and penniless young men from the Southdown Road. He had declared that
it was time to settle definitely the terms and the day of the
marriage. He had been engaged now more than two months, and was
prepared to do his share; Mr. Brookes must be prepared to do his,
viz., to settle four hundred a year on his daughter.

The idea of parting for ever with so much of his money convulsed Mr.
Brookes. He burst into tears, and their bitterness was neither
assuaged nor softened by Grace's rather haughty statement that she
didn't care at all for Mr. Berkins, and was not at all sure whether
she would have him or not.

"So, father, you may be able to keep your money."

"But did any one ever know me to think of myself?" and he drew his
silk handkerchief forth. In the new trouble, suddenly created, all
other considerations were lost, and Grace became the centre of many
conflicting interests; everybody asked if this marriage so long looked
forward to was going to tumble into ruin among so many ruins? At
dinner Willy seemed to consider himself called from the problem of
perfect mastication, and he said a few words intended to allay this
new family excitement; but his efforts were vain, for it had occurred
to Mr. Brookes that he might find calm in a bottle of '34 port. There
were a few bottles left which he appreciated at their right value. He
rang for the wine, and old Joseph announced, with all the intolerable
indifference of a well-trained servant, that the young gentleman had
drunk it all up yesterday. Mr. Brookes kept his temper better than the
girls anticipated, and it was not until he had drunk a bottle of a
latter-day wine that he seemed to realise the wrong that had been done
to him. He begged of Willy to listen to him, and he talked so