r thirty years!"

"I cannot contradict you when you say so, but I must ask you to name
a day. It is not as though the suggestion were now made to you for
the first time." Mr. Greenwood got up from the edge of the chair, and
again stood in the middle of the room. Lord Hampstead felt himself
constrained also to stand. "Have you any answer to make to me?"

"No; I have not," said the chaplain.

"You mean that you have not fixed upon a day?"

"I shan't go with L200 a year," said the chaplain. "It's
unreasonable; it's brutal!"

"Brutal!" shouted Lord Hampstead.

"I shan't stir till I've seen the Marquis himself. It's out of
the question that he should turn me out in this way. How am I to
live upon L200 a year? I always understood that I was to have
Appleslocombe."

"No such promise was ever made to you," said Lord Hampstead, very
angrily. "No hint of such a thing has ever been made except by
yourself."

"I always understood it," said Mr. Greenwood. "And I shall not leave
this till I've had an opportunity of discussing the matter with the
Marquis himself. I don't think the Marquis would ever have treated me
in this way,--only for you, Lord Hampstead."

This was intolerable. What was he to do with the abominable man?
It would be very disagreeable, the task of turning him out while
the Marquis was still so ill, and yet it was not to be endured that
such a man should be allowed to hold his position in the house in
opposition to the will of the owner. It was, he felt, beneath him to
defend himself against the charge made--or even to defend his father.
"If you will not name a day, I must," said the young lord. The man
remained immovable on his seat except that he continued to rub his
hands. "As I can get no answer I shall have to instruct Mr. Roberts
that you cannot be allowed to remain here after the last day of the
month. If you have any feeling left to you you will not impose upon
us so unpleasant a duty while my father is ill." With this he left
the room, while Mr. Greenwood was still standing and rubbing his
hands.

Two hundred pounds a year! He had better go and take it. He was quite
aware of that. But how was he to live upon L200,--he who had been
bedded and boarded all his life at the expense of another man, and
had also spent L300? But at the moment this was not the thought
uppermost in his mind. Would it not have been better that he should
have carried out that project of his? Only that he had been merciful,