Valentine, "that there were various things
you should like me to do for you in the house to-day, and over at the
town too. So I shall send him word that I cannot go"

"I think you had better go," said John.

Valentine was sure that John would have been glad of his company. It
would be easier for a man with his peculiarly keen feelings not to have
to face all his clerks alone the first time after his father's death.

"You must go," he repeated, however. "St. George would never have
thought of sending for you unless for some urgent reason. If you take my
dog-cart you will be in time for the breakfast there, which is at nine.
The horse is not taken out."

Valentine still hesitating, John added--

"But, I may as well say now that my father's removal need make no
difference in our being together. As far as I am concerned, I am very
well pleased with our present arrangement. I find in you an aptitude for
business affairs that I could by no means have anticipated. So if St.
George wants to consult you about some new plan for you (which I hardly
think can be the case), you had better hear what I have to say before
you turn yourself out."

Valentine thanked him cordially. Emily had pointedly said to him, during
his uncle's last illness, that in the event of any change, she should be
pleased if he would come and live with her. He had made no answer,
because he had not thought John would wish the connection between them
to continue. But now everything was easy. His dear old uncle had left
him a riding-horse, and some books. He had only to move these to Emily's
house, and so without trouble enter another home.

It was not yet nine o'clock when Valentine entered the dining-room in
his brother's house.

The gloom was over, the sun had burst forth, lumps of snow, shining in
the dazzle of early sunlight, were falling with a dull thud from the
trees, while every smaller particle dislodged by a waft of air, dropped
with a flash as of a diamond.

First Mrs. Henfrey came in and looked surprised to see Valentine;
wondered he had left John; had never seen a man so overcome at his
father's funeral. Then Giles came in with some purple and some orange
crocuses, which he laid upon his wife's plate. He said nothing about his
note, but went and fetched Dorothea, who was also evidently surprised to
see Valentine.

How lovely and interesting she looked in his eyes that morning, so
serene herself, and an object of such watchful solicitude