nted mind, he even looked contented sitting by
the empty stove when Julia came back with the paraffin; the Captain,
on the other hand, appeared to be very gloomy and unhappy; he sat
silent all the time his daughter was present. As she was leaving the
room Johnny tried to rouse him. "We might have a game," he suggested,
looking towards a pack of cards that stuck out of a half-opened
drawer.

"I have nothing in the world that I can call my own," Captain
Polkington answered, without moving.

Mr. Gillat felt in his own lean pockets surreptitiously. "We might
play for paper," he said.

And as she went up-stairs Julia listened to hear their chairs scroop
on the kamptulikon floor as they drew them to the table; she was
surprised not to hear the sound, but she imagined the game must have
been put off a little so that her father could talk over his troubles.
Which, indeed, was the case, though the magnitude of those troubles
she did not guess.

CHAPTER II

THE DEBT

Violet's engagement was an accepted fact. Mr. Frazer came to see the
Captain, who received him in the dining-room--the combined ingenuity
of the family could not make the down-stairs room presentable. The
interview was short, but satisfactory; so also was the one with Mrs.
Polkington which followed; with Violet it was longer, but, no doubt,
equally satisfactory. Lunch, too, was all that could be desired. Mrs.
Polkington's manners were always gracious, and to-day she had a
charming air of taking Richard into the family--after having shut all
the doors, actual and metaphorical, which led to anything real and
personal. The Captain was rather twittery at lunch, at times inclined
to talk too much, at times heavily silent and always obviously
submissive to his wife. Yesterday's excitement was not enough to
account for this in Julia's opinion. "He has been doing something,"
she decided, and wondered what.

Mrs. Polkington and her daughters all went out that afternoon; Julia,
however, returned at about dusk. As the others had no intention of
coming back so soon, there was no drawing-room tea; a much simpler
meal was spread in the dining-room. Julia and her father had only just
sat down to it when they heard Johnny Gillat's knock at the front
door, followed a minute afterwards by Mr. Gillat himself; but when he
saw that the Captain was not alone, he stopped on the threshold;
Julia's presence, contrary to custom, seemed to discompose him. He,
then, was in he