tly say that it would have been
better for him to start life with a fortune at his back, eh?"

"No."

Dudley got up from his chair. He seemed agitated and uneasy, and soon
took advantage of Mr. Wedmore's suggestion, somewhat dryly made, that he
was tired after his journey and would like to go to bed.

When he had left the room, Mr. Wedmore turned angrily to his daughter.

"Now, Doreen, I will have no more of this nonsense. Dudley is beginning
all the old tricks over again--absence of mind, indifference to you--did
he even look at you as he said good night?--and morbid interest in this
old, forgotten business of Jacobs and his misdoings. I won't have any
more of it, and I shall tell him plainly that we don't care to have him
down here until he can bring a livelier face and manner with him!"

Doreen had risen from her humble seat on the floor and had crawled on
her knees to the side of his chair, where she slid a coaxing, caressing
hand under his arm and put her pretty head gently down on his shoulder.

"No, you won't, papa dear. You won't do anything of the kind," she
whispered in his ear very softly, very humbly. "You would not do
anything to give pain to your old friend's son if you could help it, and
you would not do anything to hurt your own child, your little Doreen,
for a hundred thousand pounds, now would you?"

"Yes, I would, if it was for her good," replied Mr. Wedmore, in a very
loud and determined voice, which was supposed to have the effect of
frightening her into submission. "And it's all rubbish to think to get
around me by calling yourself 'little Doreen,' when you're a great, big,
overgrown lamp-post of a girl, who can take her own part against the
whole county."

Doreen laughed, but still clung persistently to the arm which he
pretended to try to release from her clutches.

"Well, I don't know about the county, but I think I can persuade my old
father into doing what I want," she purred into his ear with gentle
conviction. "You see, papa, it isn't as if Dudley and I were engaged.
We--"

"Why, what else have you been but engaged ever since last Christmas?"
said her father, irritably. "Everybody has looked upon it as an
engagement, and Dudley was devoted enough until a couple of months ago;
but now something has gone wrong with the lad, I'm certain, and it would
be much better for you both to make an end of this."

"Why, there's nothing to make an end of," pleaded Doreen. "Just 'let
things sli