time. I meant to come to you as soon as
I had an hour's leisure."

"To the second note you replied that you
were going out of town for three days."

"It was quite true. I only got back
last night."

"And therefore I came here this morning."

"Has anything new happened?"

"Something new is always happening.
Hugh is bent on setting up for himself.
His father's friends in the country have
urged him to do so."

"It would be folly on his part to leave
Digby and West for the next year or so. I
give this opinion just as I should if I were
asked for advice by a perfect stranger.
You doubtless think that I am actuated by
some underhand motive."

"No; I do not think so. And, moreover,
I should agree with you in your opinion, if
I did not know that Hugh is entitled to a
sum of money which would suffice to make
the experiment he contemplates a judicious
instead of a rash one."

"I do not see that."

"Hugh, at all events, has the right to
judge for himself."

"And you have the right to influence
his judgment."

"Sometimes I am tempted—nay, often,
very often, I am tempted—to tell Hugh
everything, and let him fight his own fight.
I am so tired of it!"

"Tell him then!" ejaculated Mr. Frost,
impatiently. "I, too, am weary, God
knows!"

"You have the power to put an end to
your weariness and to my importunities.
Do me justice. After all, I am but claiming
what is my own."

"It is your own. I know it. I have
never sought to deny it. You cannot say
that I have."

He rose with a quick, irritable movement
from his chair, and stood leaning
against the mantel-piece, with his back to
the empty grate.

"Then why not restore it at once, and
end this weary business?"

"Surely you must understand that such
a sum is not to be had at a moment's notice!"

"A moment's notice! How many years
is it since you promised me that it should be
restored as soon as Hugh came of age?"

"I know, I know. But, during this last
year or two there have been embarrassments,
and—and—difficulties."

Mrs. Lockwood leaned her head on her
hand, and looked up at him. "Do you
know," she said, slowly, "what I begin to
be afraid of? That you have been telling
me the truth lately, and that you really are
in pecuniary difficulties!"

The blood rushed darkly over the
lawyer's face, but he met her look with
a smile and an ironical raising of the eyebrows.

"Upon my word," he said, "you are
civil—and ingenious! You begin to be
'afraid that I have been telling you the
truth!' I presume you have hitherto
supposed that I kept your cash in hard, round,
yellow sovereigns, locked up in a box, and
that I had nothing to do but to take them
out whenever I chose, and hand them over
to you! I am sorry that I cannot altogether
dissipate your apprehensions. I have been
telling you the truth, but, nevertheless,
your money is safe!"

The air of superiority in the man, his
voice and bearing, were not without their
effect on Mrs. Lockwood. She faltered a
moment. Then she said, "You can at
least name some time for a settlement, can
you not? Give me some fixed date to look
forward to. I have been very patient."

"Look here, Zillah, I have a very
advantageous thing in view. It will be
highly lucrative, if it comes off as I
anticipate. It has been proposed to me to go
abroad in the character of legal adviser to
a very wealthy and powerful English
company, and——"

"To go abroad!"

"Temporarily. For a few months
merely. It is a question of obtaining a
concession for some important works from
the Italian government. If the affair
succeeds, I shall be in a position not only to
pay you back your own—that," he added,
watching her face, "is a matter of course
in any case—but to advance Hugh's
prospects very materially. Will you have a
little more patience, and a little more faith,
and wait until the winter?"

"Six months?" said Mrs. Lockwood,
wearily.

"Yes; six months. Say six months!
And meanwhile——as for Hugh, since he
knows nothing, he will be suffering no suspense."

"Hugh? No, thank God! If it had
been a question of subjecting my son
instead of myself to the grinding of hope
deferred, the matter should have been
settled in one way or the other years ago!"

Mr. Frost looked at the small, frail figure
before him; at the pale, delicate-featured
face, framed in its soft grey curls; and he