"Somers is out there. Will you let him do it?" "No. I wonder, Herbert, that you can tease me so. Let the man be sent in here. But, oh, Herbert--Herbert--!" The young man rushed round and kneeled at his father's knee. "What is it, father? Why will you not tell me? I know you have some grief, and cannot you trust me? Do you not know that you can trust me?" "My poor boy, my poor boy!" "What is it, father? If this man here is concerned in it, let me see him." "No, no, no." "Or at any rate let me be with you when he is here. Let me share your trouble if I can do nothing to cure it." "Herbert, my darling, leave me and send him in. If it be necessary that you should bear this calamity, it will come upon you soon enough." "But I am afraid of this man--for your sake, father." "He will do me no harm; let him come to me. But, Herbert, say nothing to Somers about this. Somers has not seen the man; has he?" "Yes; we both spoke to him together as he drove up the avenue." "And what did he say? Did he say anything?" "Nothing but that he wanted to see you, and then he gave his card to Mr. Somers. Mr. Somers wished to save you from the annoyance." "Why should it annoy me to see any man? Let Mr. Somers mind his own business. Surely I can have business of my own without his interference." With this Herbert left his father, and returned to the hall-door to usher in Mr. Mollett junior. "Well?" said Mr. Somers, who was standing by the hall fire, and who joined Herbert at the front door. "My father will see the man." "And have you learned who he is?" "I have learned nothing but this--that Sir Thomas does not wish that we should inquire. Now, Mr. Mollett, Sir Thomas will see you; so you can come down. Make haste now, and remember that you are not to stay long, for my father is ill." And then leading Aby through the hall and along a passage, he introduced him into Sir Thomas's room. "And Herbert--" said the father; whereupon Herbert again turned round. His father was endeavouring to stand, but supporting himself by the back of his chair. "Do not disturb me for half an hour; but come to me then, and knock at the door. This gentleman will have done by that time." "If we do not put a stop to this, your father will be in a mad-house or on his death-bed before long." So spoke Mr. Somers in a low, solemn whisper when Herbert again joined him at the hall-door. "Sit down, sir; sit down," said Sir Thomas, endeavouring to be civil and to seem at his ease at the same time. Aby was himself so much bewildered for the moment, that he hardly perceived the embarrassment under which the baronet was labouring. Aby sat down, in the way usual to such men in such places, on the corner of his chair, and put his hat on the ground between his feet. Then he took out his handkerchief and blew his nose, and after that he expressed an opinion that he was in the presence of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald. "And you are Mr. Abraham Mollett," said Sir Thomas.