Oscar could be thankful for this. He had seen just enough of life in his year at Oxford, and in the examination, under the lawyer’s direction, into his father’s involved affairs, to be aware that its battle could be a very hard and strenuous matter, and that his father had been carried away by the tide of misfortune instead of seeking to stem it. He could almost feel thankful that he was not called upon to fight any arduous up-hill battle—that things had gone so far that nothing would avail but a clean sweep. Oscar loved his home—loved it almost as well as Sheila did. If he could have lived peacefully and prosperously there, as his fathers had apparently done before him, he would have asked nothing better, and would have sought to do his duty to those about and beneath him. But he had an elastic and hopeful temperament, and he did not dislike the prospect of a complete change in his manner of life. He had a turn for electrical engineering, and his uncle had said something about an electrical branch in the works of Cossart & Sons. Congenial employment might be found for him, he thought. He had been through much sorrow of heart and worry of mind during the past weeks since his father’s death; but now he was beginning to see his way out of the tangle, and to look forward hopefully to what lay beyond. [Illustration: BROTHER AND SISTER.] Sheila’s thoughts had also gone off on a private expedition. But, after a short pause, she spoke with great decision. “I shall never marry, Oscar. Marrying makes people stupid. I know that, because all the girls who go and get married are quite spoiled directly. It begins as soon as they are engaged. Besides, most of them go away, and one forgets about them. I shall be an old maid, and keep your house for you. It will be something to look forward to whilst I am living with Uncle Cossart. Why can’t I go to Uncle Tom’s with you? It would be so much more amusing.” “Well, they seem to have it all arranged for us, and we can’t exactly ask them to alter. But we’ll see all about it when Uncle Tom comes. He’ll tell us everything.”