my chance and took it, for your step-father has always been an
obstacle in our path, Lucy, dear. In a week Professor Braddock
had the money, as I sold out some of my investments to get it.
He then sent Bolton to Malta in a tramp steamer for the sake of
cheapness, and now expects him back with the Green Mummy."

"Has Sidney bought it?"

"Yes. He got it for nine hundred pounds, the Professor told me,
and is bringing it back in The Diver--that's the same tramp
steamer in which he went to Malta. So that's the whole story,
and you can see there is no question of you being bought. The
thousand pounds went to get your father's consent."

"He is not my father," snapped Lucy, finding nothing else to say.

"You call him so."

"That is only from habit. I can't call him Mr. Braddock, or
Professor Braddock, when I live with him, so `father' is the sole
mode of address left to me. And after all," she added, taking
her lover's arm, "I like the Professor; he is very kind and good,
although extremely absent-minded. And I am glad he has
consented, for he worried me a lot to marry Sir Frank Random. I
am glad you bought me."

"But I didn't," cried the exasperated lover.

"I think you did, and you shouldn't have diminished your income
by buying what you could have had for nothing."