rom the table fixed it firmly upon his
head, and gazing with scornful indignation upon his host, stepped slowly
out of the door without going through the formality of bidding him
good-night.

"George," said a voice from above him.

Mr. Raggett started, and glanced up at somebody leaning from the window.

"Come in to tea to-morrow early," said the voice pressingly;
"good-night, dear."

Mr. Raggett turned and fled into the night, dimly conscious that a dark
figure had detached itself from the stile opposite, and was walking
beside him.

"That you, Dick?" he inquired nervously, after an oppressive silence.

"That's me," said Dick. "I heard her call you 'dear.'" Mr. Raggett, his
face suffused with blushes, hung his head.

"Called you 'dear,'" repeated Dick; "I heard her say it. I'm going to
pitch you in the harbour. I'll learn you to go courting a young girl.
What are you stopping for?"

Mr. Raggett delicately intimated that he was stopping because he
preferred, all things considered, to be alone. Finding the young man,
however, bent upon accompanying him, he divulged the plot of which he
had been the victim, and bitterly lamented his share in it.

"You don't want to marry her then?" said the astonished Dick.

"Course I don't," snarled Mr. Raggett; "I can't afford it. I'm too old;
besides which, she'll turn my little place topsy-turvy. Look here, Dick,
I done this all for you. Now, it's evident she only wants my furniture:
if I give all the best of it to you, she'll take you instead."

"No, she won't," said Dick grimly; "I wouldn't have her now, not if she
asked me on her bended knee."

"Why not?" said Raggett.

"I don't want to marry that sort o' girl," said the other scornfully;
"it's cured me."

"What about me then?" said the unfortunate Raggett.

"Well, so far as I can see it serves you right for mixing in other
people's business," said Dick shortly. "Well, good-night, and good luck
to you."

To Mr. Raggett's sore disappointment he kept to his resolution, and
being approached by Mr. Boom on his elderly friend's behalf, was rudely
frank to him.

"I'm a free man again," he said blithely, "and I feel better than I've
felt for ever so long. More manly."

"You ought to think of other people," said Mr. Boom severely; "think of
poor old Raggett."

"Well, he's got a young wife out of it," said Dick. "I daresay he'll be
happy enough. He wants somebody to help him spend his money."

In this happy frame