penny
I possess. It means ruin--complete ruin! Worse even than the loss of
every penny; for--for--I--God help me!--can't afford to go into court
and have the past raked up--And he knows it--he knows it, Stafford!"

The sight of the old man's anguish almost drove Stafford mad.

"Have you no mercy, sir?" he said to Falconer. "Grant that my father
had injured you--isn't this rather too awful a revenge to exact?
I--I--I--don't understand all that I have heard; but--but"--an oath
broke from his hot lips--"will nothing less than the ruin of my father
satisfy you?"

Falconer looked from one to the other and moistened his lips, while his
hands gripped each other behind his back.

"I think you have misunderstood me," he said, in a dry, harsh voice; "I
have no intention of ruining your father or of depriving him of his
good name. Mind! if I did I should only be taking my pound of flesh:
and I may tell you that before I entered this house this afternoon I
had resolved to have it. But I heard something that induced me to
change my mind."

Sir Stephen leant forward, his eyes fixed eagerly on the speaker, and
Stafford in his anxiety held his breath and pressed his father's
shoulder encouragingly.

"You heard something, sir?" Stafford asked, as calmly as he could.

Mr. Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said:

"Yes. I heard that you were desirous of marrying my daughter, Maude,
Mr. Orme; and I need not say that a man does not ruin his son-in-law!"

There was an intense silence. Stafford stood as if he were turned to
stone, as if he were trying to persuade himself that he had
misunderstood the meaning of Falconer's words. Marry Maude
Falconer--he! Was he dreaming, or was this man, who stood regarding him
with cold, glittering eyes, mad!

CHAPTER XXII.

We do not, nowadays, strike attitudes, or ejaculate and swear when we
are startled or shocked; Stafford stood perfectly still, still as a
piece of Stonehenge, and gazed with an expressionless countenance at
Mr. Falconer. That the man was indeed and in truth mad, occurred to him
for a moment; then he thought there must be some mistake, that Mr.
Falconer had made a blunder in the name, and that it was a case of
mistaking his man.

But as the moments fled, and the two elder men gazed at him, as if
expecting him to speak, he remembered Howard's warning. The colour
rushed to his face and his eyes dropped. Merciful Heaven! was the man
speaking the truth when he