"Well, I don't want to be worried with these matters: it's enough for me to think of poor Valentine's things. Only two days now before he starts. And what wretched weather it is!" "Valentine says he shall not take much luggage with him. He saw me counting his shirts, and he said they were too many by half." "And who will supply him with shirts out there, do you suppose?" demanded Mrs. Chandler. "You talk nothing but nonsense, Julietta. Where _is_ Valentine? He ought to be here, with all this packing to do. He must have been gone out these two hours." "He said he had business at Islip." Mrs. Chandler looked gloomy at the answer. She hated the very name of Islip: partly because they held no longer any part in the place, partly because the Bell was in it. But Valentine had not gone to the Bell this time. His visit was to his cousin Tom; and his errand was to beg of Tom to give or lend him a fifty-pound note before sailing. "I shall have next to nothing in my pocket, Tom, when I land," he urged, as the two sat together in Tom's private room. "If I get on over there, I will pay you back. If I don't--well, perhaps you won't grudge having helped me for the last time." For a moment Tom did not answer. He sat before his desk-table, Valentine near him: just as Valentine had one day sat at his desk in his private room, and Tom had been the petitioner, not so many years gone by. Valentine looked upon the silence as an ill-omen. "You have all the business that once was mine in your fingers now, Tom. It has left me for you." "But not by any wish or seeking of mine, Valentine; you know that," spoke Tom readily, turning his honest eyes and kindly face on the fallen man. "I wish you were in your office still. There's plenty of work for both of us." "Well, I am not in it; and you have got it all. You might lend me such a poor little sum as fifty pounds." "Of course I mean to lend it: but I was thinking. Look here, Valentine. I will not give it you now; you cannot want it before sailing: and you might lose it on board," he added laughing. "You shall carry with you an order upon my brother George for one hundred pounds." "Will George pay it?" "I will take care of that. He shall receive a letter from me by the same mail that takes you out. Stay, Valentine. I will give you the order now." He wrote what was necessary, sealed it up, and handed it over. Valentine thanked him. "How is Emma?" he asked as he rose. "And the boy?" "Quite well, thank you: both. Will you not go in and see them?" "I think not. You can say good-bye for me. I don't much care to trouble people." "God bless you, Valentine," said Tom, clasping his hand. "You will begin life anew over there, and may have a happy one yet. One of these days you will be coming back to us, a prosperous man."