"Brian has gone, I hear?" said Comethup, in a low voice.
Mr. Robert Carlaw flung out his hands with a despairing gesture. "It is true, sir. With that base ingratitude which has ever been his chief characteristic he has deserted me in the hour of my need. More than all, he has taken with him the whole of the money you were generous enough to place in our hands, and which I was foolish enough to leave in his keeping."
"That's well," said Comethup half to himself. "I'm glad he's got some money."
"Glad, sir! And pray what is to become of _me_?" exclaimed Mr. Carlaw. "Have I lavished the tenderest care upon him for years past; have I sacrificed everything to him; have I raced, in my declining years, through strange and vile places of the earth, in order to be near him and to protect him; have I done all this to be deserted now, at the last, for a wretched jade----"
"Stop!" said Comethup quickly. "I'm afraid you don't quite understand the situation. There is no question of any 'wretched jade,' as you describe her. Brian has merely decided to marry the sweetest and best girl that there is in the world. I don't think you're quite wise to talk in that fashion, and I don't think I'd do it if I were in your place. I've no doubt you'll see Brian again shortly. At the present moment, as he has been, well, let us say compelled to take the money for necessary expenses, perhaps you will allow me to replace what you consider you have lost."
"You are very good, my dear nephew; you are always more than generous. Forgive me if I spoke in haste. But consider the position: my son, who is just entering, as I might say, into his kingdom, who has the ball, as it were, at his feet, to marry a girl like this, whom no one knows and who has never been heard of! Why, it's shocking--positively terrible! With his face, and his figure, and his talents he might easily have gone one better than his poor old father, and been snapped up by a duchess. Such things _have_ occurred."
"I dare say," said Comethup wearily. "I just--just called here to see you. I only heard a little while ago that Brian had left."
"He left a note for me," said Mr. Carlaw, "informing me coolly that he purposed getting married to-morrow, and that, as he wanted money for current expenses, he'd taken what there was, and had no doubt that I should 'fall on my feet.' Fall on my feet, indeed!--a fine expression to use to a father! What did he think was going to become of me?"