was speechless with Indignation.

"Don't shake the room!" cried Mr. Fairlie--"for Heaven's sake don't
shake the room! Worthiest of all possible Gilmores, I meant no offence.
My own views are so extremely liberal that I think I am a Radical
myself. Yes. We are a pair of Radicals. Please don't be angry. I
can't quarrel--I haven't stamina enough. Shall we drop the subject?
Yes. Come and look at these sweet etchings. Do let me teach you to
understand the heavenly pearliness of these lines. Do now, there's a
good Gilmore!"

While he was maundering on in this way I was, fortunately for my own
self-respect, returning to my senses. When I spoke again I was
composed enough to treat his impertinence with the silent contempt that
it deserved.

"You are entirely wrong, sir," I said, "in supposing that I speak from
any prejudice against Sir Percival Glyde. I may regret that he has so
unreservedly resigned himself in this matter to his lawyer's direction
as to make any appeal to himself impossible, but I am not prejudiced
against him. What I have said would equally apply to any other man in
his situation, high or low. The principle I maintain is a recognised
principle. If you were to apply at the nearest town here, to the first
respectable solicitor you could find, he would tell you as a stranger
what I tell you as a friend. He would inform you that it is against
all rule to abandon the lady's money entirely to the man she marries.
He would decline, on grounds of common legal caution, to give the
husband, under any circumstances whatever, an interest of twenty
thousand pounds in his wife's death."

"Would he really, Gilmore?" said Mr. Fairlie. "If he said anything
half so horrid, I do assure you I should tinkle my bell for Louis, and
have him sent out of the house immediately."

"You shall not irritate me, Mr. Fairlie--for your niece's sake and for
her father's sake, you shall not irritate me. You shall take the whole
responsibility of this discreditable settlement on your own shoulders
before I leave the room."

"Don't!--now please don't!" said Mr. Fairlie. "Think how precious your
time is, Gilmore, and don't throw it away. I would dispute with you if
I could, but I can't--I haven't stamina enough. You want to upset me,
to upset yourself, to upset Glyde, and to upset Laura; and--oh, dear
me!--all for the sake of the very last thing in the world that is
likely to happen. No, dear friend, in the interests of