strong, and his good spirits were infectious.  He delighted in the good things of the world; no one could order a dinner better; no one could better judge a picture; no one had a more pure and hearty liking for pretty faces;—­and it must be added, that few men had more worldly wisdom of the kind needed for everyday use.  He could fool a humbug to the top of his bent, and he would make use of humbugs, or any other people, to serve his own ends; but he liked best to meet with simple, natural folks, and Cassall always took his fancy from the time of their first meeting onward.

Sir James spent the afternoon in driving with his host, and they naturally chatted a great deal about Mr. Cassall’s new ideas.  The physician listened to his friend’s version of Miss Dearsley’s eloquence, and then musingly said, “I don’t know that you can do better than take your niece’s advice.  The fact is, my dear fellow, you have far too much money.  I have more than I know how to use, and mine is like a drop in that pond compared with yours.  If you leave a great deal to the girl, you doom her to a life of anxiety and misery and cynicism; she will be worse off than a female cashier in a draper’s shop.  If she marries young, she will he picked up by some embarrassed peer; if she waits till she is middle-aged, some boy will take her fancy and your money will be fooled away on all kinds of things that you wouldn’t like.  This idea, so far as it has gone in my mind, seems very reasonable.  I’m not thinking of the fishermen at all; that isn’t my business at present.  I am thinking of you, and I fancy that you may do a great deal of good, and, at the same time, raise your position in the eyes of your countrymen.  The most modest of us are not averse to that.  Then, again, some plutocrats buy honours by lavishing coins in stinking, rotten boroughs.  Your honours if they should come to you, will be clean.  At any rate, let us both give these men a fair hearing, and perhaps our worldly experience may aid them.  An enthusiast is sometimes rather a fiddle-headed chap when it comes to business.”

“I don’t want my money to be fought over, and I won’t have it.  If I thought that people were going to screech and babble over my money, I’d leave the whole lot to the Dogs’ Home.”

“We’ll lay our heads together about that, and I reckon if we two can’t settle the matter, there is no likelihood of its ever being settled at all.”

The harsh, wintry afternoon came to a pleasant close in the glowing drawing-room.  Sir James had coaxed Marion until she told him all about the gale and the rest of it.  He was very much interested by her description of Ferrier.

“I’ve heard of that youngster,” he said.  “He began as a very Scotch mathematician, and turned to surgery.  I heard that he had the gold medal when he took his fellowship.  He must be a fine fellow.  You say he is out at sea now?  I heard a little of it, and understood he wasn’t going to leave until the end of December.  But it never occurred to me that he was such a friend of yours.  You must let me know him.  We old fogies often have a chance of helping nice young fellows.”