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?'