'If you are satisfied, I shall try to be the same.

Have you your pipe with you ?--At your age I hadn't begun to smoke, and I should advise you to be moderate; but we'll have a whiff together, if you like.' 'I'll go and fetch it,' Horace replied impulsively.
He came back with a rather expensive meerschaum, recently purchased.
'Hollo! luxuries!' exclaimed his father.
'It kept catching my eye in a window,--and at last I couldn't resist.
Tobacco's quite a different thing out of a pipe like this, you know.' No one, seeing them thus together, could have doubted of the affectionate feeling which Stephen Lord entertained for his son.

It appeared in his frequent glances, in the relaxation of his features, in a certain abandonment of his whole frame, as though he had only just begun to enjoy the evening's repose.
'I've something rather important to speak about, father,' Horace began, when he had puffed for a few minutes in silence.
'Oh?
What's that ?' 'You remember telling me, when I was one and twenty, that you wished me to work my way up, and win an income of my own, but that I could look to you for help, if ever there was need of it-- ?' Yes, Stephen remembered.

He had frequently called it to mind, and wondered whether it was wisely said, the youth's character considered.
'What of that ?' he returned, still genially.

'Do you think of starting a new line of ocean steamships ?' 'Well, not just yet,' Horace answered, with an uncertain laugh.