position I offer you and that it is just and right I should receive you
here. You will for the present remain at Hampstead as one of my family.
There will be many opportunities of talking over your future--but I wish
you first to become accustomed to my ways and to this house, and to
trouble your head with no speculations of the kind which I could not
assist. I am much in the city, but Mr. Geary will take my place and you
can speak to him as you would to me. He is my Major Domo, and needless
to say I in him repose the most considerable confidence."

He turned again toward Mr. Geary and seemed anxious to atone for his
momentary impatience. The voice in which he spoke was not unpleasant,
and he used the English language with an accent which did not offend.
Rare lapses into odd and unusual sentences betrayed him occasionally to
the keen hearer, but Alban, in his desire to know the man and to
understand him, made light of these.

"I am to remain in this house, sir--but why should I remain, what right
have I to be here?" he asked very earnestly.

The banker waved the objection away a little petulantly.

"The right of every man who has a career offered to him. Be content with
that since I am unable to tell you more."

"But, sir, I cannot be content. Why should I stay here as your guest
when I do not know you at all?"

"My lad, have I not said that the obligation is entirely on my side. I
am offering you that to which you have every just claim. Children do not
usually refuse the asylum which their father's door opens to them. I am
willing to take you into this house as a son--would it not be a little
ungrateful to argue with me? From what I know of him, Alban Kennedy is
not so foolish. Let Mr. Geary show you the house while I am dressing. We
shall meet at breakfast and resume this pleasant conversation."

He stood up as he spoke and began to gather his papers together. To
Alban the scene was amazingly false and perplexing. He was perfectly
aware that this stranger had no real interest in him at all; he felt,
indeed, that his presence was almost resented and that he was being
received into the house as upon compulsion. All the talk of obligation
and favor and justice remained powerless to deceive. The key to the
enigma did not lie therein; nor was it to be found in the churchman's
suavity and the fairy tale which he had recited. Had the meeting
terminated less abruptly, Alban believed that his own logic would have
carrie