Poor Godfrey looked hardly reassured by this suggestive speech; but suddenly Guy’s face softened, and he said, pleadingly—
“Don’t make me into a bugbear, old boy; it’s rather hard, and there’s really no occasion.”
“I should be a confounded fool if I did,” said Godfrey, with some embarrassment. “No, I’ll not turn tail. I’ll stick to the shop.”
He kept his promise manfully; but it was a relief to both brothers when Easter week brought Cuthbert Staunton for a flying visit. He was going abroad, he said, to look up materials for a set of lectures on the sources of English culture. He had set his heart on getting Guy to come with him.
“We’ll take it easy,” he said; “and drop all the bogies in the Channel as we go.”
“Paradise wouldn’t be in it,” said Guy, with a long breath. “But no; first I must go to Waynflete.”
“I don’t approve of that move.”
“I’m much better, and I mean to go.”
“That’s always conclusive.”
“Well, I know best. But by-and-by—Poor Godfrey frames very well to the business. Perhaps he would be better without me. I say, is Constancy Vyner really going to marry a learned professor?”