"A dead cert!" was Grindley junior's conviction.

"Very well; he is no longer old Grindley's son, and what possible
objection can Mr. Appleyard have to him then?"

Peter Hope arose and expounded at length and in suitable language
the folly and uselessness of the scheme.

But what chance had ever the wisdom of Age against the enthusiasm
of Youth, reaching for its object. Poor Peter, expostulating, was
swept into the conspiracy. Grindley junior the next morning stood
before his father in the private office in High Holborn.

"I am sorry, sir," said Grindley junior, "if I have proved a
disappointment to you."

"Damn your sympathy!" said Grindley senior. "Keep it till you are
asked for it."

"I hope we part friends, sir," said Grindley junior, holding out
his hand.

"Why do you irate me?" asked Grindley senior. "I have thought of
nothing but you these five-and-twenty years."

"I don't, sir," answered Grindley junior. "I can't say I love you.
It did not seem to me you--you wanted it. But I like you, sir, and
I respect you. And--and I'm sorry to have to hurt you, sir."

"And you are determined to give up all your prospects, all the