ntageous as a title
and old family name would be to her and her children, I won't let my
brother's daughter run the risk of having them at the expense of being
in the grip of a man like you. There are other suitors in the world, and
other titles: and she is a beautiful woman, who can well afford to be
fastidious. I shall let her know at once of these things, and break off
the business--unless you do ONE THING.'

A workman brought up another candle from the vault, and prepared to let
down the slab. 'Well, Mr. Power, and what is that one thing?'

'Go to Peru as my agent in a business I have just undertaken there.'

'And settle there?'

'Of course. I am soon going over myself, and will bring you anything you
require.'

'How long will you give me to consider?' said Dare.

Power looked at his watch. 'One, two, three, four hours,' he said. 'I
leave Markton by the seven o'clock train this evening.'

'And if I meet your proposal with a negative?'

'I shall go at once to my niece and tell her the whole
circumstances--tell her that, by marrying Sir William, she allies
herself with an unhappy gentleman in the power of a criminal son who
makes his life a burden to him by perpetual demands upon his purse; who
will increase those demands with his accession to wealth, threaten to
degrade her by exposing her husband's antecedents if she opposes his
extortions, and who will make her miserable by letting her know that her
old lover was shamefully victimized by a youth she is bound to screen
out of respect to her husband's feelings. Now a man does not care to let
his own flesh and blood incur the danger of such anguish as that, and
I shall do what I say to prevent it. Knowing what a lukewarm sentiment
hers is for Sir William at best, I shall not have much difficulty.'

'Well, I don't feel inclined to go to Peru.'

'Neither do I want to break off the match, though I am ready to do it.
But you care about your personal freedom, and you might be made to wear
the broad arrow for your tricks on Somerset.'

'Mr. Power, I see you are a hard man.'

'I am a hard man. You will find me one. Well, will you go to Peru? Or
I don't mind Australia or California as alternatives. As long as you
choose to remain in either of those wealth-producing places, so long
will Cunningham Haze go uninformed.'

'Mr. Power, I am overcome. Will you allow me to sit down? Suppose we go
into the vestry. It is more comfortable.'

They entered the vestry, and