l?' he grumbled good-humouredly;
'Harcourt has taken up all the evening. That is the worst of having an
elderly son-in-law; one is bound to be civil to him; one could not tell
him to hold his tongue, for example.'

'I think Percival would resent such a hint,' returned Audrey rather
absently. She had drawn a low chair close to her father's knee, so that
she could touch him, and now she looked up in his face a little
pleadingly.

'Well, what is it, child?' he went on, still fingering his paper; 'I
suppose you want help for some _protegee_ or other--moderation in all
things. I warn you that I have not got Fortunatus's purse.'

'It is not money I want,' she returned, so gravely that he began to feel
uncomfortable. 'Daddy, it is something very, very different. This
afternoon Cyril Blake spoke to me, and I--that is, we--are engaged.'

Dr. Ross gave a great start and dropped the _Times_ as though it burnt
him. For a moment he did not speak. With all his mildness and
benevolence, he was a man of strong passions, though no one would have
guessed it from his habitual self-control.

'We are engaged,' she repeated softly, and then she stroked her father's
hand; but he drew it rather quickly away.

'Audrey,' he said, in a voice that she did not recognise, it was so
stern, so full of displeasure; 'I would rather have heard anything than
this, that a child of mine should so far forget herself as to engage
herself to any man without her parents' consent.'

'Oh, daddy----' she began caressingly, but he stopped her.

'It was wrong; it was what I would not have believed of you, Audrey; but
with regard to Mr. Blake, it was altogether dishonourable. How dared
he,' here the Doctor's eyes flashed through his spectacles, 'how dared
he win my daughter's affections in this clandestine way?'

'Father, you must not speak so of Cyril!' returned Audrey calmly, though
she was a little pale--a little disturbed at this unexpected severity;
'it is not what you think: there was nothing clandestine or
dishonourable. He did not mean to speak to me; it was more my fault than
his. You shall hear all, every word from the beginning. Do you think I
would hide anything from my father?' And here two large tears welled
slowly from Audrey's eyes, but she wiped them away. Perhaps her
gentleness and the sight of those tears mollified Dr. Ross, for when
Audrey laid her clasped hands upon his knee he did not again repulse
her. Nay, more, when she faltered onc