feared that rare one which took the form of tears. Besides, he loved
his only daughter more dearly than anything in the world except one
thing, Honham Castle, and could not bear to give her pain.

"Very well," he said, "of course if you wish to know about these
things you have a right to. I have desired to spare you trouble, that
is all; but as you are so very imperious, the best thing that I can do
is to let you have your own way. Still, as it is rather late, if you
have no objection I think that I had better put if off till
to-morrow."

"No, no, father. By to-morrow you will have changed your mind. Let us
have it now. I want to know how much we really owe, and what we have
got to live on."

The old gentleman hummed and hawed a little, and after various
indications of impatience at last began:

"Well, as you know, our family has for some generations depended upon
the land. Your dear mother brought a small fortune with her, five or
six thousand pounds, but that, with the sanction of her trustees, was
expended upon improvements to the farms and in paying off a small
mortgage. Well, for many years the land brought in about two thousand
a year, but somehow we always found it difficult to keep within that
income. For instance, it was necessary to repair the gateway, and you
have no idea of the expense in which those repairs landed me. Then
your poor brother James cost a lot of money, and always would have the
shooting kept up in such an extravagant way. Then he went into the
army, and heaven only knows what he spent there. Your brother was very
extravagant, my dear, and well, perhaps I was foolish; I never could