wn along with me and try your luck?'

'When do you go?'

'By the 10.30 train to-morrow. I shall arrive at Moate by four o'clock, and
reach the castle to dinner.'

'They expect you?'

'Only so far, that I have telegraphed a line to say I'm going down to bid
"Good-bye" before I sail for Guatemala. I don't suspect they know where
that is, but it's enough when they understand it is far away.'

'I'll go with you.'

'Will you really?'

'I will. I'll not say on such an errand as your own, because that requires
a second thought or two; but I'll reconnoitre, Master Cecil, I'll
reconnoitre.'

'I suppose you know there is no money.'

'I should think money most unlikely in such a quarter; and it's better she
should have none than a small fortune. I'm an old whist-player, and when
I play dummy, there's nothing I hate more than to see two or three small
trumps in my partner's hand.'

'I imagine you'll not be distressed in that way here.'

'I've got enough to come through with; that is, the thing can be done if
there be no extravagances.'

'Does one want for more?' cried Walpole theatrically.

'I don't know that. If it were only ask and have, I should like to be
tempted.'

'I have no such ambition. I firmly believe that the moderate limits a man
sets to his daily wants constitute the real liberty of his intellect and
his intellectual nature.'

'Perhaps I've no intellectual nature, then,' growled out Lockwood, 'for I
know how I should like to spend fifteen thousand a year. I suppose I shall
have to live on as many hundreds.'

'It can be done.'

'Perhaps it may. Have another weed?'

'No. I told you already I have begun a tobacco reformation.'

'Does she object to the pipe?'

'I cannot tell you. The fact is, Lockwood, my future and its fortunes are
just as uncertain as your own. This day week will probably have decided the
destiny of each of us.'

'To our success, then!' cried the major, filling both their glasses.

'To our success!' said Walpole, as he drained his, and placed it upside
down on the table.

CHAPTER LXIX

AT KILGOBBIN CASTLE

The 'Blue Goat' at Moate was destined once more to receive the same
travellers whom we presented to our readers at a very early stage of this
history.

'Not much change here,' cried Lockwood, as he strode into the little
sitting-room and sat down. 'I miss the old fellow's picture, that's all.'

'Ah! by the way,' said Walpole to the landlord, 'you had my Lor