To this young Apollo, crowned with variegated laurel, Edward looked up from a distance, praised him and recorded his triumphs in all his letters; but he, thinking nothing human worthy of reverence but intellect, was not attracted by Edward, till at Henley he saw Julia, and lo! true life had dawned.  He passed the rest of the term in a soft ecstasy, called often on Edward, and took a prodigious interest in him, and counted the days till he should be for four months in the same town as his enchantress.  Within a month of his arrival in Barkington he obtained Mrs. Dodd’s permission to ask his father’s consent to propose an engagement to Julia, which was promptly refused; and inquiry, petulance, tenderness, and logic were alike wasted on Mr. Hardie by his son in vain.  He would give no reason.  But Mrs. Dodd, knowing him of old, had little doubt, and watched her daughter day and night to find whether love or pride was the stronger, all the mother in arms to secure her daughter’s happiness.  Finding this really at stake, she explained that she knew the nature of Mr. Hardie’s objections, and they were objections that her husband, on his return, would remove.  “My darling,” she said, “pray for your father’s safe return, for on him, and on him alone, your happiness depends, as mine does.”

Next day Mrs. Dodd walked two hours with Alfred, and his hopes revived under her magic, as Julia’s had.  The wise woman quietly made terms.  He was not to come to the house except on her invitation, unless indeed he had news of the Agra to communicate; but he might write once a week, and enclose a few lines to Julia.  On this he proceeded to call her his best, dearest, loveliest friend—­his mother.  That touched her.  Hitherto he had been to her but a thing her daughter loved.  Her eyes filled.

“My poor, warm-hearted, motherless boy,” she said, “pray for my husband’s safe return.”

So now two more bright eyes looked longingly seaward for the Agra, homeward bound.

II.—­Richard Hardie’s Villainy

Richard Hardie was at that moment the unlikeliest man in Barkington to decline Julia Dodd, with hard cash in five figures, for his daughter-in-law.

The great banker stood, a colossus of wealth and stability to the eye, though ready to crumble at a touch, and, indeed, self-doomed; for bankruptcy was now his game.  This was a miserable man, far more so than his son, whose happiness he was thwarting; and of all things that gnawed him, none was more bitter than to have borrowed L5,000 of his children’s trust money, and sunk it.  His son’s marriage would expose him; lawyers would peer into trusts, etc.

When his son announced his attachment to a young lady living in a suburban villa it was a terrible blow, but if Alfred had told him hard cash in five figures could be settled by the bride’s family on the young couple, he would have welcomed the wedding with a secret gush of joy, for he could then have thrown himself on Alfred’s generosity, and been released from that one corroding debt.