"You need not be afraid of giving it to her," Harry went on. "It is only

to tell her what I have told your master in my letter to him, that I am

going to call tomorrow."

 

"Then I shall be glad to do it," the man said--for, as usual, the servants

were pretty well acquainted with the state of affairs, and when Harry went

away, and their young mistress was evidently in disgrace with her father,

they guessed pretty accurately what had happened, and their sympathies

were with the lovers. Harry returned to Jermyn Street confident that Hilda

would get his note that evening. He had no feeling of animosity against

her father, It was natural that, as a large land-owner, and belonging to

an old family, and closely connected with more than one peer of the realm,

he should offer strong opposition to the marriage of his daughter to a

half-pay lieutenant, and he had been quite prepared for the burst of anger

with which his request for her hand had been received. He had felt that it

was a forlorn hope; but he and Hilda hoped that in time the old man would

soften, especially as they had an ally in her mother. Hilda had three

brothers, and as the estates and the bulk of Mr. Fortescue's fortune would

go to them, she was not a great heiress, though undoubtedly she would be

well dowered.

 

On arriving the next morning Harry was shown into the library. Mr.

Fortescue rose from his chair and bowed coldly.

 

"To what am I indebted for the honour of this visit, Mr. Prendergast? I

had hoped that the emphatic way in which I rejected your--you will excuse

my saying--presumptuous request for the hand of my daughter, would have

settled the matter once and for all; and I trust that your request for an

interview to-day does not imply that you intend to renew that proposal,

which I may say at once would receive, and will receive as long as I live,

the same answer as I before gave you."

 

"It has that object, sir," Harry said quietly, "but under somewhat changed

conditions. I asked you at that time to give me two years, in which time

possibly my circumstances might change. You refused to give me a single

week; but your daughter was more kind, and promised to wait for the two

years, which will not be up for two more months."

 

"She has behaved like a froward and obstinate girl," her father said

angrily. "She has refused several most eligible offers, and I have to

thank you for it. Well, sir, I hope at least that you have the grace to

feel that it is preposterous that you should any longer stand in the way

of this misguided girl."

 

"I have come to say that if it is her wish and yours that I should stand

aside, as you say, I will do so, and in my letters I told her that unless

circumstances should be changed before the two years have expired I would

disappear altogether from her path."

 

"That is something at least, sir," Mr. Fortescue said with more courtesy

than he had hitherto shown. "I need not say that there is no prospect of

your obtaining my consent, and may inform you that my daughter promised

not to withstand my commands as far as you are concerned beyond the

expiration of the two years. I do not know that there is anything more to

say."

 

"I should not have come here, sir, had there not been more to say, but

should simply have addressed a letter to you saying that I withdrew all

pretensions to your daughter's hand. But I have a good deal more to say. I

have during the time that I have been away succeeded in improving my

condition to a certain extent."

 

"Pooh, pooh, sir!" the other said angrily. "Suppose you made a thousand or

two, what possible difference could it make?"

 

"I am not foolish enough to suppose that it would do so; but at least this

receipt from the Bank of England, for gold deposited in their hands, will

show you that the sums you mention have been somewhat exceeded."

 

"Tut, tut, I don't wish to see it! it can make no possible difference in

the matter."

 

"At least, sir, you wall do me the courtesy to read it, or if you prefer

not to do so I will read it myself."

 

"Give it me," Mr. Fortescue said, holding out his hand. "Let us get

through this farce as soon as possible; it is painful to us both."

 

He put on his spectacles, glanced at the paper, and gave a sudden start,

read it again, carefully this time, and then said slowly:

 

"Do you mean that the two hundred and eighty-two ingots, containing in all

five thousand six hundred and forty pounds weight of gold, are your

property? That is to say, that you are the sole owner of them, and not

only the representative of some mining company?"

 

"It is the sole property, Mr. Fortescue, of my brother and myself. I own

two-thirds of it. It is lost treasure recovered by us from the sea, where

it has been lying ever since the conquest of Peru by Pizarro."

 

"There is no mistake about this? The word pounds is not a mistake for

ounces?--although even that would represent a very large sum."

 

"The bank would not be likely to make such a mistake as that, sir. The