The Doctor put his mouth into whistling
shape, and lifting his finger by way of
caution, went out comically on his toes.

He found the veteran, with, a hearty and
sympathising look on his face, and a roguish
twinkle in his eye.

"Ah, Doctor Findlater, wonderful—
wonderful! Devilish clever!" he said,
shaking his head slowly. " They are no
match for you up at Leadersfort. Ah, you
should have been at the Foreign Office!"

The Doctor was quite too shrewd to be
caught by this bird-lime.

"Ah now, ye think so, Mr. Lumley," he
said, abstractedly, going to the grate, and
hammering at the bar with the poker.
"Wants a little sawder here; a bit of soft
stuff will do. Must get the man in Monday
morning."

There was a curious look in the Doctor's
eye, which quite disconcerted Mr. Lumley.

"To what am I indebted for the honour
of this visit?" continued the Doctor, with
great stateliness. " Can I do anything for
you, sir?"

"Well, you know, I met you that day at
luncheon, and, really, you are so pleasant;
and I have heard ——"

"It will take a good deal of sawder that
bar. They'll be making a job of it, Mr.
Lumley. Well, I'm proud to have
contributed, in any way, to your happiness,
sir."

"But, seriously, that was a master coup
to-day, and, I can assure you, it has really
disturbed certain parties a good deal. But,
my dear sir, we must look at the thing
practically. Now, Doctor Findlater, I am
a man of the world, and so are you—more
so, perhaps, than I am — and, as I have said,
that stroke of yours this morning is what,
I frankly confess, I would not have thought
of. But now I tell you what, you must see
how things are up yonder; the situation
is stretched, as the French say, and there
are many reasons why it should not
continue so."

"May be so," said the Doctor, listening
gravely for more. " May be so."

"May be so! Exactly. Ah, Doctor, you
have finesse."

"Whist! Ah, leave all that," said the
Doctor, sharply. "You've been good
enough to say that in other shape. Well,
granting the stretching?"

"Exactly. Well, now, couldn't — couldn't
we manage some juste milieu, some arrangement?
You see this is a powerful family;
they will not give in; they will strain
heaven and earth to hinder this. What I
say — the friend of both sides—is,
accommodation. A clever man like you, Doctor,
will not fight à outrance; but — accommodate."

"I see," said the Doctor, as if convinced.
"And, tell me, how accommodate?"

"Why, in a variety of ways. See here.
Wouldn't a handsome portion down for
one of the young ladies—mind, a really
handsome one—and I have reason to
believe the family will offer anything in
reason—would not that answer all ends?
That would let them settle Master Cecil
suitably for their ambition, though he will
lose as pretty a girl as could be seen in
Belgravia. And Miss Katey would marry
some warm squire, and dazzle us all at the
county balls. Now don't you think that
would be a sensible way—save all
confusion and scrimmaging, as you say in
Ireland? I believe," he added,
mysteriously, " they would go as far as eight
or ten thousand. I declare—yes. Come,
isn't that a good plan?"

The Doctor waited until he had
completely finished this speech, then said:
"Oh, ho! Mr. Chargy d' Affaires! Sent
to buy us off! Eh?"

The other coloured and said, hastily:
"No, no. Nothing of the kind."

"Oh, but yes, yes! A great deal of the
kind. Buy us off; bribe us off! Oh, they
must be run very close indeed when they
send you on such an errand. Ah, my dear
sir, what do you take me for? You
complimented yourself on being a man of the
world. But I think you made a slip here.
If they were offering so much they must be
in a bad way. Don't you see that, sir?"

Mr. Lumley coloured. "You take this
in a very different way from what I was led
to expect. It's not my way to offer to buy
or bribe people."

"Then you disavow your employers?"
said the Doctor, with an indescribable
sneer; " and of course to-morrow, when
I've told the whole parish of the visit
that's been paid me, and its failure, they'll
be disavowing you."

Old Dick Lumley actually trembled, or
"turned blue," with rage. "I see I was
wrong in my opinion of you."

"I'm sure you were," said the Doctor.
"You may put that to some other mistakes
you've made in your life."

"And as to my coming to offer you
money, if you attempt to state such a
thing——"

"I'll be stating what's not true. Eh?
Do you venture to finish your sentence?