COUSIN PHILLIS. 81
and read his letter. He was very silent for a fev; minutes; at length he said, —
"Old fellow! I'm going to leave you!"
"Leave me!" said I. "How? When?"
" his letter ought to have come to hand sooner. It is from Greathed the engineer " (Greathed was well known in those days; he is dead now, and his name half-forgotten); "he wants to see me about some business; in fact, I may as well tell you, Paul, this letter contains a very advantageous proposal for me to go out to Canada, and superintend the making of a line there."
I was in utter dismay.
"But what will our company say to that?"
"Oh, Greathed has the superintendence of this line, you know; and he is going to be engineer in chief to this Canadian line; many of the shareholders in this company are going in for the other, so I fancy they will make no difficulty in following Greathed's lead. He says he has a young man ready to put in my place."
"I hate him," said I.
"Thank you," said Holdsworth, laughing.
"But you must not," he resumed; "for this is a very good thing for me, and, of course, if no one can be found to take my inferior work, I can't be spared to take the superior. I only wish I had received this letter a day sooner. Every hour is of consequence, for Greathed says they are threatening a rival line. Do you know, Paul, I almost fancy I must go up to-night? I can take an engine back to Eltham, and catch the night train. I should not like Greathed to think me lukewarm."
"But you'll come back?" I asked, distressed at the thought of this sudden parting.