business--indeed there is a brewery at
Southampton that my brother has just been speaking of----"'

'A brewery!' exclaimed Mr. Tom; but he instantly recollected that beer
was as good as soda-water from a social point of view.

'And if we could say to the Vice-Chancellor that the friends of the
young lady were willing to condone his offence--always providing, of
course, and naturally, that your sister's fortune should be strictly
settled upon herself--then, perhaps, he might be let off with a humble
apology to the Court; and the young people be left to their own
happiness. My dear sir, we lawyers see so much of the inevitable
hardship of human life that when a chance occurs of friendly
compromise----'

'That's all very well,' blurted out Mr. Tom. 'But I call it very mean
and shabby of him to inveigle my sister away like that. She was
engaged to be married to an old friend of mine; a much better fellow,
I'll be bound! I call it very shabby.'

'My dear sir,' said the lawyer, placidly, 'I do not seek for a moment
to excuse my son's conduct, except to remind you that at a certain
period of life romance counts for something. I believe many young
ladies are like the young lady in the play--I really forget what her
name was--who was disappointed to find that she was not to be run away
with. However, that is a different matter. I put it to you whether it
would not be better for every one concerned if we were to try to arrive
at an amicable arrangement, and give the young people a fair start in
life.'

'Of course I can't answer for all our side,' said Mr. Tom, promptly.
'You'd better come with me to-morrow, and we'll talk it over with
Colonel Fitzgerald and Mr. Mason. I don't bear malice. I think what
you say is fair and right--if the settlement is strict. And if it came
to be a question of interceding, there's an old friend of ours, Sir
George Stratherne, who, I know, knows the Vice-chancellor very
intimately----'

'My dear sir!' the lawyer protested, with either real or affected
horror, 'do not breathe such a thing!--do not think of such a thing.
The duty of the Vice-chancellor to his wards is of the extremest kind;
his decisions are beyond suspicion; what we have got to say we must say
in open court.'

'But if they were to lock your son up in prison,' said Mr. Tom, with a
gentle smile, 'that couldn't prevent Sir George taking my sister to
call on the Vice-Chancellor some afternoon at his own house. And Madg