"Yes, we met Uncle Bob one day." "What! Robert Carlaw? What did _he_ want?" "I don't think he wanted anything," replied Comethup. "He came to a picnic with us--we didn't invite him, but he came--and was very nice." "No, Bob wouldn't want any inviting. It's my honest belief that that man will manage to get into heaven one day by sheer bounce; I don't see how they're to keep him out. So he was very nice, was he?" "Yes, very. He suggested he might be coming to London." Miss Carlaw nodded her head a great many times. "Oh, I dare say. Well, I'm not going to coerce you, or to control your actions in any way, but I wish you to have nothing to do with that man, or with his son. It may be prejudice, and I dare say it's very wrong; but I don't like him, and I never shall, and they won't do you any good. What's the boy doing?" "I believe he's in London," said Comethup. "I know he came to London to make his fortune." "Make his fiddlesticks! That boy'll never make his fortune unless he makes it out of somebody else. I don't want to be uncharitable, Comethup, but he's like his father, and his father shuffles. If you take my advice you'll have nothing to do with either of them. I dare say people would accuse me of injustice, and would say that I ought to have put that boy in the place you occupy. But, in the first place, he's had a father to look after him, and you hadn't; and, in the second place, I'm devilish glad I wasn't such a fool. No, Comethup, I'm quite satisfied with my bargain, and you and I will make the best of life together and have a good time. I look upon you as a man now, although you're young, and shall expect you to behave as a man. Now, I suppose you've spent all your money--there, I don't want to hear details--and want some more? You've left your school days behind now, and I suppose we must treat you differently. Come with me, and we'll see if we can find a cheque for you." He conducted his aunt to a little room where she wrote her letters and transacted her business generally. He had often seen her write, and had been astonished at the ease and accuracy with which she did it--writing on a curious board, with slips of metal, having notches in them, stretched across it; with the aid of this she carried on quite a large correspondence in a clear, neat hand. So used had she become to it that she quite easily fitted in a cheque, seeming to take rapid measurements on it with her fingers, filled it up, signed it, and handed it to him. "There," she said, "that's for fifty pounds. As I've told you, I don't want you to be reckless, but you can have more when you want it. You know where the bank is, and you can drive there whenever you like and cash it. There's only one thing I want you clearly to understand: I want you to be a man and to learn your way about; and I want you to keep a clear and open face to the world and to me. Do that always, and we sha'n't quarrel."