"I--I'm very well, thank you; only a little tired." Mr. Robert Carlaw shook his head plaintively. "Ah, the weight of wealth, the responsibility of it! I am sometimes glad in my heart that Providence saw fit to make me poor; I have known my sorrows, but I have known my joys also. Wealth is a great responsibility. My dear sister is well, I trust?" "Oh, yes, she's quite well," said Comethup. There was an awkward pause for some moments, and then Mr. Carlaw, with something of an effort, turned toward his nephew. "My dear Comethup," he said, prefacing his speech with a hastily suppressed sigh, "Fortune has been very good to you and has made you, if one may say so, her favourite child; has taken you from an obscurity (which I am sure was quite unmerited) and has placed you in affluence. If I did not think you were wise beyond your years I should not speak to you as I do now; but I know that Fortune has not blunted your sympathies, and that you are still the generous-hearted boy I knew in years gone by. Comethup, look well upon me"--he stuck his hands in the breast of his frock coat and looked gloomily at the boy--"and tell me what I am." Comethup looked at him in some amazement. "You--you're my Uncle Robert, of course," he said. "Call me Bob," said Mr. Carlaw, with some emotion. "My friends have always called me Bob; had they called me by any other name it might have been better for me. But Bob was a good fellow; Bob had his hand in his pocket for a friend; Bob hadn't the slightest notion of that simple word 'no'; in short, Bob, in the world's eyes, has been going straight to the devil since he was breeched. Boy"--he laid his hand on Comethup's arm, and Comethup felt that he trembled with agitation--"boy, your Uncle Bob has finished his course; your Uncle Bob is a bankrupt and an outlaw." For a few moments Comethup was too much shocked to say anything; he sat still, staring helplessly at his uncle, whose head was bowed in a forlorn fashion. He murmured something at last about being very sorry, and Mr. Carlaw felt for his hand and pressed it without looking at him or speaking. Rallying a little presently, the forlorn one raised his head and endeavoured to smile, and looked out hopefully upon the prospect.