Unfortunately, Louis felt that, to own Oliver’s generosity, it was necessary to be out of sight of him; and finding that there was silence and constraint in the drawing-room, he asked Isabel to walk with him to meet James.

‘One breathes freely!’ said she, as they left the house.  ’Was there ever a more intolerable man?’

‘Never was a man who made a more unlucky error in judgment.’

‘And that is all you call it?’

‘The spurious object warped the mind aside,’ said Louis.  ’The grand idea was too exclusive, and now he suffers for the exclusiveness.  It is melancholy to see the cinder of a burnt-offering to Mammon, especially when the offering was meant for better things.’

In this strain he chose to talk, without coming to particulars, till, near the corner of the old square, they met the shouting throng of boys, and presently James himself, descending the steps of the grim old grey building.

’I thought you would forgive me for coming to meet you under such an escort,’ said Isabel, ’especially as it was to escape from our Peruvian relative.’

‘Poor man! it was a great pity he did not come last year!’ said Louis.

‘I am glad I have no temptation to bend to his will,’ returned James.

‘Ha!  I like the true core of the quarrel to display itself.’

’Fitzjocelyn, you do not mean that you do not fully approve of the course I have taken!’

’Extremely magnanimous, but not quite unprecedented.  Witness St. Ronan’s Well, where the younger Scrogie abjures the name of Mowbray.’

’Pshaw!  Louis, can’t you understand?  Frost is a glorious name to me, recording my grandmother’s noble exertions on our behalf, but I can imagine it to be hateful to him, recalling the neglect that made her slaving necessary.’

’For which amiable reason you insist on obtruding it.  Pray, are the houses henceforth to be Frost Terrace or Arctic Row?’

‘Are you come to laugh or to remonstrate?’ exclaimed James, stopping.

’Oh! you want to put on your armour!  Certainly, I should never tell if I were come to remonstrate, nor should I venture in such a case—­’

‘Then you are come to approve,’ said Isabel.  I knew it!’

‘Little you two care—­each of you sure of an admiring double.’

‘I care for your opinion as much as ever I did,’ said James.

‘Exactly so,’ said Louis, laughing.

‘I desire to have your judgment in this matter.’

‘If I could judge, I would,’ said Louis.  ’I see you right in principle, but are you right in spirit?  I own my heart bleeds for Aunt Kitty, regaining her son to battle with her grandson.’

‘I am very sorry for her,’ said James; ’but it can’t be helped.  I cannot resign my duties here for the sake of living dependent on a suitable allowance.’

‘Ah!  Jem!  Jem!  Oliver little knew the damage his neglect did you.’