"How can I be of service to you? Is there anything I can do for you in a modest way?"
"Well--you may invite me to dinner if you like."
"That I'll do willingly. I suppose if the dinner were supplemented with an offer of a five-pound note you would not feel offended."
"Offended! Not a bit of it," said Gerald, with a laugh. "But remember this, Kelvin, I have not asked you for money."
"Oh, I fully appreciate your delicacy of feeling," answered Kelvin, not without a sneer. "Well, we dine at six sharp. No company, only my mother and my cousin."
Gerald rose and took up his hat.
"I suppose you would find it somewhat difficult," said Kelvin, "after vagabondising about the world for so long a time, to settle down to any quiet steady employment--too monotonous, and that sort of thing--eh?"
"I don't know so much about that," said Gerald. "Certainly liberty is sweet, and it is pleasant to be one's own master. Besides which, as yet I have given no hostages to fortune, and having only my own unworthy self to look after, I dare say that I should find it difficult to settle down into a steady, sober, tax-paying citizen, who sits on a stool from one year's end to another, and who knows the amount of his income to a penny. No, I am afraid that I should find such a life slightly tedious."
Kelvin laughed.
"Why don't you go in for marrying an heiress." he said.