CHAPTER TEN.
"WILL YOU WALK INTO MY PARLOUR ?" SAID THE SPIDER TO THE FLY.
The two days which followed the despatch of the letter to "Omega" were long and anxious ones for Reginald Cruden.

It would have been a great relief to him had he felt free to talk the matter over with Horace; but somehow that word "confidential" in the advertisement deterred him.

For all that, he made a point of leaving the paper containing it in his brother's way, if by any chance the invitation to an additional L50 a year might meet his eye.

Had it done so, it is doubtful whether Reginald would have been pleased, for he knew that if it came to selecting one of the two, Horace would probably pass for quite as respectable and considerably more intelligent a young man than himself.
Still, he had no right to stand in his brother's way if fate ordained that he too should be attracted by the advertisement.

He therefore left the paper lying conspicuously about with the advertisement sheet turned toward the beholder.
Horace, however, had too much of the _Rocket_ in his business hours to crave for a further perusal of it during his leisure.