"If you do make that, William, why think at all of giving up?"
"Because the doubt is upon me whether worse times may not come, and bring ruin with them to all who have kept on manufacturing. Were I as Marmaduke Carr is, a lonely man, I should give up to-morrow; but I have my wife and children to provide for, and I really do not know what to do for the best."
"What has become of Robert Carr? Has he ever been home?"
"Never. He is in Holland still for all I know. I have not heard his name mentioned for years in the town. Old Marmaduke never speaks of him; and others, I suppose, have forgotten him. You know that the old squire's dead?"
"Yes; and that John has succeeded him. Did John's daughter—Emma, I mean—ever marry?"
"She married very well indeed; a Mr. Lewis. Valentine, the son and heir, is at home with his father; steady, selfish, mean as his father was before him; but I fancy John Carr has trouble with the second, Ben."
"Ben promised to be a spendthrift, I remember," remarked Mildred. "What is Travice gazing at?"
Travice had come to a stand-still, and was standing with his face turned upwards. Mr. Arkell laughed.
"Do you remember my propensity for star-gazing, Mildred? Travice has inherited it. But with him it is more developed than it was with me. I should not be surprised at his turning out an astronomer one of these days."
Did she remember it! Poor Mildred fell into a reverie that lasted until William said good night to her at her brother's door.