“I shall be soon.  Very likely the next thing you hear about me will be that I have disappeared again.  Then I shall turn up in a works somewhere.  Because you needn’t think I’m going to be a ploughboy.  I shouldn’t get level with my father by being a ploughboy.”

“Your father would be delighted for you to get level with him and know as much as he does,” she answered, pretending to mistake his meaning.  “If you said you wanted to know as much about machinery and machines in general as he does, then he would very soon set to work to help you on.”

Abel considered.

“I won’t take any help from him; but I’ll do this—­to suit myself, not him.  I’d do it so as I could be near mother and could look after her.  Because, when Mister Churchouse dies, I’ll have to look after her.”

“You needn’t be anxious about your mother, Abel.  She’s got plenty of friends.”

“Her friends don’t count if they’re his friends, because you can’t be my mother’s friend and his friend, too.  But I’ll go into the spinning Mill, and be like anybody else, and work for wages—­just the same wages as any other boy going in.  That won’t be thanking him for anything.”

Estelle could hardly hide her satisfaction at this unexpected concession.  She dared not show her pleasure for fear that Abel would see it and draw back.

“Then you could live with mother and Mister Churchouse,” she said.  “It would be tremendously interesting for you.  I wonder if you would begin with Roberts at the lathes, or Cogle at the engines?”

“I don’t know.  Before I ran away, Nicholas Roberts wanted somebody to help him turning.  I’ve turned sometimes.  I’d begin like that and rise to better things.”

She was careful not to mention his father again.

“I believe Mister Roberts would like to have you in his shop very much.  Sarah, his wife, hopes that her son will be a lathe-worker some day, but he’s too young to go yet.”

“He’ll never be any good at machinery,” declared Abel.  “I know him.  He’s all for the sea.”

They took their leave presently, after Ernest had heard the boy’s offer.  He, too, was careful, but applauded the suggestion and assured Abel he would be very welcome at his old home.

“I like you, you know; in fact, as a rule, we have got on very well together.  I believe you’ll make an engineer some day if you remember the Roman goddesses.  To be ambitious is the most hopeful thing we can wish for youth.  Always be ambitious—­that’s the first essential for success.”

But the old man surprised Estelle by failing to share her delight at Abel’s decision.  She for her part felt that the grand difficulty was passed, and that once in his father’s Mill, the boy must sooner or later come to reason, if only by the round of self-interest; but Mr. Churchouse reminded her that another had to be reckoned with.