For the next fortnight there was absolute peace. Stephen and Ida arranged to be married in two months, and Dr. Jim began to talk of his future with Bess. Jim did not want to live with Stephen after the marriage, and yet he could not leave him, without forfeiting his income. Of course Stephen insisted that Herrick should take a certain sum a year, until he got on his feet, but Jim would not consent to this. "I can't take money I do not work for," he said decisively, "if you will lend me a small sum, I'll go back to London and start a practice in a new place. I expect it will be a long time before I am able to marry Bess. But she will wait for me." Bess expressed herself favourably on this point. She would wait for Jim till her hair grew gray, and meantime she could manage Biffstead for Frank, after Ida was settled at "The Pines." Neither Stephen nor Ida could do anything with this obstinate couple, and they gave up the attempt in despair. "But I think it is an infernal shame your leaving me in the lurch," said Stephen, "remember what my mother said!" "Oh, I intend to see you through the year, in case Frisco should attempt to stop your visits to the vault," replied Jim. "But after that I must go and carve out my own fortune." "Well, who knows what may happen by then," said Marsh-Carr. He was determined in some way to benefit Jim. "I'll have to force the money on the fellow' he grumbled to Ida. "Bess is just as obstinate," she sighed, "however they will be with us for some months yet. Wait and see, Stephen." Herrick meanwhile was priding himself that all was at an end. He wrote to Joyce stating that he intended to do nothing, and also let Santiago know his decision. From neither did he receive an answer. But this he did not mind. "They are powerless to do harm," he said to Bess. And indeed he never expected to hear of the pair again. But one morning Bess came to him with the Daily Telegraph and pointed out in silence a cipher message in the agony column. It was worded similarly to that put in before, and asked Frisco to meet the inserter at Hyde Park Corner at three o'clock in two days. "Humph!" said Jim meditatively, "Robin wants to see his father again!" "What will you do Jim?" asked Bess anxiously. "Nothing. Why should I?" "If Robin meets his father they will plot against Stephen." "They can't do anything but physical harm, and I am always with him." But Bess was not to be put off in this way. "I really think you should write to Mr. Joyce about it Jim." "He will not answer." "Perhaps not. But he will see that you have your eye on him." "True enough. I'll see to it, Bess." Jim fully intended to do so, but foolishly put off the matter for a few hours. He wrote to Joyce only on the day before the appointed meeting, and on the next day received a telegram, to the effect that it was not Joyce who had inserted the cipher nor, so said the wire, had Don Manuel.