very sore as to the presence of Traffick
in Queen's Gate. The Easter parliamentary holidays were just at
hand, and there was no sign of any going. Augusta had whispered
to her mother that the poky little house in Mayfair would be very
uncomfortable for the coming event,--and Lady Tringle, though she had
not dared to say even as much as that in plain terms to her husband,
had endeavoured to introduce the subject by little hints,--which
Sir Thomas had clearly understood. He was hardly the man to turn a
daughter and an expected grandchild into the streets; but he was,
in his present mood, a father-in-law who would not unwillingly
have learned that his son-in-law was without a shelter except that
afforded by the House of Commons. Why on earth should he have given
up one hundred and twenty thousand pounds,--L6,000 a-year as it was
under his fostering care,--to a man who could not even keep a house
over his wife's head? This was the humour of Sir Thomas when Mr.
Traffick undertook to prevail with him to give an adequate fortune to
his youngest daughter on her marriage with Captain Batsby.

The conversation between Traffick and Batsby took place on a Sunday.
On the following day the Captain went down to the House and saw the
Member. "No; I have not spoken to him yet."

"I was with him on Friday, you know," said Batsby. "I can't well
go and call on the ladies in Queen's Gate till I hear that he has
changed his mind."

"I should. I don't see what difference it would make."

Then Captain Batsby was again very thoughtful. "It would make a
difference, you know. If I were to say a word to Gertrude now,--as to
being married or anything of that kind,--it would seem that I meant
to go on whether I got anything or not."

"And you should seem to want to go on," said Traffick, with all that
authority which the very surroundings of the House of Commons always
give to the words and gait of a Member.

"But then I might find myself dropped in a hole at last."

"My dear Batsby, you made that hole for yourself when you ran off
with the young lady."

"We settled all that before."

"Not quite. What we did settle was that we'd do our best to fill the
hole up. Of course you ought to go and see them. You went off with
the young lady,--and since that have been accepted as her suitor by
her father. You are bound to go and see her."

"Do you think so?"

"Certainly! Certainly! It never does to talk to Tringle about
business at his own hou