Presently dinner was announced, and the three sat down at a small round table in the centre of the big dining-room, on which was placed a shaded lamp.  It was not a cheerful dinner.  George, having said grace, relapsed into moody silence, eating and drinking with gusto but in moderation, and savouring every sup of wine and morsel of food as though he regretted its departure.  He was not free from gluttony, but he was a judicious glutton.  For his part, Arthur found a certain fascination in watching his guardian’s red head as he bobbed up and down opposite to him, and speculating on the thickness of each individual hair that contributed to give it such a spiky effect.  What had his mother been like, he wondered, that she had started him in life with such an entirely detestable countenance?  Meanwhile he was replying in monosyllables to Sir John’s gentle babblings, till at last even that gentleman’s flow of conversation ran dry, and Arthur was left free to contemplate the head in solemn silence.  As soon as the cloth had been cleared away, George suggested that they had better get to work.  Arthur assented, and Sir John, smiling with much sweetness, remarked profoundly that business was one of the ills of life, and must be attended to.

“At any rate, it is an ill that has agreed uncommonly well with you,” growled George, as, rising from the table, he went to a solid iron safe that stood in the corner of the room, and, unlocking it with a small key that he took from his pocket, extracted a bundle of documents.

“That is an excellent deed-box of yours, Caresfoot,” said Sir John carelessly.

“Yes; that lock would not be very easy to pick.  It is made on my own design.”

“But don’t you find that small parcels such as private letters are apt to get lost in it?  It is so big.”

“Oh! no; there is a separate compartment for them.  Now, Mr. Heigham.”  And then, with the able and benign assistance of Sir John, he proceeded to utterly confuse and mystify Arthur, till stocks, preference-shares, consols, and mortgages were all whirling in his bewildered brain.  Having satisfactorily reduced him to this condition, he suddenly sprang upon him the proposal he had in view with reference to the Jotley mortgage, pointing out to him that it was an excellent investment, and strongly advising him, “as a friend,” to leave the money upon the land.  Arthur hesitated a little, more from natural caution than anything he could urge to the contrary, and George, noticing it, said,

“It is only right that, before you come to any decision, you should see the map of the estate, and a copy of the deed.  I have both in the next room, if you care to come and look at them.”

Arthur assented, and they went off together; Sir John, whose eyes appeared to be a little heavy under the influence of the port, presuming that he was not wanted.  But, no sooner had the door closed, than the worthy knight proved himself very wide-awake.  Indeed, he commenced a singular course of action.  Advancing on tiptoe to the safe in the corner of the room, he closely inspected it through his eyeglass.  Then he cautiously tried the lid of an artfully contrived subdivision.