Mr. Benson was taken by surprise, and hesitated.  “I do not know.  It would be a great advantage in some respects; and yet I doubt whether it would in others.  His mother’s influence over him is thoroughly good, and I should fear that any thoughtless allusions to his peculiar position might touch the raw spot in his mind.”

“But he is so unusually clever, it seems a shame not to give him all the advantages he can have.  Besides, does he see much of his mother now?”

“Hardly a day passes without her coming home to be an hour or so with him, even at her busiest times; she says it is her best refreshment.  And often, you know, she is disengaged for a week or two, except the occasional services which she is always rendering to those who need her.  Your offer is very tempting, but there is so decidedly another view of the question to be considered, that I believe we must refer it to her.”

“With all my heart.  Don’t hurry her to a decision.  Let her weigh it well.  I think she will find the advantages preponderate.”

“I wonder if I might trouble you with a little business, Mr. Farquhar, as you are here?”

“Certainly; I am only too glad to be of any use to you.”

“Why, I see from the report of the Star Life Assurance Company in the Times, which you are so good as to send me, that they have declared a bonus on the shares; now it seems strange that I have received no notification of it, and I thought that perhaps it might be lying at your office, as Mr. Bradshaw was the purchaser of the shares, and I have always received the dividends through your firm.”

Mr. Farquhar took the newspaper, and ran his eye over the report.

“I have no doubt that’s the way of it,” said he.  “Some of our clerks have been careless about it; or it may be Richard himself.  He is not always the most punctual and exact of mortals; but I’ll see about it.  Perhaps after all it mayn’t come for a day or two; they have always such numbers of these circulars to send out.”

“Oh!  I’m in no hurry about it.  I only want to receive it some time before I incur any expenses, which the promise of this bonus may tempt me to indulge in.”

Mr. Farquhar took his leave.  That evening there was a long conference, for, as it happened, Ruth was at home.  She was strenuously against the school plan.  She could see no advantages that would counterbalance the evil which she dreaded from any school for Leonard; namely, that the good opinion and regard of the world would assume too high an importance in his eyes.  The very idea seemed to produce in her so much shrinking affright, that by mutual consent the subject was dropped; to be taken up again, or not, according to circumstances.

Mr. Farquhar wrote the next morning, on Mr. Benson’s behalf, to the Insurance Company, to inquire about the bonus.  Although he wrote in the usual formal way, he did not think it necessary to tell Mr. Bradshaw what he had done; for Mr. Benson’s name was rarely mentioned between the partners; each had been made fully aware of the views which the other entertained on the subject that had caused the estrangement; and Mr. Farquhar felt that no external argument could affect Mr. Bradshaw’s resolved disapproval and avoidance of his former minister.