“Thanks, boy!  It was only a twinge.  Sit down again, and give me Marsh’s cipher and the morning papers.  The letters you shall read to me presently.”

He straightway immersed himself in business matters with the shrewdness and concentration that ever aroused his young brother’s deepest admiration.

“What a marvellous grip you’ve got on things, Luke!” he exclaimed at the end of it.  “No wonder you are always on the top!  You’re great, man, you’re great!”

“I guess it’s just my speciality,” the millionaire said, with his weary smile.  “I must be getting another secretary soon, boy.  It’s a shame to eat up your time like this.  What is it you want to talk to me about?  Going to get married?”

Bertie shook his head.  “The padre won’t hear of it yet, and Dot herself—­well, you know, I said I’d wait.”

“Don’t wait too long,” said Lucas quietly.  “You shall have the old Dower House to live in.  Tell the padre that.  It’s only a stone’s throw from the Rectory.  We’ll build a garage too, eh, Bertie?  The wife must have her motor.  And presently, when you are called to the Bar, you will want a flat in town.”

“You’re a brick, Luke!” the boy declared, with shining eyes.  “Between ourselves, I don’t expect to do much at the Bar, but I’m sticking to it just to show ’em I can work like the rest of creation.  I’d sooner be your secretary for all time, and you know it.”

“That so?” Lucas stretched a hand towards him.  “But I guess you’re right.  I don’t want you to depend on me for employment.  If I were to go out one of these days you’d feel rather left.  It’s better you should have other resources.”

“Luke, I say!  Luke!”

But the quick distress of the words was checked by the gentle restraint of Lucas’s hand.  “I know!  I know!  But we’ve all got to die sooner or later, and one doesn’t want to tear a larger hole than one need.  That’s all right, Bertie boy.  We’ll shunt the subject.  Only, if you want to please me, get that nice little girl to marry you soon.  Now what was it you wanted to say?  Something about Nap?”

“Yes.  How did you know?  It’s an infernal shame to worry you when you’re not fit for it.  But the mother and I both think you ought to know.”

“Go ahead, dear fellow!  I’m tougher than you think.  What has become of Nap?”

“That’s just the question.  You know he went off in the car with Lady Carfax yesterday morning?”

“I didn’t know,” murmured Lucas.  “That’s a detail.  Go on.”

“Late last night the car had not returned, and the mother began to wonder.  Of course if Lady Carfax hadn’t been there it wouldn’t have mattered much, but as it was we got anxious, and in the end I posted off to the Manor to know if she had arrived.  She had not.  But while I was there a wire came for the butler from a place called Bramhurst, which is about fifty miles away, to say that the car had broken down and they couldn’t return before