‘He knows I wouldn’t set my foot inside Thorsgarth, and he knows, too, that he need never again darken the door of his brother; so we have to sneak into a public room, where there is neutral ground. It is an odious state of things, and I shall be glad to be out of it.’ He had not long to wait. Gilbert arrived directly afterwards, and looked pleased to see him. ‘I am much obliged to you for coming,’ began Gilbert. ‘It gives me hopes that I shall be successful in my errand.’ ‘I thought you would want to know how the books stand and so on, for the benefit of my successor, when he arrives.’ ‘Of course that will be necessary, but it is not what I came about to-day. I won’t waste words in telling you how annoyed, and more than annoyed I have been—I may say mortified and disgusted, at what has just taken place. I know the value of your services, and that this is no fitting recompense for them.’ ‘I don’t know about the value of my services, but I feel as if I had been rubbed the wrong way, and that by no means gently,’ said Roger. ‘Of course. And you will naturally be unwilling to remain without a situation longer than is necessary.’ ‘Naturally. I have done nothing about it yet, because nobody wants to hear about such things at Christmas-time; but I thought of advertising, or perhaps writing to my former employers directly.’ ‘Yes, of course you could do that. But I have it on my conscience that it was to oblige me and to do me a service that you left those former employers, and it must be my business not to let you suffer for that.’ ‘You are very kind,’ said Roger, perfectly appreciating the unusual nature of this long memory. ‘Very kind, you are; but I don’t see how any one could hold you responsible for what has happened, or consider it your fault if a man whom I have had to do with is such a blackguard, and shows his blackguardism in such an offensive manner that I have to leave him. I’ve had my wages for more than six years, and——’ ‘You have done a great deal more than that. You have stuck to the affair from the beginning, and worked it through good and bad, till from a doubtful venture you have made it into a profitable business. Any common foreman might have stayed in his place and taken his wages. You have been something different. But there is no need to beat about the bush. I have a proposal to make to you. I have had a fair measure of success in the business in which I am engaged. I think of finally settling accounts with Mr. Askam, who has never cared for business of that kind. I shall pay him the remainder of the capital and interest still owing to him, and continue to work the mills on my own account; and I thought that under those circumstances you might consent to remain, since you would have the entire management of the concern, and of course a share in the profits, and would have absolutely nothing further to do with Otho Askam. What do you say to it?’