Madelaine's arms were round her father's neck. "You have made me feel very happy and satisfied, my dear, and may Heaven speed what is going to be a very arduous task." Just then Mrs Van Heldre raised her head and looked round. "Bless my heart!" she exclaimed. "I do believe I have nearly been to sleep." Volume 1, Chapter VIII. UNCLE LUKE SPEAKS HIS MIND. "Hallo, Scotchman!" "Hallo, Eng--I mean French--What am I to call you, Mr Luke Vine?" "Englishman, of course." Uncle Luke was seated, in a very shabby-looking grey tweed Norfolk jacket made long, a garment which suited his tastes, from its being an easy comfortable article of attire. He had on an old Panama hat, a good deal stained, and had a thick stick armed with a strong iron point useful for walking among the rocks, and upon this staff he rested as he sat outside his cottage door watching the sea and pondering as to the probability of a shoal of fish being off the point. His home with its tiny scrap of rough walled-in garden, which grew nothing but sea holly and tamarisk, was desolate-looking in the extreme, but the view therefrom of the half natural pier sheltering the vessels in the harbour of the twin town was glorious. He had had his breakfast and taken his seat out in the sunshine, when he became aware of the fact that Duncan Leslie was coming down from the mine buildings above, and he hailed him with a snarl and the above words. "Glorious morning." "Humph! Yes, but what's that got to do with you?" "Everything. Do you suppose I don't like fine weather?" "I thought you didn't care for anything but money-grubbing." "Then you were mistaken, because I do." "Nonsense! You think of nothing but copper, spoiling the face of nature with the broken rubbish your men dig out of the bowels of the earth, poisoning the air with the fumes of those abominable furnaces. Look at that!" The old man raised his stick and made a vicious dig with it in the direction of the mine. "Look at what?" "That shaft. Looks like some huge worm that your men disturbed down below, and sent it crawling along the hill slope till it could rear its abominable head in the air and look which way to go to be at rest." "It was there when I took the mine, and it answers its purpose." "Bah! What purpose? To make money?" "Yes; to make money. Very useful thing, Mr Luke." "Rubbish! You're as bad as Van Heldre with his ships and his smelting works. Money! Money! Money! Always money, morning, noon, and night. One constant hunt for the accursed stuff. Look at me!" "I was looking at you, old fellow; and studying you." "Humph! Waste of time, unless you follow my example." "Then it will be waste of time, sir, for I certainly shall not follow your example."