oice. Anna Penrhys walked
straight out to find her footman and carriage for herself.

I stood alone in the street, wondering, fretting, filled with a variety
of ugly sensations, when my father joined me humming an air of the opera.
'I was looking for Jorian, Richie. He had our Sampleman under his charge.
He is off to the Chassediane. Well! And well, Richie, you could not bear
the absence from your dada? You find me in full sail on the tide. I am at
home, if our fortunes demand it, in a little German principality, but
there is,' he threw out his chest, 'a breadth in London; nowhere else do
I breathe with absolute freedom--so largely: and this is my battlefield.
By the way, Lady Edbury accounts you complete; which is no more to say
than that she is a woman of taste. The instance: she positively would not
notice that you wear a dress-coat of a foreign cut. Correct it to-morrow;
my tailor shall wait on you. I meant to point out to you that when a
London woman has not taken note of that, the face and the man have made
the right impression on her. Richie, dear boy, how shall I speak the
delight I have in seeing you! My arm in yours, old Richie! strolling home
from the Fashion: this seems to me what I dreamt of! All in sound health
at the Grange? She too, the best of women?'

'I have come on very particular business,' I interposed briefly.

He replied, 'I am alive to you, Richie; speak.'

'The squire has seen my bankers' book. He thinks I've been drawing rather
wildly: no doubt he's right. He wants some sort of explanation. He
consents to an interview with you. I have come to ask you to go down to
him, sir.'

'To-morrow morning, without an hour's delay, my dear boy. Very agreeable
will be the sight of old Riversley. And in the daylight!'

'He prefers to meet you at Bulsted. Captain Bulsted offers his house for
the purpose. I have to warn you, sir, that we stand in a very exceptional
position. The squire insists upon having a full account of the money
rendered to him.'

'I invite him to London, Richie. I refer him to Dettermain and Newson. I
request him to compute the value of a princess.'

'You are aware that he will not come to your invitation.'

'Tell me, then, how is he to understand what I have established by the
expenditure, my son? I refer him to Dettermain and Newson.'

'But you must know that he sets his face against legal proceedings
involving exposure.'

'But surely, Richie, exposure is the very thing we