ing-master, colouring, 'you are not a man in
narrow circumstances, and you have no family. Guendolen is growing up,
a very promising girl--she was confirmed this year; and I think you will
be able to enter into my feelings as a parent when I tell you she is
quite ignorant of dancing. The boys are at the board school, which is
all very well in its way; at least, I am the last man in the world to
criticize the institutions of my native land. But I had fondly hoped
that Harold might become a professional musician; and little Otho
shows a quite remarkable vocation for the Church. I am not exactly an
ambitious man...'

'Well, well,' interrupted Michael. 'Be explicit; you think it's Uncle
Tim?'

'It might be Uncle Tim,' insisted Pitman, 'and if it were, and I
neglected the occasion, how could I ever took my children in the face? I
do not refer to Mrs Pitman. . .'

'No, you never do,' said Michael.

'. . . but in the case of her own brother returning from Ballarat. . .'
continued Pitman.

'. . . with his mind unhinged,' put in the lawyer.

'. . . returning from Ballarat with a large fortune, her impatience may
be more easily imagined than described,' concluded Pitman.

'All right,' said Michael, 'be it so. And what do you propose to do?'

'I am going to Waterloo,' said Pitman, 'in disguise.'

'All by your little self?' enquired the lawyer. 'Well, I hope you think
it safe. Mind and send me word from the police cells.'

'O, Mr Finsbury, I had ventured to hope--perhaps you might be induced
to--to make one of us,' faltered Pitman.

'Disguise myself on Sunday?' cried Michael. 'How little you understand
my principles!'

'Mr Finsbury, I have no means of showing you my gratitude; but let me
ask you one question,' said Pitman. 'If I were a very rich client, would
you not take the risk?'

'Diamond, Diamond, you know not what you do!' cried Michael. 'Why, man,
do you suppose I make a practice of cutting about London with my clients
in disguise? Do you suppose money would induce me to touch this business
with a stick? I give you my word of honour, it would not. But I own I
have a real curiosity to see how you conduct this interview--that tempts
me; it tempts me, Pitman, more than gold--it should be exquisitely
rich.' And suddenly Michael laughed. 'Well, Pitman,' said he, 'have all
the truck ready in the studio. I'll go.'

About twenty minutes after two, on this eventful day, the vast and
gloomy shed of Waterloo lay, like