"Turn him out of it, then. Bah! You weak idiot! You imagine twice as much as you have any grounds for. Take my advice, or leave it--I don't care which. I only give you the hint for your own sake. Puss, puss, puss!" He got up, opened the window, and the cats came trooping in, to leap upon him and show their delight, while he petted first one and then another as they thrust their heads into his hands, Tom sitting back and watching him the while. "Curious, isn't it?" said Hopper, chuckling. "But a man must have friends. I've got very few, so I take to cats, and they are as faithful as truth. Capital things to keep, Tom, my lad. Only behave well to them, and it don't matter how great a scoundrel you are, they never find you out, nor believe what the world says--they stick to you to the end." Tom took another glance round the quaint room, to see dozens of fresh objects at every look--old china, ancient weapons, curious watches, besides articles of vertu that must have been of great value; and the old fellow chuckled as he saw the direction of his glances. "Queer place to live in, Tom, and queer things about Look at this, my lad: here's my will. I keep it in this old canister, just where it can be found--ready for my executors. What! Hey? Going? Well, good-bye. Come again--often--I shall be glad to see you." "Do you mean this?" said Tom, returning the old man's warm pressure of the hand. "Hey?" "I say, do you mean it?" "Oh yes! I heard. Mean it? Of course I do, man, or I shouldn't ask you. Only come in a sensible way, not in a ghostly form. None of your drowned ghosts, without their noses. I mean you in the flesh, not in the spirit." "You need have no fear," said Tom sadly. "My mad fit is past. I should not be guilty of such folly." "I should think not!" said Hopper, laughing. "We make nearly all our own troubles, my boy; and then men are such cowards that they run away from them. Have another cigar? That's right--light up. Good-bye, lad. I say, why don't you go round by your uncle's house, and have a peep at some one's window? There, be off; you're a poor coward of a lover, after all!" VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER TWELVE. PRIVATE INQUIRY. Several weeks passed. Jessie seemed to have received a serious shock from the encounter that had taken place at her father's house; and for days together she would be depressed, silent, and stand at the window watching, as if in expectation of some one coming. Then an interval of feverish gaiety would set in, during which, with brightened eye, she would chat and play and sing, showing so much excitement that Dick would shake his head to his wife and declare it was a bad sign. "It's all fretting, mother," he would say. "She's thinking of that scamp Fred." Whereupon Mrs Shingle would shake her head in turn, and declare tartly that he knew nothing at all about it, for she was sure it was Tom.