Denis caught his mother to his breast, and then hurried out of the room, to go and order the valet to pack up his portmanteau and send it across to the station; and then he went off across the park, to see the Salados and say good-bye. VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SEVEN. GOOD-BYE. "Back again so soon, Mr Rolleston?" said the Doctor, as Denis presented himself before the father and daughter; Veronica having risen from her seat and laid her hand upon her father's shoulder, reading at once in their visitor's eyes that something serious was the cause of his visit. "Yes, sir: I have come to say good-bye to you both." "For good?" said the Doctor, taking his child's hand and pressing it warmly. "I hope for good," said Denis, smiling encouragingly at Veronica. "I am going abroad." "What for?" "The same reason that others go for, sir. To make my fortune." "You! I thought you were Lord Pinemount's heir." "So I am, sir; but my father may live twenty or thirty years,--I hope he may,--and I have nothing now except what I earn." "Humph! then you have come to an open rupture with him?" "No, sir; he has come to an open rupture with me." "Because you come here?" "Because I refuse to obey him and make matrimonial overtures to a lady I dislike." "Overture to a very bad opera, eh?" "I could not do it, sir. It would be base, contemptible, and--There-- you know." "Humph! Then you have beggared yourself because you think you care for Veronica?" "No, sir; I am ordered away till I go and beg pardon and promise to marry as my father orders; so there is a breach that will never be healed." "Better go and heal it. This is all very fresh. Very will soon forget you, and you'll forget her." "Doctor Salado!" "Well, I know the world, sir. Sad thing for a young man like you to sacrifice his prospects." "I don't agree with you, sir. It is the best thing that could have happened, and will make a man of me. I shall go to Canada or Vancouver, I think; and in justice to Miss Salado I have come to say that I bind her by no promise,--I only trust in her faith. Some day I shall return to ask her to be my wife. Till then--" He could not finish, but stood with his lips compressed. "Humph! Well, I think you are quite right, sir. Come, Very, be a woman. How much capital have you to take with you?" "None, sir." "Then you'll want some five hundred or a thousand. I have the latter amount, and no particular use for it. I'll lend it to you at five per cent." "Thank you, sir," said Denis warmly, "but I must decline. I'll go and fight the battle for myself, and prove to my father that I am not the weak boy he thinks." "Quite right. Go and fight the battle for yourself." "Papa!" whispered Veronica, with a look of agony in her eyes.