ched Rugby.'

'All that will not enable you to make a settlement on Nina Kostalergi.'

'No; but I'll marry her all the same.'

'I don't think so.'

'Will you have a bet on it, Dick? What will you wager?'

'A thousand--ten, if I had it; but I'll give you ten pounds on it, which is
about as much as either of us could pay.'

'Speak for yourself, Master Dick. As Robert Macaire says, "_Je viens de
toucher mes dividendes_," and I am in no want of money. The fact is, so
long as a man can pay for certain luxuries in life, he is well off: the
strictly necessary takes care of itself.'

'Does it? I should like to know how.'

'With your present limited knowledge of life, I doubt if I could explain it
to you, but I will try one of these mornings. Meanwhile, let us go into the
drawing-room and get mademoiselle to sing for us. She will sing, I take
it?'

'Of course--if asked by you.' And there was the very faintest tone of sneer
in the words.

And they did go, and mademoiselle did sing all that Atlee could ask her
for, and she was charming in every way that grace and beauty and the
wish to please could make her. Indeed, to such extent did she carry her
fascinations that Joe grew thoughtful at last, and muttered to himself,
'There is vendetta in this. It is only a woman knows how to make a
vengeance out of her attractions.'

'Why are you so serious, Mr. Atlee?' asked she at last.

'I was thinking--I mean, I was trying to think--yes, I remember it now,'
muttered he. 'I have had a letter for you all this time in my pocket.'

'A letter from Greece?' asked she impatiently.

'No--at least I suspect not. It was given me as I drove through the bog by
a barefooted boy, who had trotted after the car for miles, and at length
overtook us by the accident of the horse picking up a stone in his hoof.
He said it was for "some one at the castle," and I offered to take charge
of it--here it is,' and he produced a square-shaped envelope of common
coarse-looking paper, sealed with red wax, and a shamrock for impress.

'A begging-letter, I should say, from the outside,' said Dick.

'Except that there is not one so poor as to ask aid from me,' added Nina,
as she took the document, glanced at the writing, and placed it in her
pocket.

As they separated for the night, and Dick trotted up the stairs at Atlee's
side, he said, 'I don't think, after all, my ten pounds is so safe as I
fancied.'

'Don't you?' replied Joe. 'My impressions are