These
reports, and many others which resembled them, were all conscientiously
presented by Frank's friend to the attention of Frank's father. On
each occasion, Mr. Clare exulted over Mr. Vanstone, and Mr. Vanstone
quarreled with Mr. Clare. "One of these days you'll wish you hadn't laid
that wager," said the cynic philosopher. "One of these days I shall have
the blessed satisfaction of pocketing your guinea," cried the sanguine
friend. Two years had then passed since Frank's departure. In one year
more results asserted themselves, and settled the question.
Two days after Mr. Vanstone's return from London, he was called away
from the breakfast-table before he had found time enough to look over
his letters, delivered by the morning's post. Thrusting them into one
of the pockets of his shooting-jacket, he took the letters out again,
at one grasp, to read them when occasion served, later in the day.
The grasp included the whole correspondence, with one exception--that
exception being a final report from the civil engineer, which notified
the termination of the connection between his pupil and himself, and the
immediate return of Frank to his father's house.
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