now do must not be taken as
a precedent,--I do it, as the lawyers say, 'without prejudice.'"

In a glow of hot temper, to which the ascent of two pairs of stairs
contributed something, the old Commodore burst into the room where his
daughters were engaged unpacking. Sofas, tables, and chairs were already
covered with articles of dress, rendering his progress a matter of very
nice steering through the midst of them.

"Cram them in again,--stow them all away!" cried he; "we 're going
back."

"Back where?" asked the elder, in a tone of dignified resistance years
of strong opposition had taught her.

"Back to Port-Graham, if you know such a place. I 've ordered the car
round to the door, and I mean to be off in a quarter of an hour."

"But why--what has happened? what's the reason for this?"

"The reason is that I 'm not going to be packed up in the top story, or
given a bed in a barrack room. That fellow Raikes,--I 'll remember it to
him next Christmas,--that fellow has gone and given the garden-house to
that Mr. Maitland."

"Oh, is that all?" broke in Miss Graham.

"All, all! Why, what more would you have? Did you expect that he had
told me to brush his coat or fetch his hot water? What the d----l do you
mean by 'all'?"

"Then why don't you take Mrs. Chetwyn's rooms? They are on this floor.
She's going now. They are most comfortable, and have a south aspect: by
the way she was just talking of Maitland; she knows all about him, and
he is the celebrated Norman Maitland."

"Ah, let us hear that. I want to unearth the fellow if I only knew how,"
said he, taking a chair.

"There's nothing to unearth, papa," said the younger daughter. "Mrs.
Chetwyn says that there's not a man in England so courted and feted as
he is; that people positively fight for him at country-houses; and it's
a regular bait to one's company to say, 'We 're to have Maitland with
us.'"

"And who is he?"

"She does n't know."

"What's his fortune?"

"She doesn't know."

"Where is it?"

"She's not sure. It must be somewhere abroad,--in India, perhaps."

"So that this old woman knows just as much as we do ourselves,--which
is simply nothing, but that people go on asking this man about to this
dinner and that shooting just because they met him somewhere else, and
he amused them."

"'T is pretty clear that he has money, wherever it comes from," said
Miss Graham, authoritatively. "He came to Hamilton Court with four
hunters and three hac