"Well, and that's so, too," laughed Jack. "You must give a fellow time, Mr. Dalrymple!" "Do you know what I thought when I met you yesterday?" continued Dalrymple, turning his back to the moon, and looking very hard at Jack while he sucked at his cigar with his thick, strong lips. "Do you know how you struck me then? I thought you'd neither acquired a taste for your new life nor conquered your affection for the old. That's how you struck me in Devenholme yesterday." Jack made no haste to reply. He was not at all astonished at the impression he had created the day before. But his old boss was still the one man before whom he was anxious to display a modicum of dignity, even at the expense of a pose. And it is noteworthy that he had neither confided in Dalrymple concerning his dilemma of the previous day, nor yet so much as mentioned in his hearing the model hut among the pines. "I don't wonder," he said at length; "it was the way I was likely to strike you just then. Don't you see? I hadn't got it out at the time!" "So it was only the girl that was on your nerves?" said Dalrymple in disgust. "And wasn't that enough? If I'm a different man to-day, you know the reason why. As for being happy in my position, and all that, I'm simply in paradise at this moment. Think of it! Think of me as I was, and look at me as I am; think of my little hut on Carara, and look behind you at Maske Towers!" They were on the terrace now, leaning idly against the balustrade. Dalrymple turned and looked: like Melrose Abbey, the grand grey building was at its best in the "pale moonlight"; the lichened embrasures met the soft sky softly; the piercing spires were sheathed in darkness; and the mountainous pile wore one uniform tint, from which the lighted windows stood out like pictures on a wall. Dalrymple looked, and looked again; then his hard eyes fell upon the rude ecstasy of the face beside him; and they were less hard than before. "You may make yourself easy," said the squatter. "I shan't stay long." "What the blazes do you mean?" cried Jack. "I want you to stay as long as ever you can." "You may; your friends do not." "Hang my friends!" "I should enjoy nothing better; but it isn't practicable. Besides, they're a good deal more than your friends now; they are--her people. And they don't like the man who was once your boss; he offends their pride----" "Mr. Dalrymple----" "Enough said, my boy. I know my room, and I'm going to turn in. We'll talk it over again in the morning; but my mind is made up. Good-night!" "I'll come in with you." "As you like." They parted at the visitor's door. "You'll disappoint me cruel if you _do_ go," said Jack, shaking hands. "I'm quite sure you're mistaken about my friends; Olivia, for one, thinks no end of you. However, as you say, we can talk it over in the morning--when you've got to see the pictures as well, and don't you forget it! So long, sir, till then."