en after we marry, and I can't be sent away."

"Who knows? But if we are not comfortable at Monk's Abbey, we can always
set up for ourselves--with Dad at Seaview, for instance. He's peaceable
enough; besides, he must be looked after; and, to be frank, my uncle
hectors him, poor dear."

"I will think it over," said Morris. "And now come for a walk on the
beach, and we will forget all these worries."

Next morning the Colonel appeared at breakfast in a perfectly
angelic frame of mind, having to all appearance utterly forgotten the
"contretemps" of the previous afternoon. Perhaps this was policy, or
perhaps the fact of his having won several hundred pounds the night
before mollified his mood. At least it had become genial, and he proved
a most excellent companion.

"Look here, old fellow," he said to Morris, throwing him a letter across
the table; "if you have nothing to do for a week or so, I wish you would
save an aged parent a journey and settle up this job with Simpkins."

Morris read the letter. It had to do with the complete reerection of
a set of buildings on the Abbey farm, and the putting up of a certain
drainage mill. Over this question differences had arisen between the
agent Simpkins and the rural authorities, who alleged that the said mill
would interfere with an established right of way. Indeed, things had
come to such a point that if a lawsuit was to be avoided the presence of
a principal was necessary.

"Simpkins is a quarrelsome ass," explained the Colonel, "and somebody
will have to smooth those fellows down. Will you go? because if you
won't I must, and I don't want to break into the first pleasant holiday
I have had for five years--thanks to your kindness, my dear John."

"Certainly I will go, if necessary," answered Morris. "But I thought you
told me a few months ago that it was quite impossible to execute those
alterations, on account of the expense."

"Yes, yes; but I have consulted with your uncle here, and the matter has
been arranged. Hasn't it, John?"

Mr. Porson was seated at the end of the table, and Morris, looking at
him, noticed with a shock how old he had suddenly become. His plump,
cheerful face had fallen in; the cheeks were quite hollow now; his jaws
seemed to protrude, and the skin upon his bald head to be drawn quite
tight like the parchment on a drum.

"Of course, of course, Colonel," he answered, lifting his chin from
his breast, upon which it was resting, "arranged, quite