“The man seems to me to be a very foolish fellow,” said Claude. “He came to me a couple of days ago to discharge himself, his plea being that he did not suppose that I meant to preserve as my poor brother had done. I asked him if he didn't think it possible that he might be mistaken in his supposition, and suggested that he would have done well to come to me in the first instance to learn what my intentions were in regard to the preserves. He seemed to decline to enter into any discussion WIth me on the subject, but quite respectfully gave me his notice to leave. I tried to bring him to a sense of his foolishness in throwing up a good place on so ridiculous a pretext, but all the reply he gave was, 'I have made up my mind to go, sir, and must go. I can't stay where I am any longer.'” “The poor man has had trouble--great trouble, during the past few months,” said Agnes. “He should be pardoned if he finds it intolerable to continue living in the place where he was once so happy.” “He did not say anything about that to me,” said Claude. “Only to-day my steward mentioned about the man's daughter. Poor girl! I recollect her years ago--a pretty little girl of nine or ten. And then his son enlisted. I daresay the view you take of the matter is the right one, Agnes. I suppose such men as Dangan have their own private feelings like the rest of us.” “He did not seem inclined to explain to me anything of that,” said Sir Percival. “When I asked if he did not think he was behaving foolishly in leaving a situation in which he had been for over thirty years, he merely said he had made up his mind to leave it.” “I would advise you to give him a trial,” said Claude. “He is a scrupulously honest man.” “I feel greatly inclined to take your advice,” said Sir Percival. He remained to drink tea with Agnes, and at the end of an hour both men left together. CHAPTER XX. |Clare was greatly excited. She regarded it as a great triumph that she had prevailed upon Mr. Westwood to write the book which was to give an account of his captivity in Central Africa, his explorations--some of them involuntary--for the people among whom he dwelt as a prisoner and an object of worship, carried him about with them on their raids--and his discoveries. She was, however, in great dread lest her part in the compact should be indifferently performed. She daily expressed her doubts to Agnes, bewailing the fact that she had been too easily persuaded by the maestro to abandon her study of the art of painting for the art of vocalism. If she had only devoted to the former the time she had spent upon the latter, she would have been a good artist, she declared. Of what value had her singing been to her, she inquired in doleful tones. It had been of no use to her, but if she had continued her study of drawing, she should not now be on the fair way to humiliation.