He knew nothing about Christopher, for himself. He had seemed to look at his little brother down avenues, from a distance, the child misbehaving himself. Not a true Tietjens: born very late: a mother's child, therefore, rather than a father's. The mother an admirable woman, but from the South Riding. Soft, therefore, and ample. The elder Tietjens' children, when they had experienced failures, had been wont to blame their father for not marrying a woman of their own Riding. So, for himself, he knew nothing of this boy. He was said to be brilliant: an un-Tietjens-like quality. Akin to talkativeness! . . . Well, he wasn't talkative. Mark said: "What have you done with all the brass our mother left you? Twenty thousand, wasn't it?" They were just passing through a narrow way between Georgian houses. In the next quadrangle Tietjens stopped and looked at his brother. Mark stood still to be looked at. Christopher said to himself: "This man has the right to ask these questions!" It was as if a queer slip had taken place in a moving-picture. This fellow had become the head of the house: he, Christopher, was the heir. At that moment, their father, in the grave four months now, was for the first time dead. Christopher remembered a queer incident. After the funeral, when they had come back from the churchyard and had lunched, Mark--and Tietjens could now see the wooden gesture--had taken out his cigar-case and, selecting one cigar for himself, had passed the rest round the table. It was as if people's hearts had stopped beating. Groby had never, till that day, been smoked in: the father had had his twelve pipes filled and put in the rose-bushes in the drive. . . . It had been regarded merely as a disagreeable incident: a piece of bad taste. . . . Christopher, himself, only just back from France, would not even have known it as such, his mind was so blank, only the parson had whispered to him: "And Groby never smoked in till this day." But now! It appeared a symbol, and an absolutely right symbol. Whether they liked it or not, here were the head of the house and the heir. The head of the house must make his arrangements, the heir agree or disagree; but the elder brother had the right to have his enquiries answered. Christopher said: "Half the money was settled at once on my child. I lost seven thousand in Russian securities. The rest I spent. . . ." Mark said: "Ah!" They had just passed under the arch that leads into Holborn. Mark, in turn, stopped and looked at his brother and Christopher stood still to be inspected, looking into his brother's eyes. Mark said to himself: "The fellow isn't at least afraid to look at you!" He had been convinced that Christopher would be. He said: "You spent it on women? Or where do you get the money that you spend on women?" Christopher said: "I never spent a penny on a woman in my life." Mark said: "Ah!" They crossed Holborn and went by the backways towards Fleet Street. Christopher said: