liked the best
of all his children, who of the three was the least inclined to run
counter to him,--ready to break his heart, because he could not get
a little chit of a girl of whom he would probably be tired in twelve
months after he possessed her! Remembering what Tom had been, he was
at a loss to understand how such a lad should be so thoroughly in
love. At the present moment, had Ayala been purchaseable, he would
have been willing to buy her at a great price, because he would fain
have pleased Tom had it been possible. But Ayala, who had not a penny
in the world,--who never would have a penny unless he should give it
her,--would not be purchased, and would have nothing to do with Tom!
The world was running counter to him, so that he had no pleasure in
his home, no pleasure in his money, no pleasure in his children. The
little back-parlour in Lombard Street was sweeter to him than Merle
Park, with all its charms. His daughter Gertrude wanted to run away
from him, while by no inducement could he get Mr. Traffick to leave
the house.

While he was in this humour he met his niece Lucy roaming about the
garden. He knew the whole story of Lucy's love, and had been induced
by his wife to acknowledge that her marriage with the sculptor was
not to be sanctioned. He had merely expressed his scorn when the
unfortunate circumstances of Hamel's birth had been explained to him
again and again. He had ridiculed the horror felt by his wife at the
equally ill-born brothers and sisters in Rome. He had merely shaken
his head when he was told that Hamel's father never went inside of
any place of worship. But when it was explained to him that the
young man had, so to say, no income at all, then he was forced to
acknowledge that the young man ought not to be allowed to marry his
niece.

To Lucy herself he had as yet said nothing on the subject since he
had asked the lover in to lunch at Glenbogie. He heard bad accounts
of her. He had been told by his wife, on different occasions,--not
in the mere way of conversation, but with a premeditated energy of
fault-finding,--that Lucy was a disobedient girl. She was worse than
Ayala. She persisted in saying that she would marry the penniless
artist as soon as he should profess himself to be ready. It had been
different, she had tried to explain to her aunt, before she had been
engaged to him. Now she considered herself to be altogether at his
disposal. This had been her plea, but her plea had