if he will leave the service."

"You do not owe him so much as you would owe your son;--and,
therefore, he does not owe you as much as he would owe his father."

"If you mean that I cannot constrain him, I know that well enough.
As regards money, I have offered to do for him quite as much as any
father would feel called upon to do for an only son."

"I hope you don't think me ungrateful," said Bernard.

"No, I do not; but I think you unmindful. I have nothing more to
say about it, however;--not about that. If you should marry--" And
then he stopped himself, feeling that he could not go on in Bell's
presence.

"If he should marry," said Mrs Dale, "it may well be that his wife
would like a house of her own."

"Wouldn't she have this house?" said the squire, angrily. "Isn't it
big enough? I only want one room for myself, and I'd give up that if
it were necessary."

"That's nonsense," said Mrs Dale.

"It isn't nonsense," said the squire.

"You'll be squire of Allington for the next twenty years," said Mrs
Dale. "And as long as you are the squire, you'll be master of this
house; at least, I hope so. I don't approve of monarchs abdicating in
favour of young people."

"I don't think Uncle Christopher would look at all well like Charles
the Fifth," said Lily.

"I would always keep a cell for you, my darling, if I did," said the
squire, regarding her with that painful, special tenderness. Lily,
who was sitting next to Mrs Dale, put her hand out secretly and got
hold of her mother's, thereby indicating that she did not intend to
occupy the cell offered to her by her uncle; or to look to him as the
companion of her monastic seclusion. After that there was nothing
more then said as to Bernard's prospects.

"Mrs Hearn is dining at the vicarage, I suppose?" asked the squire.

"Yes; she went in after church," said Bell. "I saw her go with Mrs
Boyce."

"She told me she never would dine with them again after dark in
winter," said Mrs Dale. "The last time she was there, the boy let the
lamp blow out as she was going home, and she lost her way. The truth
was, she was angry because Mr Boyce didn't go with her."

"She's always angry," said the squire. "She hardly speaks to me now.
When she paid her rent the other day to Jolliffe, she said she hoped
it would do me much good; as though she thought me a brute for taking
it."

"So she does," said Bernard.

"She's very old, you know," said Bell.

"I'd give her the house