There was a moment’s pause, during which Mrs. Romayne’s eyes were fixed upon him with concentration enough in them now; and then she broke into a light laugh, and leaning suddenly forward laid one of her hands on his. “Poor old boy!” she said, in a tone half mocking, half sympathising. “It was very hard on you, wasn’t it? It’s a cruel fate that makes young men so ineligible, and girls so pretty, and throws the two perversely together! If you’ve any thought to spare from yourself, sir, though, I think you should bestow a little gratitude upon me for my very timely arrival!” She laughed again, and in her laugh, as in her voice, there was the faintest possible touch of reality, and that reality was anxiety. Then, as Julian twisted his hand from under hers with a gruff and almost inaudible: “I don’t see that!” she leant back in her seat again with a smile. “My dear boy,” she said gaily; “it’s a very sad position for you, I admit; but for the present you’re dependent on your mother--not such a very stingy mother, eh, sir? I think you’ll find it will be all right for you, when the right young woman turns up, as no doubt she will some day. Perhaps you’ll find that your mother won’t abdicate so very ungracefully. But, you see, it must be the right young woman!” In spite of the laugh in it, there was a ring in the tone in which the words were spoken which was full of significance, and the significance and the laughter seemed to be doing battle together as Mrs. Romayne went on, ignoring Julian’s interjection: “I don’t think you would have found it a very pleasant situation, to be engaged to Miss Newton with the prospect before you of keeping her waiting until you had made your fortune at the bar; and I’m sorry to say I don’t share your conviction of the moment, that she is the right young woman. She is very pretty, I allow, and a very nice girl, no doubt.” Mrs. Romayne’s voice grew a little hard as she said the last words. “But she’s not at all the sort of girl that I should like you to marry. She has no money, in the first place.” “I have enough for both,” said Julian impetuously, and then stopped short and coloured crimson. His mother broke into a merry laugh. “No, poor boy!” she said. “I have enough for both! That’s just what I want you to remember in your intercourse with pretty girls. After all, you know, the position has its advantages! You may flirt as much as you like while you’re known to be dependent on your mother, and no one will take you too seriously.”