rincess getting tired of propriety and
making appointments in London! Little fool! do you think I should care
one straw? Why shouldn't you amuse yourself?'

Alice looked at him with eyes of wondering misery.

'Do you mean that you don't care enough for me to--to--'

'Don't care one farthing's worth! And to think you went and walked about
in the mud and the east wind! Well, if that isn't the best joke I ever
heard! I'll have a rare laugh over this story with some men I know
to-morrow.'

She crept away to her bedroom. He had gone far towards killing the love
that had known no rival in her heart.

He bantered her ceaselessly through breakfast next morning, and for the
first time she could find no word to reply to him. Her head drooped;
she touched nothing on the table. Before going off he asked her what the
appointment was for to-day, and advised her not to forget her latch-key.
Alice scarcely heard him, she was shame-stricken and wobegone.

Rodman, on the other hand, had never been in better spirits. The 'Irish
Dairy Company' was attracting purchasers of shares. It was the kind of
scheme which easily recommended itself to a host of the foolish people
who are ever ready to risk their money, also to some not quite so
foolish. The prospectus could show some respectable names: one or two
Irish lords, a member of Parliament, some known capitalists. The profits
could not but be considerable, and think of the good to 'the unhappy
sister country'--as the circular said. Butter, cheese, eggs of
unassailable genuineness, to be sold in England at absurdly low prices,
yet still putting the producers on a footing of comfort and proud
independence. One of the best ideas that had yet occurred to Mr. Robert
Delancey.

He--the said Mr. Delancey, _alias_ Mr. Willis Rodman, _alias_ certain
other names--spent much of his time just now in the society of a Mr.
Hilary, a gentleman who, like himself, had seen men and manners in
various quarters of the globe, and was at present making a tolerable
income by the profession of philanthropy. Mr. Hilary's name appeared
among the directors of the company; it gave confidence to many who were
familiar with it in connection with not a few enterprises started for
the benefit of this or that depressed nationality, this or the other
exploited class. He wrote frequently to the newspapers on the most
various subjects; he was known to members of Parliament through his
persistent endeavours to obtain legi