‘Of course not. You wish to repay me, as you call it, Hugo. The only way in which you can do it is to let me watch your future, as I have always hoped to do, till you are famous, and I am known as your greatest friend, eh?’ Hugo smiled faintly. ‘Your mother despises me,’ he began. Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. ‘My dear boy, you must have seen that my mother is by no means graciously disposed towards any one or anything that I may have the misfortune to be fond of. As I like you better almost than any one, she naturally dislikes you proportionately. It is not a pleasant thing to have to say, but it is true. Surely, if you and I understand each other, it does not matter what outsiders think of us.’ ‘No,’ said Hugo, and once more there was heartiness and confidence in his tone. ‘Forgive me my folly. It is over now.’ ‘I thank you for making such a sacrifice to me.... When I came into the room it was to see what you were doing, as you didn’t appear at dinner. And, behold, nearly an hour has passed. The carriage will be here in ten minutes.’ ‘I don’t think I shall go.’ ‘Pray do, though, or I shall have to think that this reconciliation is only a sham one after all. Besides, Helena’s _beaux yeux_ will not turn very amiably towards me, if I come without you.’ ‘It depends upon yourself how Helena’s _beaux yeux_ regard you,’ said Hugo; ‘but I will go. It would be insulting to her if I did not. I’ll get ready now.’ ‘I must do the same,’ said Sebastian, leaving the room. Hugo proceeded to dress himself. He found himself looking back upon the afternoon, when he had sat playing waltzes, as if it had been separated by years from the evening, and his present self was a stranger to himself of yesterday. It was quite true. These few short hours had transformed him from a boy to a man. The process, which in some cases is one of such prolonged, lingering growth, had been with him effected at a leap, a single bound. The change proved itself most in the fact that he accepted the cross laid upon him; he felt himself possessed of that goodly, manly virtue, the ability to wait; two days ago he would have tried to rush away from pain and difficulty--now he could shake hands with them. As he dressed, he planned his course as it should be, subject to circumstances; not with the furious, fitful temper of an hour ago, but with calm, manly reasonableness and judgment. When the carriage came round they stood in the hall, and Mrs. Mallory looked curiously at his pale, altered, composed countenance; but she saw in an instant, by the look that passed between him and Sebastian, that all was perfectly clear between them. The sweet accord of two noble natures was a thing beyond her power to grasp; but she saw that she had not succeeded in separating them, and recognised that she had done her cause no service by her interference. CHAPTER XVI. HOW HELENA CAME INTO HER FORTUNE.