ation concerning the "affair" for which the money was required.
And Mr. Prohack did not choose to enquire. Perhaps he was too proud to
enquire. The money would probably be lost. And if it were lost no harm
would be done. Good, rather, for Charlie would have gained experience.
The lad was only a child, after all.

The lad ran upstairs, and Mr. Prohack sat solitary in delightful
meditation. After a few minutes the lad re-appeared in hat and coat. Mr.
Prohack thought that he had heard a bag dumped in the hall.

"Where are you off to?" he asked.

"Glasgow. I shall catch the night-train."

He rang the bell.

"Machin, run out and get me a taxi, sharp."

"Yes, sir." Machin flew. This was the same girl of whom Mrs. Prohack
dared to demand nothing. Mr. Prohack himself would have hesitated to
send her for a taxi. But Charlie ordered her about like a slave and she
seemed to like it.

"Rather sudden this, isn't it?" said Mr. Prohack, extremely startled by
the turn of events.

"Well, you've got to be sudden in this world, guv'nor," Charlie replied,
and lit a fresh cigarette.

Mr. Prohack was again too proud to put questions. Still, he did venture
upon one question:

"Have you got loose money for your fare?"

The lad laughed. "Oh, don't let that worry you, guv'nor...!" He looked
at his watch once more. "I wonder whether that infernal girl is
manufacturing that taxi or only fetching it."

"What must I say to your mother?" demanded Mr. Prohack.

"Give her my respectful regards."

The taxi was heard. Machin dashed into the house, and dashed out again
with the bag. The lad clasped his father's hand with a warm vigour that
pleased and reassured Mr. Prohack in his natural bewilderment. It was
not consistent with the paternal dignity to leave the dining-room and
stand, valedictory, on the front-doorstep.

"Well, I'm dashed!" Mr. Prohack murmured to himself as the taxi drove
away. And he had every right to be dashed.

CHAPTER VI

SISSIE

I

"Had any dinner?" Mr. Prohack asked his daughter.

"No."

"Aren't you hungry?"

"No, thanks."

Sissie seized the last remaining apple from the dessert-dish, and bit
into it with her beautiful and efficient teeth. She was slim, and rather
taller than necessary or than she desired to be. A pretty girl, dressed
in a short-skirted, short-sleeved, dark blue, pink-heightened frock that
seemed to combine usefulness with a decent perverse frivolity, and to
carry forward th