o order." Like every one else he showed
the whites of his eyes at the latter's flimsy reasons for seeking a
change. But when, in spite of her warning, he bearded his
brother-in-law with a jocose and hearty: "Come, come, my dear Mahony!
what's all this? You're actually thinking of giving us the slip?"
Richard took his interference so badly, became so agitated over the
head of the harmless question that John's airy remonstrance died in his
throat.

"Mad as a March hare!" was his private verdict, as he shook down his
ruffled plumes. To Mary he said ponderously: "Well, upon my soul, my
dear girl, I don't know--I am frankly at a loss what to say. Measured
by every practical standard, the step he contemplates is little short
of suicidal. I fear he will live to regret it."

And Mary, who had not expected anything from John's intervention, and
also knew the grounds for Richard's heat--Mary now resigned herself,
with the best grace she could muster, to the inevitable.

Chapter XII

House and practice sold for a good round sum; the brass plates were
removed from gate and door, leaving dirty squares flanked by
screw-holes; carpets came up and curtains down; and, like rats from a
doomed ship, men and women servants fled to other situations. One fine
day the auctioneer's bell was rung through the main streets of the
town; and both on this and the next, when the red flag flew in front of
the house, a troop of intending purchasers, together with an even
larger number of the merely curious, streamed in at the gate and
overran the premises. At noon the auctioneer mounted his perch,
gathered the crowd round him, and soon had the sale in full swing,
catching head-bobs, or wheedling and insisting with, when persuasion
could do no more, his monotonous parrot-cry of: "Going... going ...
gone!"

It would have been in bad taste for either husband or wife to be
visible while the auction was in progress; and, the night before, Mary
and the child had moved to Tilly's, where they would stay for the rest
of the time. But Mahony was still hard at work. The job of winding up
and getting in the money owed him was no light one. For the report had
somehow got abroad that he was retiring from practice because he had
made his fortune; and only too many people took this as a tacit
permission to leave their bills unpaid.

He had locked himself and his account-books into a small back room,
where stood the few articles they had picked out to car