The

queer words frightened him a little.

The old man took a step towards him. He still smiled, but there was

a new meaning in the smile. A sudden earnestness had replaced the

courtly, leisurely manner. The next words seemed to blow down upon the

boy from above, as though a cold wind brought them from the sky

outside.

Yet the words, he knew, were kindly meant, and very sensible. It

was only the abrupt change that startled him. Grandfather, after all,

was but a man! The distant sound recalled something in him to that

outside world from which the cold wind blew.

“My eternal thanks to you,” he heard, while the voice and face and

figure seemed to withdrew deeper and deeper into the heart of the

mighty chamber. “I shall not forget your kindness and your courage. It

is a debt I can, fortunately, one day repay … . But now you had

best return and with dispatch. For your head and arm lie heavily on

the table, the documents are scattered, there is a cushion fallen . .

. and my son is in the house … Farewell! You had best leave me

quickly. See! She stands behind you, waiting. Go with her! Go now. .

.!”

The entire scene had vanished even before the final words were

uttered. Tim felt empty space about him. A vast, shadowy Figure bore

him through it as with mighty wings. He flew, he rushed, he remembered

nothing more—until he heard another voice and felt a heavy hand upon

his shoulder.

“Tim, you rascal! What are you doing in my study? And in the dark,

like this!”

He looked up into his father’s face without a word. He felt dazed.

The next minute his father had caught him up and kissed him.

“Ragamuffin! How did you guess I was coming back to-night?” He

shook him playfully and kissed his tumbling hair. “And you’ve been

asleep, too, into the bargain. Well—how’s everything at home—eh?

Jack’s coming back from school to-morrow, you know, and …”

Jack came home, indeed, the following day, and when the Easter

holidays were over, the governess stayed abroad and Tim went off to

adventures of another kind in the preparatory school for Wellington.

Life slipped rapidly along with him; he grew into a man; his mother and

his father died; Jack followed them within a little space; Tim

inherited, married, settled down into his great possessions—and

opened up the Other Wing.