ppose
some day you'll find out everything about me. Perhaps you'll be sorry
then that you ever even called yourself my brother."

"Don't be foolish," he answered, brusquely.

She patted his hand.

"Is the speculation going all right?" she asked.

"I am hoping to get the money together this week," he replied. "If I get
it, I shall be well off in a year, rich in five years."

"There is just a doubt about your getting it, then?" she inquired.

"Just a doubt," he admitted. "I have a solicitor who is doing his best
to raise a loan, but I have not heard from him for two days. Then I have
also a friend who has promised it to me, a friend upon whom I am not
quite sure if I can rely."

They turned into the Strand.

"Tell me about my father, Leonard," she begged.

He hesitated; it was hard to know exactly how to speak of the professor.

"Perhaps if you have talked with him at all," she went on, "it will help
you to understand one of the difficulties I had to face in life."

"He is, I should imagine, a little weak," Tavernake suggested,
hesitatingly.

"Very," she answered. "My mother left him in my charge, but I cannot
keep him."

"Your sister--" he began.

She nodded.

"My sister has more influence than I. She makes life easier for him."

They reached the restaurant and made their way upstairs. Tavernake
appropriated the same table and once more the head waiter protested.

"If the gentleman comes again to-night," Tavernake said, "you will find
that he will be only too glad to have supper with us."

Then the professor came. He made his usual somewhat theatrical
entrance, carrying his broad-brimmed hat in his hand, brandishing his
silver-topped cane. When he saw Tavernake and Beatrice, he stopped
short. Then he held out both hands, which Beatrice immediately seized.
There were tears in his eyes, tears running down his cheeks. He sat down
heavily in the chair which Tavernake was holding for him.

"Beatrice," he exclaimed, "why, this is most affecting! You have come
here to have supper with your old father. You trust me, then?"

"Absolutely," she replied, still clasping his hands. "If you give me
away to Elizabeth, it will be the end. The next time I shall never be
found."

"For some days," he assured her, "I have known exactly where you were to
be found. I have never spoken of it. You are safe. My meals up here,"
he added, with a little sigh, "have been sad feasts. To-night we will
be cheerful. Some quails