‘My father!—nonsense. What could make you fancy that he would interfere with me in this matter?’
Crawshay halted, close by the three willows, clasped his hands behind him and looked straight at his young friend.
‘I am not going to tell you ought about what passed atween your father and me,’ he said resolutely. ‘You can ask him if you like; but if you’ll take a word of counsel from me, you won’t do it. You can understand this much, however; I am not going to stand in your way with Madge; but I am not going to let you stand in Madge’s way, neither.’
‘I do not see how that can be,’ answered Philip, perplexed by Crawshay’s words and manner, ‘since we two have only one way before us.’
‘That is to say you think so now’——
‘And shall always.’
‘Ay, ay; we understand all that,’ said the elder, nodding with the regretful scepticism of experience; ‘but there never was any harm done by making sure of every foothold when passing through a bog. See if we can’t clear things up a bit. When are you going away on this grand journey that’s to make your fortune?’
‘In about a fortnight.’
‘And you’ll be away how long?’
‘Perhaps a year.’