'May I ask,' he said, when he had risen and taken a turn or two up and down the room, 'how you propose to get your living?'
'I shall have a little, I believe, without the mill, and I am not an absolute fool; and, if the worst comes to the worst, I suppose my hands are of some use,' holding them out, with a laugh.
'And what will Roland do?' said the lawyer, more to gain time than because he expected any answer.
'You forget, sir,' said Richard haughtily—and as he spoke the other noticed how much older he seemed to have grown in the last month—'you forget, sir, that my brother's affairs no longer concern me in the least.'
'Well, I can do nothing till I hear from him. That'll be time enough, God knows.'
'You know best, sir,' said Richard. 'I've done my duty in telling you; I shall write to the trustees to-night.'
'Well,' said Gates, with a shrug of his shoulders, 'what must be must. I can only hope you'll think better of it. Why, it's perfect madness. Do let me try to arrange matters between you.'
'You had better address yourself to Roland. Don't make any mistake, Mr Gates. This is quite as much my brother's quarrel as mine. Only three days ago he told me never to speak again to him on this side of the grave, and swore that the same roof should not continue to cover us both. I must be off now. I'm sorry to have troubled you at such an hour. Good-night.'
Gates let him out. As he closed the front door after watching him down to the gate,—
'How in the world,' he said, 'did such a hard-headed man of business as old Dicky Ferrier ever manage to get two such hare-brained young fools as these boys? Why, it's beastly unnatural,' he added discontentedly. 'But it's the same old tale, I suppose—"All along of Eliza." A good business smashed up, and two young fellows going straight to the dogs, because of that damned girl'—with a backward jerk of his head in the direction of Aspinshaw, as he returned into the cloud of smoke in which his two friends were dozing placidly.