It was on the tip of Gilbert’s tongue to say, ‘I know I am young, but, then, I have taken care to be very wise, too,’ because we are apt to blurt out the thoughts nearest our hearts. But he said quietly—
‘Yes, I know I am young, but I have had a good deal to do that generally falls to older people. With Michael choosing to leave us and take his own way, I have had a good deal to think about, and a good deal of help to give to my poor governor in his business affairs; and I soon found that, if you want to get on at all in business, you must keep your temper, especially when you are a poor man, with fallen fortunes, against the world——’
‘Be hanged if I could ever keep my temper about business, or anything else that went wrong with me!’
‘Ah, you can afford to lose your temper,’ said Gilbert, in a cold voice, which caused Otho hastily to say that he had meant no offence; and Gilbert proceeded—
‘So, as I say, I don’t let the Townend Mills irritate me, though one might get irritated enough about them if one would; but I come and smoke my pipe, and walk round them now and again, and think quietly. I feel as if I might, some time or other, have a good idea on the subject, you know—an idea that might be worked into something. Don’t you trouble yourself about them. I won’t detain you long. Here we are!’
They had entered the long, narrow passage between the mills. It was now late, getting near ten o’clock, for they had not left the Red Gables till after nine. The clouded sky made the night darker—a darkness which was deepened, if anything, by the occasional gleams of moonlight when the rack parted. At the end of the passage there was visible a kind of gray shimmer, and in the intervals between the gusts of wind they could hear the rush of the river.
‘Wherever one goes, one comes upon that river,’ exclaimed Otho, not as if he were much delighted with the fact.
‘Yes. Tees keeps us pretty well aware of his presence. It’s as twisted and crooked a stream as any in England, I should imagine. There are the mills, Askam. Now, I’ll tell you my object in life, if you like.’
‘What is it?’ asked Otho, with deep and unfeigned interest.
‘I wish—at least, I intend to overcome the obstacle raised in my way by the idiot who built these mills. I like overcoming obstacles. I intend, some day, either to have them sold, and the price of them in my pocket, or else to see them filled with machinery, and working again at a profit.’