‘I’d sooner you did it, ma’am. It’s rather early days for me to speak, and we don’t know yet what he’ll want, or even if he wants anything. He may make it up with his father, and not want any help. I’d sooner leave it in your hands, if you please. Mind you let him know that it doesn’t matter at all about paying it back. I don’t want him hampered by debt. I’d sooner give it outright.’ ‘Oh, Belassis, Belassis! And you call yourself a man of business!’ ‘Yes, ma’am, and so I am; but this isn’t business at all, and I don’t want it to be. The poor young gentleman is worse off, to my thinking, than if he’d got no father; and I’m his elder brother, and he’s accepted me as one, only thinking me a poor shopkeeper. I should like to play an elder brother’s part, and it isn’t a matter of business at all.’ He got up as he said the last words, and Miss Marjory followed his example. ‘Well, you talk like an honest and kind-hearted man, Belassis, and your brother ought to be proud of the relationship.’ ‘Good-day, then, ma’am. I must be getting back to Whitbury now. You’ll kindly see after things for me here, I know.’ So Alfred Belassis escaped from Ladywell, Lewis walking with him part of the way to the station. ‘I should like to come and see you, Alfred, one of these days,’ said Lewis. ‘You’re the only relation I am likely to see much of for some time to come. Have you any objection to a visit?’ ‘I shall be honoured by your presence, sir.’ ‘I’m afraid it won’t confer much honour; but I should like to see Whitbury, and call upon Miss Marjory, and—and—I mean, see her in her own house.’ ‘Yes, sir.’ And so they parted, the elder man taking his way towards the inn and the coach-road, and Lewis standing at the corner, looking doubtful and irresolute. ‘Perhaps I’d better go back and have it out at once. It must be said sooner or later, and I have my traps to collect. I don’t see any use in putting off the evil day; it must come sometime. I’ll go straight up and have done with it.’ And he turned his steps towards Thornton House. He did not seek his father at once upon his arrival, but went straight up to his own room. All his possessions there were his own property, for his uncle’s legacy had supplied him with funds for his personal wants ever since he was of age, and therefore he had the entire right to claim as his own all that was there. He packed up in his portmanteaux everything that he valued or that could be of any use in the future, and then he rang and ordered the man to carry down the boxes by the back staircase, and get them conveyed to Ladywell. This packing-up had occupied more than two hours, and Mr. and Mrs. Belassis, who had seen from the window their son’s arrival, smiled a little to themselves at his speedy return, and at the quiet way in which it had been effected. ‘I told you he would come back like a whipped puppy,’ said Mrs. Belassis. ‘I do not think we shall have any further trouble with Lewis.’