d beauty of his features. Yet, as he was wont himself
to say, when one thinks that each poor mortal is heir to a legacy of
every evil trait or bodily taint of so vast a line of ancestors, lucky
indeed is the man who does not find that Nature has scored up some
long-owing family debt upon his features.

And indeed in this case the remorseless creditor had gone so far as to
exact a claim from the lady also, though in her case the extreme beauty
of the upper part of the face drew the eye away from any weakness which
might be found in the lower. She was darker than her brother--so dark
that her heavily coiled hair seemed to be black until the light shone
slantwise across it. The delicate, half-petulant features, the finely
traced brows, and the thoughtful, humorous eyes were all perfect in
their way, and yet the combination left something to be desired. There
was a vague sense of a flaw somewhere, in feature or in expression,
which resolved itself, when analysed, into a slight out-turning and
droop of the lower lip; small indeed, and yet pronounced enough to turn
what would have been a beautiful face into a merely pretty one. Very
despondent and somewhat cross she looked as she leaned back in the
armchair, the tangle of bright-coloured silks and of drab holland upon
her lap, her hands clasped behind her head, with her snowy forearms and
little pink elbows projecting on either side.

"I know he won't come," she repeated.

"Nonsense, Laura! Of course he'll come. A sailor and afraid of the
weather!"

"Ha!" She raised her finger, and a smile of triumph played over her
face, only to die away again into a blank look of disappointment. "It is
only papa," she murmured.

A shuffling step was heard in the hall, and a little peaky man, with his
slippers very much down at the heels, came shambling into the room. Mr.
McIntyre, sen., was pale and furtive-looking, with a thin straggling
red beard shot with grey, and a sunken downcast face. Ill-fortune and
ill-health had both left their marks upon him. Ten years before he had
been one of the largest and richest gunmakers in Birmingham, but a long
run of commercial bad luck had sapped his great fortune, and had finally
driven him into the Bankruptcy Court. The death of his wife on the very
day of his insolvency had filled his cup of sorrow, and he had gone
about since with a stunned, half-dazed expression upon his weak pallid
face which spoke of a mind unhinged. So complete had been hi