‘Well, explain me this then—if so be he will not oppose our marriage, why doth he hasten from London at first hint of your meeting me?’ ‘He could not forbid it did he understand all I shall tell him; ’twould not be like my father to do so. Phil, you do not know him. You do not guess even at his generous heart—you——’ ‘Generous!’ laughed Phil; ‘no, no, not so generous as that.’ ‘Phil, I shall see him—whatever you say, I shall see him!’ cried Carrie, and she tried once more to escape towards the door. And Phil, fairly mastered now by his temper, flung the door wide open, crying out: ‘Go to him then, if you love him the best.’ A moment later he saw Carrie swirl down the narrow panelled passage of the inn into the very arms of Sebastian, who had appeared at the far end of it. ‘Lord, Carrie!’ he heard Sebastian exclaim, as he laughed his jolly whole-hearted laugh and kissed his daughter on either cheek with more fervour than gentility. Then there was an incoherent murmur of exclamation and sobs from Carrie, then Sebastian’s voice again:— ‘And how are you here, my girl? Have you run away from her Ladyship and the influenza?’ ‘Yes, sir—with Philip Meadowes, sir,’ said Carrie, whose downright nature equalled her father’s. Phil held his breath to hear what Sebastian would reply. ‘And where is Philip Meadowes?’ he heard Sebastian say. A minute later Carrie came into the parlour, leading her father by the hand. There fell a moment of ominous silence. Neither of the men spoke, but Carrie, as she took a hand of each, and looked from one to the other in puzzled, pretty confusion, was the first to speak. ‘This is Philip, sir,’ she said; ‘and indeed I am sure you cannot choose but love him.’ ‘There may be two opinions on that point mayhap,’ said Sebastian grimly. For all the antagonism of their mutual relations at the moment, Phil, with his extraordinarily sensitive nature, felt a sudden impulse of liking to this man, Carrie’s father. ‘Why have I not a father like that?’ he thought—‘some one to rely on without a shadow of distrust.’ Poor Philip, for all his charm, was sadly alone in the difficult places of life, and youth, in spite of all its self-assertion, is conscious enough of its own need. Beside this resolute masterful man, Phil felt himself, of a sudden, boyish and foolish, as he had never felt before. But, assuming a great deal more self-confidence than he felt, he bowed to Dr. Shepley and ‘feared the circumstances of their meeting would scarce conduce to an agreeable acquaintance between them.’