“You’re a little goose to come up to town without money,” said Arthur, as he skinned three notes from his pocketbook. “Here is enough to keep you happy for the rest of your life.” “Would fifteen pounds do that?” she laughed, and was going, when she remembered.… Arthur listened in amazement to the news she had to give. “Gilder has bought a house at Chelfordbury? Impossible!” he said. “He would have told me. Why the dickens does he want a house?--besides, he has no money.” “Hasn’t he?” she asked, in surprise. Arthur scratched his chin irritably. “I suppose the beggar has; but a house at Chelfordbury--that is extraordinary! I wasn’t even aware that he knew the place.” “He is the man who has been staying at Ravensrill Cottage all the summer,” she said. “The fisherman!” He whistled. “What a close bird he is! Of course,” he went on quickly, “there is nothing wrong in a man wanting to live at Chelfordbury, and there’s no reason in life why he shouldn’t buy a house. But what a sly old fox!” He was troubled; she saw that he was trying to hide it behind a flippancy that was transparent to her. “I knew, of course, that somebody had rented the fisherman’s cottage, as they call it, and to think that he’s been down all these months and never once given himself away!” “He has a car, if he’s the same man who was living at the cottage,” she nodded. “Dick Alford is furious!” Arthur chuckled. “Poor old Dick!” he said good-humouredly. “He loathes this residential idea, and when I put forward a scheme to cut up one of his northern estates into residential properties, he nearly bit my head off. Harry would have done it like a shot, and I hope, my dear, when you’re married you’ll persuade him…” He waited expectantly. “Yes--when I am married,” she said, and her tone made him glance at her keenly. But he was wise enough to skim over that subject. “Dick, of course, is a fool,” he said, with good-natured contempt. “He has a blind faith in the future of agriculture in this country, and grudges every acre that’s taken out of cultivation. And yet, if you were to put up a scheme to build huge blocks of cottages to relieve the slum congestion, or something equally quixotic and unprofitable, he would jump at the idea. I can well understand that the mere thought of a successful lawyer’s clerk setting himself up as a country gentleman would make Dick foam at the mouth!” “He wasn’t foaming when I left him,” she said drily. “When you left him?” He was quick to take a point. “Yes, he came down to the station with me.” And she could not account for her momentary feeling of embarrassment. He was still searching her face, and then, laying his hands on her shoulders, he shook her gently. “Old girl,” he said, “keep your mind off the Second Son! He’s a good-looking fellow, and side by side with his brother there’s no question of choice! But he’s a second son, which means that he’s next door to being broke. And you can’t live on good looks or----”