y son, stiffened him, and he had to qualify the favour.

"Perhaps I should not say I am about to ask you a favour," he corrected
himself, "but rather to point out to you what is your obvious duty."

Suddenly it struck Michael that his father was not thinking about Lady
Ashbridge at all, nor about him, but in the main about himself. All
had to be done from the dominant standpoint; he owed it to himself to
alleviate the conditions under which his wife must live; he owed it to
himself that his son should do his part as a Comber. There was no longer
any possible doubt as to what this favour, or this direction of duty,
must be, but still Michael chose that his father should state it. He
pushed a chair forward for him.

"Won't you sit down?" he said.

"Thank you, I would rather stand. Yes; it is not so much a favour as the
indication of your duty. I do not know if you will see it in the same
light as I; you have shown me before now that we do not take the same
view."

Michael felt himself bristling. His father certainly had the effect of
drawing out in him all the feelings that were better suppressed.

"I think we need not talk of that now, sir," he remarked.

"Certainly it is not the subject of my interview with you now. The fact
is this. In some way your presence gives a certain serenity and content
to your mother. I noticed that at Ashbridge, and, indeed, there has been
some trouble with her this morning because I could not take her to come
to see you with me. I ask you, therefore, for her sake, to be with us as
much as you can, in short, to come and live with us."

Michael nodded, saluting, so to speak, the signpost into the future as
he passed it.

"I had already determined to do that," he said. "I had determined, at
any rate, to ask your permission to do so. It is clear that my mother
wants me, and no other consideration can weigh with that."

Lord Ashbridge still remained completely self-sufficient.

"I am glad you take that view of it," he said. "I think that is all I
have to say."

Now Michael was an adept at giving; as indicated before, when he
gave, he gave nobly, and he could not only outwardly disregard, but
he inwardly cancelled the wonderful ungenerosity with which his father
received. That did not concern him.

"I will make arrangements to come at once," he said, "if you can receive
me to-day."

"That will hardly be worth while, will it? I am taking your mother back
to Ashbridge tomorrow."