iably at the painted
ceiling, and Mr. Haswell whistled.

"Then I am afraid," he said, "that I do not see any use in discussing
your kind proposal for my niece's hand. Listen--I will be quite open
with you. I have other views for Barbara, and as it happens I have the
power to enforce them, or at any rate to prevent their frustration by
you. If Barbara marries against my will before she is five and twenty,
that is within the next two years, her entire fortune, with the
exception of a pittance, goes elsewhere. This I am sure is a fact that
will influence you, who have nothing and even if it did not, I presume
that you are scarcely so selfish as to wish to beggar her."

"No," answered Alan, "you need not fear that, for it would be wrong. I
understand that you absolutely refuse to sanction my suit on the ground
of my poverty, which under the circumstances is perhaps not wonderful.
Well, the only thing to do is to wait for two years, a long time, but
not endless, and meanwhile I can try to better my position."

"Do what you will, Alan," said Mr. Haswell harshly, for now all his
_faux bonhomme_ manner had gone, leaving him revealed in his true
character of an unscrupulous tradesman with dark ends of his own to
serve. "Do what you will, but understand that I forbid all communication
between you and my niece, and that the sooner you cease to trespass upon
a hospitality which you have abused, the better I shall be pleased."

"I will go at once," said Alan, rising, "before my temper gets the
better of me and I tell you some truths that I might regret, for after
all you are Barbara's uncle. But on your part I ask you to understand
that I refuse to cut off from my cousin, who is of full age and has
promised to be my wife," and he turned to go.

"Stop a minute, Alan," said Barbara, who all this while had sat silent.
"I have something to say which I wish you to hear. You told us just now,
uncle, that you have other views for me, by which you meant that you
wish me to marry Sir Robert Aylward, whom, as you are probably aware, I
refused definitely this afternoon. Now I wish to make it clear at once
that no earthly power will induce me to take as a husband a man whom I
dislike, and whose wealth, of which you think so much, has in my opinion
been dishonestly acquired."

"What are you saying?" broke in her uncle furiously. "He has been my
partner for years, you are reflecting upon me."

"I am sorry, uncle, but I withdraw nothing. Ev