and shades; and Mr Lee, though but little impressed by sight or sound, made himself comfortable, and was content. Only sometimes the remembrance of his conduct to his sister affected him with a slight sensation of remorse; and he had been lately ill, and still was feeble, and he was solitary, and his riches had no heir. These various reasons, acting on each other, had produced the change in his purpose which we have seen--he had written to his nephew to ask for an interview, and now was receiving him at his own request. No such very great change after all, but Mr Lee was always accustomed to cling to all purposes with tenacity. If in the mind of the young man close to him, who sat with his eyelids down-cast, waiting humbly for him to speak, there was being waged a conflict, more uncertain, more terrible, the uncle at any rate saw no signs of it. For the contest between our love and our ambition lies low in our heart, out of reach of human eyes; and the supreme moments in which the fight is hottest pass on without observation from the world. James Gillan gave only one sudden, stifled gasp, as if he had found that there was no air in the room; and then, with his head inclined and his fingers loosely clasped, sat waiting to hear what his companion had to say. For--‘So you have come here, sir,’ said Mr Lee, ‘that’s as it should be, since I have to speak with ye.’ CHAPTER XVI AN OMINOUS CONFLICT AND A FINAL RESOLVE ‘I HAVE come, sir,’ James Gillan said, raising his eyes modestly, ‘in consequence of the letter from yourself which I received to-day. If I had not received it you may be sure that I should not have ventured to intrude upon you.’ He made the statement quietly, and with apparent self-possession, although he knew that a conflict was raging in his heart, from the remembrance of another plan, and of very different hopes, which had nearly reached their fulfilment by the time the letter came. ‘_Oh, would it have been better_,’ this was the cry of the conflict, ‘_if I had made up my mind to that, and had not come here at all?_’ ‘Oh, ah, ye speak well, sir, ye express yourself very well,’--the uncle was only half-pleased with his readiness--‘ye’ll have been educated, I make no doubt of it, and are able to have opinions for yourself. When my poor sister would go off with a stranger it was never my thought that she went to luxury, but ye and the girl seem to have been brought up easy-like, and to have had your share of the pleasures o’ the world. I hope as ye’ve had some real instruction too, to which ye can turn your heads and hands to-day.’