He said nothing.  And then suddenly he said:  “I shall buy no Wilbraham Hall, lass.”  His voice was final.

“You could sell it again at a profit,” said she.  “You could turn it into a building estate” (parrot-cry caught from himself or from Emanuel), “and later on we could go and live somewhere else.”

“Yes,” said he; “Buckingham Palace, likely!”

“I don’t—­” she began.

“I shall buy no Wilbraham Hall,” he reiterated.  Greek had met Greek.

The tram surged along and swallowed up the two Greeks.  They were alone in the tram, and they sat down opposite each other.  The conductor came and took James’s money, and the conductor had hardly turned his back when Helen snapped, with nostrils twitching: 

“You’re a miser, that’s what you are!  A regular old miser!  Every one knows that.  Every one calls you a miser.  If you aren’t a miser, I should like you to tell me why you live on about three pounds a week when your income is ninety pounds a week.  I thought I might do you some good.  I thought I might get you out of it.  But it seems I can’t.”

“All!” he snorted.  It was a painful sight.  Other persons boarded the car.

At tea she behaved precisely like an angel.  Not the least hint of her demeanour of the ineffable affray of the afternoon.  She was so sweet that he might have given her twenty-six Wilbraham Halls instead of twenty-six pounds.  He spoke not.  He was, in a very deep sense, upset.

She spent the evening in her room.

“Good-bye,” she said the next morning, most amiably.  It was after breakfast.  She was hatted, gloved and sunshaded.

“What?” he exclaimed.

“Au revoir,” she said.  “All my things are packed up.  I shall send for them.  I think I can go back to the school.  If I can’t, I shall go to mother in Canada.  Thank you very much for all your kindness.  If I go to Canada, of course I shall come and see you before I leave.”  He let her shake his hand.

* * * * *

For two days he was haunted by memories of kidney omelettes and by the word “miser.”  Miser, eh?  Him a miser!  Him!  Ephraim Tellwright was a miser—­but him!

Then the natty servant gave notice, and Mrs. Butt called and suggested that she should resume her sway over him.  But she did not employ exactly that phrase.

He longed for one of Helen’s meals as a drunkard longs for alcohol.

Then Helen called, with the casual information that she was off to Canada.  She was particularly sweet.  She had the tact to make the interview short.  The one blot on her conduct of the interview was that she congratulated him on the possible return of Mrs. Butt, of which she had heard from the natty servant.

“Good-bye, uncle,” she said.

“Good-bye.”

She had got as far as the door, when he whispered, brokenly:  “Lass—­”

Helen turned quickly towards him.