an to do my best by him, but he is mine now. If the
fate that--she died to save him from--comes to him, it must come. I
will not stand in his way, but I will have no hand in bringing it to
pass, I will raise no finger to summon it, nor will I call him from
it, if it come. Until, and unless it comes, he is mine. I think even
she would let me have him on those conditions." He lay back again, his
flushed face still witnessing to the force of his feeling.

"On any conditions," said his father, "if she knew you now. Only you
must bear the chance in mind in dealing with him. And it's only fair
to tell you the Union Master's report on him."

"Let's have it."

"Fairly docile, but inclined to argue the point. Truthful,--I
discovered that myself--but either through lack of training
or--according to the Master--through bad training in London, he is--"
Mr. Aston stumbled over a word, half laughed, and then said, "well, he
has a habit of acquisitiveness, shall we call it? When you think of
her history it seems at once natural and strange. They had not known
him to actually take things--money, that is,--but if he found any--and
he appears to have luck in finding things--he was not particular to
discover the real owner. It may be a difficulty, Aymer."

"Hereditary instinct," said Aymer a little shortly.

"Well, my own theory is that acquisitiveness is generosity inverted,"
concluded Mr. Aston thoughtfully, "and that heredity is merely a
danger signal, though it may mean fighting. I believe you can do it,
my dear boy, but it is a big job."

"I hope so, I was a born fighter, you know."

"You have not done badly that way, son Aymer," returned his father
quietly.

"You mean you have not. You are very gracious to a vanquished man,
sir."

It was one of his rare confessions of his indebtedness to his father,
and perhaps Mr. Aston was more embarrassed at receiving it than Aymer
in confessing it. For the indebtedness was undeniable. The Aymer Aston
of the present day was not the Aymer Aston of the first bitter years
of his imprisonment. The fight had been a long one: but whether the
love, the patience, the forbearance of the elder man had regenerated
the fierce nature, or whether he had only assisted the true Aymer to
work out his own salvation was an open question. Certainly those dark
years had left their mark on Mr. Aston, but, for a certainty they were
honourable scars, and he, the richer for his spent strength. He had
sacrific