Harry winced and set his teeth.
“No, no, Luke. Nonsense!”
“Nonsense? I mean to pay for his board and lodging: all the time he has been here.”
“Absurd, Luke!” said his brother, taking up a liberal meal for a sea-anemone on the end of a thin glass rod. “He said that under the circumstances he felt that he should be an encumbrance to us, and therefore he had gone by the earliest train.”
“Like the sneak he is, eh, Harry?”
The young man met his uncle’s eyes for the moment, and then dropped his own.
“You’ll kill those things with kindness, George. Any one would think you were fattening them for market. So Master Pradelle has gone, eh? Don’t cry, Louie; perhaps we can coax him back.”
He chuckled, and patted her cheek.
“Uncle, dear, don’t talk like that. We are in such trouble.”
“About Van Heldre, that boy’s master. Yes, of course. Very sad for Mrs Van and little Madelaine. Leslie was down there as soon as one of the miners brought up the news, trying to comfort them.”