ired the wholehearted
dash with which Lord Tancred had surrendered; there was something big
and royal about it--he himself never gambled in small sums either. "So
as I expect you won't," he continued, "I will tell you. She is the
daughter of Maurice Grey, a brother of old Colonel Grey of Hentingdon,
whom everybody knew, and she has been the widow of an unspeakable brute
for over a year. She was an immaculate wife, and devoted daughter before
that. The possibilities of her temperament are all to come."

Lord Tancred sprang from his chair, the very thought of her and her
temperament made him thrill. Was it possible he was already in love,
after one evening?

"Now we must really discuss affairs, my dear boy," the financier went
on. "Her dower, as I told you, will be princely."

"That I absolutely refuse to do, Francis," Lord Tancred answered. "I
tell you I want the woman for my wife. You can settle the other things
with my lawyer if you care to, and tie it all up on her. I am not
interested in that matter. The only thing I really wish to know is if
you are sure she will marry me?"

"I am perfectly sure." The financier narrowed his eyes. "I would not
have suggested the affair to-day if I had had any doubt about that."

"Then it is settled, and I shall not ask why. I shall not ask any thing.
Only when may I see her again and how soon can we be married?"

"Come and lunch with me in the city to-morrow, and we will talk over
everything. I shall have seen her, and can then tell you when to present
yourself. And I suppose you can have the ceremony at the beginning of
November?"

"Six whole weeks hence!" Lord Tancred said, protestingly. "Must she get
such heaps of clothes? Can't it be sooner? I wanted to be here for my
Uncle Glastonbury's first shoot on the 2nd of November, and if we are
only married then, we shall be off on a honeymoon. You must come to that
shoot, by-the-way, old boy, it is the pleasantest of the whole lot he
has; one day at the partridges, and a dash at the pheasants; but he only
asks the jolliest parties to this early one, for Ethelrida's birthday,
and none of the bores."

"It would give me great pleasure to do so," Francis Markrute said. And
he looked down so that Lord Tancred should not see the joy in his eyes.

Then they shook hands most heartily, and the newly made fiance said
good-night, with the happy assurance in his ears that he might claim his
bride in time to be back from a week's honeymoon