"They will be busy days for you." "Desperately." "Yet you must spare me a part of one, and teach me to keep accounts," said she, and smiled bravely albeit her face was wan. Chapter III. MISCALCULATING WRATH. Mr. Langton sat in his private apartment by Boston Quay trying the balance of a malacca cane. Sir Oliver had sailed a week ago. Mr. Langton had walked down to the ship with him and taken his farewell instructions. "By the way," said Sir Oliver, "I want you to make occasion to visit Eagles now and again, and pay your respects. I shall write to you as well as to her; and the pair of you can exchange news from your letters. She likes you." "I hope so," answered Langton, "because 'tis an open secret that I adore her." Sir Oliver smiled, a trifle ruefully. "Then you'll understand how it hits a man to leave her. Maybe--for I had meant to make you paymaster in my absence--you'll also forgive me for having changed my mind?" "I'd have called you a damned fool if you hadn't," said Langton equably. "She's your wife, hang it all: and I'll lay you five pounds you'll return to find her with hair dishevelled over your monstrous careless bookkeeping. My dear Noll, a woman--a good woman--is never completely happy till convinced that she, and only she, has saved the man she loves from ruin; and, what's more, she's a fool if she can't prove it." "Nevertheless she's a beginner; and I'll be glad of your promise to run over from time to time. A question or two will soon discover if things are running on an even keel." "I shall attempt no method so coarse," Langton assured him. "I don't want to be ordered out of the house--must I repeat that I adore her? It may be news to you that she repays my attachment with a certain respect. . . . Should she find herself in any difficulty--and she will not--I shall be sent for and consulted. In any event, fond man, you may count on my calling." As they shook hands Sir Oliver asked, "Don't you envy me, Batty?" "Constantly and in everything," answered Langton; "though--ass that I am--I have rather prided myself on concealing it." "I mean, don't you wish that you, and not I, were sailing for England? For that matter, though, there's nothing prevents you." "Oh yes--there is." "What, then?" "Use and wont, if you will; indolence, if you choose; affection for you, Noll, if you prefer it." "That had been an excellent reason for coming with me." "It may be a better one for staying. . . . Well, as you walk up St. James's, give it my regards." "For so fine an intelligence Noll can be infernally crass at times," muttered Mr. Langton to himself as he walked back to his lodgings.