ifference."

"I suppose your back is better?"

"No, it isn't,--not a bit. It gets worse and worse."

"What does Dr. Pullbody say?"

"Nothing that anybody can understand. By George! he takes my money
freely enough. He tells me to eat beefsteaks and drink port-wine. I'd
sooner die at once. I told him so, or something a little stronger, I
believe, and he almost jumped out of his shoes."

"He doesn't think there is any----danger?"

"He doesn't know anything about it. I wish I could have your
father-in-law in a room by ourselves, with a couple of loaded
revolvers. I'd make better work of it than he did."

"God forbid!"

"I daresay he won't give me the chance. He thinks he has done a plucky
thing because he's as strong as a brewer's horse. I call that downright
cowardice."

"It depends on how it began, Brotherton."

"Of course there had been words between us. Things always begin in that
way."

"You must have driven him very hard."

"Are you going to take his part? Because, if so, there may as well be
an end of it. I thought you had found him out and had separated
yourself from him. You can't think that he is a gentleman?"

"He is a very liberal man."

"You mean to sell yourself, then, for the money that was made in his
father's stables?"

"I have not sold myself at all. I haven't spoken to him for the last
month."

"So I understood; therefore I sent for you. You are all back at Manor
Cross now?"

"Yes;--we are there."

"You wrote me a letter which I didn't think quite the right thing. But,
however, I don't mind telling you that you can have the house if we can
come to terms about it."

"What terms?"

"You can have the house and the park, and Cross Hall Farm, too, if
you'll pledge yourself that the Dean shall never enter your house
again, and that you will never enter his house or speak to him. You
shall do pretty nearly as you please at Manor Cross. In that event I
shall live abroad, or here in London if I come to England. I think
that's a fair offer, and I don't suppose that you yourself can be very
fond of the man." Lord George sat perfectly silent while the Marquis
waited for a reply. "After what has passed," continued he, "you can't
suppose that I should choose that he should be entertained in my
dining-room."

"You said the same about my wife before."

"Yes, I did; but a man may separate himself from his father-in-law when
he can't very readily get rid of his wife. I never saw your wife."