"We did our best," replied Fitz, with a simple intrepidity which
rather spoilt the awesomeness of the situation.

"I am not speaking to you," returned the lady. "You have worked and
have passed your examination satisfactorily. You are not clever--I
know that; but you have managed to get into the Navy, where your
father was before you, and your grandfather before him. I have no
doubt you will give satisfaction to your superior officers. I was
talking to Luke."

"We all knew that," said Luke, in a dangerous voice, which trite
observation she chose to ignore.

"You have had equal advantages," pursued the dispenser of charity.
"I have shown no favour; I have treated you alike. It had been my
intention to do so all your lives and after my death."

Mrs. Ingham-Baker was so interested at this juncture that she leant
forward with parted lips, listening eagerly. The Honourable Mrs.
Harrington allowed herself the plebeian pleasure of returning the
stare with a questioning glance which broke off into a little laugh.

"Have you," she continued, addressing Luke directly, "any reason to
offer for your failure--beyond the usual one of bad luck?"

Luke looked at her in a lowering way and made no reply. Had Mrs.
Harrington been a poor woman, she would have recognised that the boy
was at the end of his tether. But she had always been surrounded--
as such women are--by men, and more especially by women, who would
swallow any insult, any insolence, so long as it was gilded. The