"I'll set it before my Maker, Barlow."
"I'm sure you will," he answered with confidence, "and if you and Him don't see eye to eye, it will be the first time."
He was much elated, for he felt that all must now happen as he desired; and then further fortune fell out to assist the project, for his son came over after closing time, and arrived at a moment perfectly chosen by chance to affirm the situation for Mr. Huxam.
The ineffectual Jeremy trailed his attractive person before his parents, announced that he had come to see his mother and declared that he was very tired; whereupon Barlow judged it politic to leave them for a time, feeling in no doubt as to the nature of his son's mood.
Jeremy began with his usual tact and sympathy.
"Father tells me you don't seem quite yourself, and I was a good deal put about to hear it," he said.
She nodded.
"Who is quite themselves as you call it?" she asked. "While we're in the flesh, we can't be quite ourselves, Jeremy. Ourselves belong somewhere else far beyond this Vale."
"I know—I know it better and better, as I grow older, mother. I'm in sight of forty now, remember, and if I haven't found out this life is a Vale and no more, it's a pity. Why don't you go down to Uncle Lawrence for a bit and get some sea air?"
She shook her head.