VISITORS AT TRETTON.
It so happened that the three visitors who had been asked to Tretton all agreed to go on the same day. There was, indeed, no reason why Harry should delay his visit, and much why the other two should expedite theirs. Mr. Grey knew that the thing, if done at all, should be done at once; and Mountjoy, as he had agreed to accept his father's offer, could not put himself too quickly under the shelter of his father's roof. "You can have twenty pounds," Mr. Grey had said when the subject of the money was mooted. "Will that suffice?" Mountjoy had said that it would suffice amply, and then, returning to his brother's rooms, had waited there with what patience he possessed till he sallied forth to The Continental to get the best dinner which that restaurant could afford him. He was beginning to feel that his life was very sad in London, and to look forward to the glades of Tretton with some anticipation of rural delight.
He went down by the same train with Mr. Grey,—"a great grind," as Mountjoy called it, when Mr. Grey proposed a departure at ten o'clock. Harry followed so as to reach Tretton only in time for dinner. "If I may venture to advise you," said Mr. Grey in the train, "I should do in this matter whatever my father asked me." Hereupon Mountjoy frowned. "He is anxious to make some provision for you."
"I'm not grateful to my father, if you mean that."
"It is hard to say whether you should be grateful. But, from the first, he has done the best he could for you, according to his lights."
"You believe all this about my mother?"
"I do."
"I don't. That's the difference. And I don't think that Augustus believes it."
"The story is undoubtedly true."
"You must excuse me if I will not accept it."