"Do you Barford people ever think of anything else but what you call brass?" asked Collingwood, laughing. "Sometimes," replied Eldrick. "But it's generally of something that nothing but brass can bring or produce. After all, a rich wife isn't a despicable thing, nowadays. You've seen this young lady?" "I've been there once," asserted Collingwood. "Go again--before you leave," counselled Eldrick. "You're just the right man. Listen to the counsels of the wise! And while you're in India, think well over my other advice. I tell you there's a career for you, here in the North, that you'd never get in town." Collingwood left him and went out--to find a motorcar and drive off to Normandale Grange, not because Eldrick had advised him to go, but because of his promise to Harper and Nesta Mallathorpe. And once more he found Nesta alone, and though he had no spice of vanity in his composition it seemed to him that she was glad when he walked into the room in which they had first met. "My mother is out--gone to town--to the mill," she said. "And Harper is knocking around the park with a gun--killing rabbits--and time. He'll be in presently to tea--and he'll be delighted to see you. Are you going to stay in Barford much longer?" "I'm going up to town this evening--seven o'clock train," answered Collingwood, watching her keenly. "All my business is finished now--for the present." "But--you'll be coming back?" she asked. "Perhaps," he said. "I may come back--after a while." "When you do come back," she went on, a little hurriedly, "will you come and see us again? I--it's difficult to explain--but I do wish Harper knew more men--the right sort of men. Do you understand?" "You mean--he needs more company?" "More company of the right kind. He doesn't know many nice men. And he has so little to occupy him. He's no head for business--my mother attends to all that--and he doesn't care much about sport--and when he goes into Barford he only hangs about the club, and, I'm afraid, at two or three of the hotels there, and--it's not good for him." "Can't you get him interested in anything?" suggested Collingwood. "Is there nothing that he cares about?" "He never did care about anything," replied Nesta with a sigh. "He's apathetic! He just moves along. Sometimes I think he was born half asleep, and he's never been really awakened. Pity, isn't it?" "Considering everything--a great pity," agreed Collingwood. "But--he's provided for." Nesta gave him a swift glance. "It might have been a good deal better for him if he hadn't been provided for!" she said. "He'd have just had to do something, then. But--if you come back, you'll come here sometimes?" "Of course!" answered Collingwood. "And if I come back, it will probably be to stop here. Mr. Eldrick says there's a lot of work going begging in Barford--for a smart young barrister well up in commercial law. Perhaps I may try to come up to his standard--I'm certainly young, but I don't know whether I'm smart."