educated, accomplished, and lovely country-women, is it, or is it not,
the fact that a lady who has a house in a fashionable quarter, a footman
to open her door, a butler to wait at her table, and a carriage and
horses to drive about in, is a lady who has gained four steps, in female
estimation, at starting? Yes? or No?"

"Come to the point," said Vendale. "You view this question as a question
of terms. What are your terms?"

"The lowest terms, dear sir, on which you can provide your wife with
those four steps at starting. Double your present income--the most rigid
economy cannot do it in England on less. You said just now that you
expected greatly to increase the value of your business. To work--and
increase it! I am a good devil after all! On the day when you satisfy
me, by plain proofs, that your income has risen to three thousand a year,
ask me for my niece's hand, and it is yours."

"May I inquire if you have mentioned this arrangement to Miss
Obenreizer?"

"Certainly. She has a last little morsel of regard still left for me,
Mr. Vendale, which is not yours yet; and she accepts my terms. In other
words, she submits to be guided by her guardian's regard for her welfare,
and by her guardian's superior knowledge of the world." He threw himself
back in his chair, in firm reliance on his position, and in full
possession of his excellent temper.

Any open assertion of his own interests, in the situation in which
Vendale was now placed, seemed to be (for the present at least) hopeless.
He found himself literally left with no ground to stand on. Whether