“Yes, father.”

“You were coming home with me?”

“No, father; I was going to stop with Scar for a bit.”

“Humph! Better come home now, my boy. I think Sir Godfrey wishes to talk to his son.”

“I was not going to do anything of the kind, Forrester; but if you are bent upon a division between us, I am not the man to baulk you.”

“Very good, sir, very good. Then be it so.”

“But it seems to me a great pity that two old friends should be divided, and our boys, who have been like brothers, should be separated upon a question about which you must feel, upon calm consideration, that you are wrong.”

“If I felt that I was wrong, Sir Godfrey Markham, I should at once apologise; but I am not wrong.”

“And our boys?”

“It is impossible for our boys to be friends, Sir Godfrey, until you have apologised for what you have said.”