and as to the
mummy, you shan't have it. I decline to sell it. So there!"

"If you don't," said Random very distinctly, "Don Pedro will bring an
action against you, and Captain Hervey will be called as a witness to
prove that the mummy was stolen."

"Don Pedro hasn't the money," said Braddock triumphantly; "he can't pay
lawyer's fees."

"But I can," rejoined the young man very dryly. "As I am going to marry
Donna Inez, it is only just that I should help my future father-in-law
in every way. He has a romantic feeling about this relic of poor
humanity and wishes to take it back to Peru. He shall do so."

"And what about me?--what about me?"

"Well," said Random, speaking slowly with the intention of still further
irritating the little man, whose selfishness annoyed him, "if I were you
I should marry Mrs. Jasher and settle down quietly in this house to live
on what income you have."

Braddock turned purple again and spluttered.

"How dare you make a proposition like that to me, sir?" he
bellowed. "You ask me to marry this low woman, this adventuress,
this--this--this--" Words failed him.

Of course Random had no intention of advising such a marriage, although
he did not think so badly of Mrs. Jasher as did the Professor. But the
little man was so venomous that the young man took a delight in stirring
him up, using the widow's name as a red rag to this particular bull.

"I do not think Mrs. Jasher is a bad woman," he remarked.

"What! what! what! After what she has done? Blackmail! blackmail!
blackmail!"

"That is bad, I admit, but she has failed to get what she wanted, and,
after all, you indirectly are the cause of her writing that blackmailing
letter."

"I am?--I am? How dare you?"

"You see, she wanted to get five thousand out of me as her dowry."

"Yes, and told me lies about her damned brother who was a Pekin
merchant, when after all he never existed."

"Oh, I don't defend that," said Random coolly. "Mrs. Jasher has behaved
badly on the whole. Still, Professor, I think there is good in her, as
I said before. She evidently had bad parents and a bad husband; but, so
far as I can gather, she is not an immoral woman. The poor wretch only
came here to try and drag herself out of the mire. If she had married
you I feel sure that she would have made you a most excellent wife."

The Professor was in such a rage that he suddenly became calm.

"Of course you talk absolute rubbish," he said caustically. "Had