"]
Deprived of his society the captain consoled himself with that of Edward
Tredgold, a young man for whom he was beginning to entertain a strong
partiality, and whose observations of Binchester folk, flavoured with a
touch of good-natured malice, were a source of never-failing interest.
"He is very wide-awake," he said to his niece. "There isn't much that
escapes him."
Miss Drewitt, gazing idly out of window, said that she had not noticed
it.
"Very clever at his business, I understand," said the captain.
His niece said that he had always appeared to her--when she had happened
to give the matter a thought--as a picture of indolence.
"Ah! that's only his manner," replied the other, warmly. "He's a young
man that's going to get on; he's going to make his mark. His father's
got money, and he'll make more of it."
Something in the tone of his voice attracted his niece's attention, and
she looked at him sharply as an almost incredible suspicion as to the
motive of this conversation flashed on her.
"I don't like to see young men too fond of money," she observed,
sedately.
"I didn't say that," said the captain, eagerly. "If anything, he is too
open-handed.
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