"In coming up to-day, I heard a few words in the train," went on Tod. "Two fellows were talking, and they brought up a man's name in a disparaging manner. It is a friend of yours, Bill; and Johnny and I had a precious discussion, I can tell you, as to whether we should repeat it to you or not." "Was it my name?" asked Bill. "What could they have to say against me?" "No, no; they'd have got an answer from me had it been yours. First of all, we thought of mentioning it to Sir John; but I did not like to, and that's the truth. So we just concluded to put it before you, as one of ourselves, and you can tell him if you like." "All right," said Bill. "Go ahead." Tod told him all from beginning to end. Not that it was very much to tell: but he brought in our own conversation; the delicacy we felt in speaking at all, and the arguments for and against. Bill was not in the least put out; rather wondered, I thought, that we should be. "It can't be Dick Foliott, you know," said he. "There's not anything against him; impossible that there should be." "I am glad you say so," cried Tod, relieved. "It was only for Helen's sake we gave a thought to it." "The name was the same, you see--Foliott," I put in. "And that man is going to be married as well as this one." "True," answered Bill, slowly. "Still I feel sure it is quite impossible that it can be Foliott. If--if you think I had better mention it, I will. I'll mention it to himself." "I should," said I eagerly, for somehow my doubts of the man were growing larger. "Better be on the safe side. You don't know much about him, after all, Bill." "Not know much about him! What do you mean, Johnny? We know enough. He is Riverside's nephew, a very respectable old Scotch peer, and he is Foliott the mill-owner's nephew; and I'm sure _he_ is to be respected, if it's only for the money he has made. And Dick has a very fair income of his own, and settles ten thousand pounds upon Helen, and will come into a hundred thousand by-and-by, or more. What would you have?" I could not say what I would have; but the uneasiness lay on my mind. Tod spoke. "The men alluded to conduct, I expect, Bill; not to means. They spoke of that Foliott as an out-and-out scamp, and called the girl he was going to marry 'Poor thing,' in a piteous tone. You wouldn't like that applied to Helen." "By Jove, no. Better be on the safe side, as Johnny says. We'll say nothing to my father at present; but you and I, Tod, will quietly repeat to Foliott what you heard, and we'll put it to him, as man to man, to tell us in all honour whether the words could have related to himself. Of course the idea is altogether absurd; we will tell him that, and beg his pardon." So that was resolved upon. And a great relief it was. To decide upon a course of action, in any unpleasant difficulty, takes away half its discomfort.