"Then did she--did she object to the boy?" asked the captain.
"Would have nothing to do with him; didn't like his voice; didn't like his manner of speech to her; didn't like anything. Then, again, she got on troublesome family matters--matters on which we were never able to agree; she rubbed me very much the wrong way; in short, the whole thing was impossible. I shook the dust of her house from my feet and came away. Mine is a nature, sir, that will not brook interference; that bows to no man, certainly to no woman."
He got up, picked up his hat, and began to move toward the door. He had something further, however, to say; the nervousness of his manner proclaimed it. The captain rose politely to open the door for his guest, and Mr. Carlaw swung round in the doorway, as he put on his hat, and spoke in a less self-confident manner.
"I--I am bound to confess that--that the matter--has troubled me. I had--well, perhaps I hoped great things for the boy, that Fortune might smile on him more kindly than it has done on his wretched father." He laughed, and shrugged his shoulders. "However, that's done with; I desire to hear no more about it. After all, I suppose we all take our throw with the dice at Fortune's table some time or other; if we lose--well, we take our bad luck like gentlemen still."
"Certainly, certainly," murmured the captain.
"I--I believe that I've mentioned--something about the matter to you before our departure for London. Of course, I regard you as--well, may I say?--a friend; and it is hardly necessary for me to add that I have no desire that this matter----"
He was stumbling so awkwardly among his words that the captain came a little stiffly to his relief. "The matter is not one which concerns me," he said, "and as I have been honoured with your confidence, I shall, of course, regard it as a confidence."
Mr. Robert Carlaw's face cleared suddenly, and he darted out a hand and caught that of the captain. "My dear sir, I knew it was unnecessary for me to make such a request. You are very good. Good-night, good-night!" He went swinging away through the garden and down the street, humming a tune as he walked. The captain stood looking after him.
Within a few days matters had settled down to their usual routine. It seemed impossible that Brian could ever have been away, or that it could ever have been suggested that his absence was to be permanent. Comethup was quite glad to have his small circle of friends complete again, and, as Brian himself did not appear to regret the loss of that visionary fortune, Comethup began to think that it could not matter so very greatly after all. In those early days, on which the child looked back so often afterward, there was nothing to mar his peace of mind, now that Brian had been admitted, in a sense, into complete intimacy with them all by his discovery of 'Linda, except one circumstance--a circumstance small enough in itself, but one which troubled him nevertheless.