He had good talent for initiative and administration, and at last, in the time when his wife was a feature of the London season, he found his scheme in working order, and the necessity of going to England was forced upon him.
Actually he wished that the absolute necessity had presented itself before.

There was always the moral necessity, of course--but then! Here now was a business need; and he must go.

Yet he did not fix a day or make definite arrangements.

He could hardly have believed himself such a coward.

With liberal emphasis he called himself a sneak, and one day at Fort Charles sat down to write to his solicitor in Montreal to say that he would come on at once.