rship will have to go to a stranger, I suppose. I
can't get on much longer without help. I hoped it might be one of my
own kith and kin, but--"

"Don't be in a hurry, dear. I may fall in love with a pauper, and then
you can have a son-in-law to help you, instead of a son."

Mr Vane pushed her away with an impatient hand.

"No more son-in-laws, thank you! One is about as many as I can tackle
at a time. Edith has been at me again with a sheaf of bills--"

His eldest daughter's husband had recently failed in business, in
consequence of which he himself was at present supporting a second
establishment. He sighed, and reflected that it was a thankless task to
rear a family. The infantine troubles of teething, whooping-cough, and
scarlatina were trifles as compared with the later annoyance and
difficulties of dealing with striplings who had the audacity to imagine
themselves grown-up, and competent to have a say in their own lives!

If things turned out well, they took the credit to themselves! If ill,
then papa had to pay the bills! Mr Vane was convinced that he was an
ill-used and much-to-be-pitied martyr.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE SISTERS.

Mr Vane's house overlooked Regent's Park, and formed the corner house
of a white terrace boasting Grecian pillars and a railed-in stretch of
grass in front of the windows. The rooms were large and handsome, and
of that severe, box-like outline which are the despair of the modern
upholsterer. The drawing-room boasted half a dozen windows, four in
front, and two at the side, and as regards furnishings was a curious
graft of modern art upon an Early Victoria stock. Logically the
combination was an anachronism; in effect it was charming and
harmonious, for the changes had been made with the utmost caution, in
consideration of the feelings of the head of the household.

Mr Vane's argument was that he preferred solid old-fashioned furniture
to modern gimcracks, and had no wish to conform to artistic fads, and
his daughters dutifully agreed, and--disobeyed! Their mode of procedure
was to withdraw one article at a time, and to wait until the parental
eye had become accustomed to the gap before venturing on a second
confiscation. On the rare occasions when the abduction was discovered,
it was easy to fall back upon the well-worn domestic justification, "Oh,
that's been gone a _long_ time!" when, in justice to one's own power of
observation, the matter must be allowed to drop