k them regarding
the vast majority of the names which appeared therein, this, however,
did not matter. They presumed, good, easy souls, that John Blake, Esq.,
J.P., and the rest were patriots who for long years had been working
for the good of their country, and that what they had done in secret
had been discovered in high places and was now proclaimed from the
housetops.

Lady Jane was inclined to share this view. She knew that a great deal
of her husband's money went into mysterious channels of which she was
unable to trace the ends, and concluded in her Victorian-wife kind of
fashion, or at any rate hoped, that it was spent in alleviating the
distress of the "Submerged Tenth" which at that time was much in
evidence. Hence no doubt the gracious recognition that had come to him.
John Blake himself, who paid over the cash, naturally had no such
delusions, and unfortunately in that moment of exultation, when he
contemplated his own name adorning the lists in every newspaper, let
out the truth at breakfast at which Isobel was his sole companion. For
by this time Lady Jane had grown too delicate to come down early.

"Well, you've got a baronet for a father now, my girl"--to be accurate
he called it a "bart."--he said puffing himself out like a great toad
before the fire, as he threw down the _Daily News_ in which his name
was icily ignored in a spiteful leaderette about the Honours List, upon
the top of _The Times_, _The Standard_, and _The Morning Post_.

"Oh!" said Isobel in an interested voice and paused.

"It's wonderful what money can do," went on her father, who was
inclined for a discussion, and saw no other way of opening up the
subject. "Certain qualifications of which it does not become me to
speak, and a good subscription to the Party funds, and there you are
with Bart. instead of Esq. after your name and Sir before it. I wonder
when I shall get the Patent? You know baronets do not receive the
accolade."

"Don't they?" commented Isobel. "Well, that saves the Queen some
trouble of which she must be glad as she does not get the subscription.
I know all about the accolade," she added; "for Godfrey has told me.
Only the other day he was showing me in the Abbey Church where the
warriors who were to receive it, knelt all night before the altar. But
they didn't give subscriptions, they prayed and afterwards took a cold
bath."

"Times are changed," he answered.

"Yes, of course. I can't see _you_ kneeling all n