Mark saw that his uncle was seriously annoyed, and hastened to soothe his ruffled dignity--a task which was by no means easy. 'It isn't as if I needed to talk to him either,' he persisted. 'I've a friend of my own to see off, that's why I'm here at this time (Liverpool _he's_ goin' to),' he added, with some obscure sense of superiority implied in this fact; 'and let me tell you, he's a man that's looked up to by every one there, is Budkin, and'll be mayor before he dies! And another thing let me say to you, Mark. In the course of my life I've picked up, 'ere and there, some slight knowledge of human character, and I read faces as easy as print. Now I don't like the look of that friend of yours.' 'Do you mean Caffyn?' asked Mark. 'I don't know _him_; no, I mean that down-lookin' chap you introduced to me--'Olroyd, isn't it? Well, don't you have too much to do with him--there's something in his eye I don't fancy; he ain't to be trusted, and you mind what I say.' 'Well,' said Mark, 'I can promise you that I shall see no more of him than I can help in future, if that's any relief to your mind.' 'You stick to that then, and--'ullo, there is Budkin come at last! You come along with me and I'll introduce you (he's not what you call a refined sort of feller, yer know,' he explained forbearingly, 'but still we've always been friends in a way); you can't stop? Must go back to Miss Mabel, hey? Well, well, I won't keep yer; good-bye till the day after to-morrow then, and don't you forgit what you'd 'a been if you'd been thrown on the world without an uncle--there'd be no pretty Miss Mabel for you then, whatever you may think about it, young chap!' When Mark made his appearance at Kensington Park Gardens again, Dolly watched his face anxiously, longing to ask if Vincent had really gone at last, but somehow she was afraid. And so, as the time went by, and no Vincent Holroyd came to the door to denounce her, she took comfort and never knew how her fears were shared by her new brother-in-law. CHAPTER XXXI. AGAG.