. Is he in London?«
    »He comes to the office down-stairs, every day,« returned Agnes. »He was in
London a week before me. I am afraid on disagreeable business, Trotwood.«
    »On some business that makes you uneasy, Agnes, I see,« said I. »What can
that be?«
    Agnes laid aside her work, and replied, folding her hands upon one another,
and looking pensively at me out of those beautiful soft eyes of her:
    »I believe he is going to enter into partnership with papa.«
    »What? Uriah? That mean, fawning fellow, worm himself into such promotion!«
I cried, indignantly. »Have you made no remonstrance about it, Agnes? Consider
what a connexion it is likely to be. You must speak out. You must not allow your
father to take such a mad step. You must prevent it, Agnes, while there's time.«
    Still looking at me, Agnes shook her head while I was speaking, with a faint
smile at my warmth; and then replied:
    »You remember our last conversation about papa? It was not long after that -
not more than two or three days - when he gave me the first intimation of what I
tell you. It was sad to see him struggling between his desire to represent it to
me as a matter of choice on his part, and his inability to conceal that it was
forced upon him. I felt very sorry.«
    »Forced upon him, Agnes! Who forces it upon him?«
    »Uriah,« she replied, after a moment's hesitation, »has made himself
indispensable to papa. He is subtle and watchful. He has mastered papa's
weaknesses, fostered them, and taken advantage of them, until - to say all that
I mean in a word, Trotwood - until papa is afraid of him.«
    There was more that she might have said; more that she knew, or that she
suspected; I clearly saw. I could not give her pain by asking what it was, for I
knew that she withheld it from me to spare her father. It had long been going on
to this, I was sensible: yes, I could not but feel, on the least reflection,
that it had been going on to this for a long time. I remained silent.
    »His ascendancy over papa,« said Agnes, »is very great. He professes
humility and gratitude - with truth, perhaps: I hope so - but his position
