“I cannot say. Is this a sudden resolve?”
“Quite. I never thought of such a thing till I went there.”
“Then take time to think it over, Mr Leslie.”
“Good advice; but it is a thing that requires very little thought. I cannot say what arrangements I should make—that would require consideration—but I should not tie him to a desk. He would have the overlooking of a lot of men, and I should try to make him as happy as I could.”
“Oh, Mr Leslie!” said Madelaine, rather excitedly.
“Pray do not think I am slighting your father, or looking down upon what he has done, which, speaking as a blunt man, is very self-sacrificing.”
“As it would be on your part.”
“On mine? Oh, no,” said Leslie frankly. “When a man has such an arrière pensée as I have, there is no self-sacrifice. There, you see I am perfectly plain.”
“And I esteem you all the more for it.”
The conversation extended, and in quite a long discussion everything was forgotten but the subject in hand, till Leslie said:—