There was much to be done in the first week of their return--friends to visit, and many matters which required attention after so long an absence. But at the end of the week Miss Carlaw called Comethup to her one evening, when they were alone after dinner, and bade him sit down near her. For quite a long time, while she rocked herself softly over the head of her stick in the old fashion, she was silent; at last she raised her head and turned her face toward him. He thought, as he looked at her, how little change the years had wrought in her; save for a few added lines, the face was the same strong, kindly one that he had seen first as a little child. "My boy," she began, "you know that to-morrow is an eventful day, don't you? Or have you forgotten?" Comethup laughed and blushed, and assured her that he had not forgotten. "To-morrow you put aside boyish things--I think you did that some years ago, but I am speaking in the legal sense--and you reach years of discretion. I think you did _that_ also a few years since; I'm quite sure you did. However, speaking by the text, you're a man to-morrow, and can do as you like. You've done pretty much as you liked, you dear rascal, for some considerable time, but I love you the better for that. For the future I have no hold over you in any sense but that of the affection which links us, and I think that is a strong tie. For the rest, you have a right to go your own way. I have brought you up to no profession, for reasons which I have explained before; you have a smattering of several languages, and you know more of the world, I think, and have certainly seen more of it, than most men of twice your age. And I think that you've had rather a good time during the past five years, eh?" "Such a good time," replied Comethup, "that it all seems to have gone by like a beautiful dream. When I was a little chap I remember the captain used to tell me about all the wonderful places there were on the earth, but I never thought that I should see them. I sha'n't be likely to forget that but for you I should be a poor and shabby fellow, who had never had the chance of putting his legs outside the little town in which he was born. I don't forget that."