need to call upon him for the money for which he
had been security.

"But I do not feel quite safe yet, Vane, my boy," he said, "and I shall
not till I really see the great success. Who can feel safe over an
affair which depends on the turning on or off of a tap."

But he need not have troubled himself, for he soon had ample surety that
he was perfectly safe, and that he need never fear having to leave the
Little Manor.

Meanwhile matters went on at the rectory in the same regular course, Mr
Syme's pupils working pretty hard, and there being a cessation of the
wordy warfare that used to take place with Distin, Macey, and Gilmore,
and their encounters, in which Vane joined, bantering and being bantered
unmercifully; but Distin was completely changed. The sharp bitterness
seemed to have gone out of his nature, and he became quiet and subdued.
Vane treated him just the same as of old, but there was no warm display
of friendship made, only on Distin's part a steady show of deference and
respect till the day came when he was to leave Greythorpe rectory for
Cambridge.

It was just at the last; the good-byes had been said, and the fly was
waiting to take him to the station, when he asked Vane to walk on with
him for a short distance, and bade the fly-man follow slowly.

Vane agreed readily enough, wondering the while what his old
fellow-pupil would say, and he wondered still more as they walked on and
on in silence.

Then Vane began to talk of the distance to Cambridge; the college life;
and of how glad he would be to get there himself; starting topics till,
to use his own expression, when describing the scene to his uncle, he
felt "in a state of mental vacuum."

A complete silence had fallen upon them at last, when they were a couple
of miles on the white chalky road, and the fly