‘I am glad to hear there is plenty of work,’ said Myles. ‘I was to have left here in a couple of days for a holiday. Suppose I went to Thanshope direct, instead of Berlin, and the other places I had thought of. That would leave the field clear to Herr Süsmeyer and his son, and I could get to work at once.’ ‘Better take the holiday first, hadn’t you?’ said Sebastian. ‘It may be long enough before you have the chance of another.’ ‘Thank you; but I would much rather go straight to work. The holiday was none of my seeking. It was Herr Süsmeyer’s doing.’ ‘Very well. I will telegraph to Wilson that you will be there in a few days, and he must have the books ready for you. I will just give you an idea of how we stand at present, and leave you to shake down before I come back, eh?’ said Sebastian, with as much nonchalance as if he had been proposing nothing more difficult than that they should take a stroll together. He knew, this astute young man, the kind of nature he was dealing with. To have proposed coming to Thanshope with Myles, and there standing by him and smoothing out his way for him, would have been in the highest degree distasteful to the latter. The charge imposed upon him was a heavy one; it promised him arduous and incessant occupation for some time, at least until Sebastian’s return from abroad. Already the idea of Thanshope looked less like a grim phantom. The way became more practicable. He brightened visibly, to Sebastian’s private amusement. ‘Yes. How soon will you return?’ ‘It is impossible to say. It will depend a great deal upon the reports you send me. This is my wedding tour, really, though it has had a queer beginning, and I think my wife has a right to complain of being dragged about to German manufacturing towns in order to settle business matters, when I promised to take her to the Italian Lakes. We shall try to go on there, and to Switzerland, and make a regular holiday of it, before coming back to settle really to business. You will do the best you can.’ ‘Yes, of course,’ said Myles. ‘I hope and think that my reports will allow you to take a pretty long holiday.’ ‘Then I can go,’ said Sebastian. ‘We leave to-morrow morning. Suppose you come up to Herr Süsmeyer’s to supper to-night, as you did last night, and we will take an hour afterwards for business--yes? And now I must be off.’ These rapidly made arrangements were all faithfully carried out. In less than a week Myles, armed with Sebastian’s explanations and instructions, was on his way to Thanshope. CHAPTER IV. ‘Yet, ere the phantoms flee, Which that house, and heath, and garden, made dear to thee erewhile, Thy remembrance, and repentance, and deep musings are not free From the music of two voices, and the light of one sweet smile.’