ng fellow?" he asked, looking up from the pile
of parliamentary blue-books on the library table before him.

"Nothing is wrong, Andrew; but he isn't a suitable husband for Beatrice."

"Why? you asked him here, Caroline. I suppose, if he was good enough to
stay in the house, he is no different to the boys, or anybody else who
was here."

"It is one thing to stay here, and quite another thing to want to marry
your daughter."

"Well, if he's an honest man, and the girl loves him, I don't see the
good of making a fuss about it; she had better do as she likes."

"But, Andrew, the man hasn't a penny; he has made nothing at the bar
yet." It was no use appealing to his exclusiveness, for he had none; it
was a better move to make him look at the money-point of the question.

"Oh, well, he will get on some day, I daresay, and meanwhile I shall give
Beatrice quite enough for them both when she marries."

"You don't understand, Andrew."

"No, my dear," very humbly, "perhaps I don't; but there, do as you think
best, of course; I am sure I don't wish to interfere about the children;
you always manage all these kind of things; and if you wouldn't mind, my
dear, I am so very busy just now. You know there is to be this attack
upon the Government as soon as the House meets, and I have the whole of
the papers upon the Patagonian and Bolivian question to look up, and most
fraudulent misstatements of the truth I believe them to be; although, as
far as I've gone, I haven't been able to make it quite out yet, but I
shall come to it--no doubt I shall come to it. I am going to speak upon
this question, my dear, and I mean to tell the House that a grosser
misrepresentation of facts was never yet promulgated from the Ministerial
benches, nor flaunted in the faces of an all too leniently credulous
Opposition; that will warm 'em up a bit, I flatter myself; those fellows
in office will hang their heads in shame at the word Patagonia for weeks
after."

"But who cares about Patagonia?"

"Oh, nobody much, I suppose. But there's bound to be an agitation against
the Government, and that does as well as anything else. We can't afford
to neglect a single chance of kicking them out. I have planned my speech
pretty well right through; it will be very effective--withering, I
fancy--but it's just these plaguy blue-books that won't quite tally with
what I've got to say. I must go through them again though----"

"You had better have read the papers f