And consideration was more favourable than might have been expected.  The Earl was growing anxious to see his son married, and of that there was no hope till his mind should be settled with regard to Mary.  It would be more for his peace to extinguish the hope, if it were never to be fulfilled.  Moreover, the image of Mary had awakened the Earl’s own fatherly fondness for her, and his desire to rescue her from her wretched home.  Even Mr. Ponsonby could hardly withstand Louis in person, he thought, and must be touched by so many years of constancy.  The rest might be only a misunderstanding which would be cleared up by a personal interview.  Added to this, Lord Ormersfield knew that Clara would not let her uncle go alone, and did not think it fit to see her go out alone with an infirm paralytic; James could not leave his wife or his chaplaincy, and the affair was unsuited to his profession; a mere accountant would not carry sufficient authority, nor gain Madison’s confidence; in fact, Fitzjocelyn, and no other, was the trustworthy man of business; and so his lordship allowed when Louis ventured to recur to the subject the next morning, and urge some of his arguments.

The bright clearing of Louis’s face spoke his thanks, and he began at once to detail his plans for his father’s comfort, Lord Ormersfield listening as if pleased by his solicitude, though caring for little until the light of his eyes should return.

’The next point is that you should give me a testimonial that I am a trustworthy man of business.’

‘I will ride into Northwold with you, and talk it over with Oliver.’

Here lay the knotty point; but the last five years had considerably cultivated Fitzjocelyn’s natural aptitude for figures, by his attention to statistics, his own farming-books, and the complicated accounts of the Ormersfield estate,—­so that both his father and Richardson could testify to his being an excellent man of business; and his coolness, and mildness of temper, made him better calculated to deal with a rogue than a more hasty man would have been.

They found, on arriving, that James had been talking to Mr. Walby, who pronounced that the expedition to Lima would be mere madness for Mr. Dynevor, since application to business would assuredly cause another attack, and even the calculations of the previous day had made him very unwell, and so petulant and snappish, that he could be pleased with nothing, and treated as mere insult the proposal that he should entrust his affairs to ‘such a lad.’

Even James hesitated to influence him to accept the offer.  ’I scruple,’ he said, drawing the Earl aside, ’because I thought you had a particular objection to Fitzjocelyn’s being thrown in the way of speculations.  I thought you dreaded the fascination.’

‘Thank you, James; I once did so,’ said the Earl.  ’I used to believe it a family mania; I only kept it down in myself by strong resolution, in the very sight of the consequences, but I can trust Fitzjocelyn.  He is too indifferent to everything apart from duty to be caught by flattering projects, and you may fully confide in his right judgment.  I believe it is the absence of selfishness or conceit that makes him so clear-sighted.’