ing support, down to unexpected trifles. Only this--to you and to
all of them: nothing bends me. I will not be robbed of the fruit of a
lifetime.'

'Supposing I refuse?'

'You refuse, Richie, to restore the princess her character and the
prince his serenity of mind at their urgent supplication? I am utterly
unable to suppose it. You are married in the papers this morning.
I grieve to say that the position of Prince Hermann is supremely
ridiculous. I am bound to add he is a bold boy. It requires courage
in one of the pretenders to the hand of the princess to undertake the
office of intercessor, for he must know--the man must know in his heart
that he is doing her no kindness. He does not appeal to me, you see. I
have shown that my arrangements are unalterable. What he will make of
your grandad!... Why on earth he should have been sent to--of all men in
the world--your grandad, Richie!'

I was invited to sympathetic smiles of shrewd amusement.

He caught sight of friends, and threw up the window, saluting them.

The squire returned with my aunt Dorothy and Janet to behold the
detested man communicating with the outer world from his own rooms. He
shouted unceremoniously, 'Shut that window!' and it was easy to see that
he had come back heavily armed for the offensive. 'Here, Mr. Richmond, I
don't want all men to know you're in my apartments.'

'I forgot, sir, temporarily,' said my father, 'I had vacated the rooms
for your convenience--be assured.'

An explanation on the subject of the rooms ensued between the old man
and the ladies;--it did not improve his temper.

His sense of breeding, nevertheless, forced him to remark, 'I can't
thank you, sir, for putting me under an obligation I should never have
incurred myself.'

'Oh, I was happy to be of use to the ladies, Mr. Beltham, and require
no small coin of exchange,' my father responded with the flourish of
a pacifying hand. 'I have just heard from a posse of friends that
the marriage is signalled in this morning's papers--numberless
congratulations, I need not observe.'

'No, don't,' said the squire. 'Nobody'll understand them here, and I
needn't ask you to sit down, because I don't want you to stop. I'll soon
have done now; the game's played. Here, Harry, quick; has all that money
been spent--no offence to you, but as a matter of business?'

'Not all, sir,' I was able to say.

'Half?'

'Yes, I think so.'

'Three parts?'

'It may be.'

'And liabilities