There was a silence; whereupon Dare arose without hesitation, and walked boldly into the private office. Havill was standing at one end, as gloomy as a thundercloud, and at the other was the unfortunate creditor with his hat on. Though Dare’s entry surprised them, both parties seemed relieved. ‘I have called in passing to congratulate you, Mr. Havill,’ said Dare gaily. ‘Such a commission as has been entrusted to you will make you famous!’ ‘How do you do?--I wish it would make me rich,’ said Havill drily. ‘It will be a lift in that direction, from what I know of the profession. What is she going to spend?’ ‘A hundred thousand.’ ‘Your commission as architect, five thousand. Not bad, for making a few sketches. Consider what other great commissions such a work will lead to.’ ‘What great work is this?’ asked the creditor. ‘Stancy Castle,’ said Dare, since Havill seemed too agape to answer. ‘You have not heard of it, then? Those are the drawings, I presume, in the next room?’ Havill replied in the affirmative, beginning to perceive the manoeuvre. ‘Perhaps you would like to see them?’ he said to the creditor. The latter offered no objection, and all three went into the drawing-office. ‘It will certainly be a magnificent structure,’ said the creditor, after regarding the elevations through his spectacles. ‘Stancy Castle: I had no idea of it! and when do you begin to build, Mr. Havill?’ he inquired in mollified tones. ‘In three months, I think?’ said Dare, looking to Havill. Havill assented. ‘Five thousand pounds commission,’ murmured the creditor. ‘Paid down, I suppose?’ Havill nodded. ‘And the works will not linger for lack of money to carry them out, I imagine,’ said Dare. ‘Two hundred thousand will probably be spent before the work is finished.’ ‘There is not much doubt of it,’ said Havill. ‘You said nothing to me about this?’ whispered the creditor to Havill, taking him aside, with a look of regret. ‘You would not listen!’ ‘It alters the case greatly.’ The creditor retired with Havill to the door, and after a subdued colloquy in the passage he went away, Havill returning to the office. ‘What the devil do you mean by hoaxing him like this, when the job is no more mine than Inigo Jones’s?’ ‘Don’t be too curious,’ said Dare, laughing. ‘Rather thank me for getting rid of him.’ ‘But it is all a vision!’ said Havill, ruefully regarding the pencilled towers of Stancy Castle. ‘If the competition were really the commission that you have represented it to be there might be something to laugh at.’ ‘It must be made a commission, somehow,’ returned Dare carelessly. ‘I am come to lend you a little assistance. I must stay in the neighbourhood, and I have nothing else to do.’ A carriage slowly passed the window, and Havill recognized the Power liveries. ‘Hullo--she’s coming here!’ he said under his breath, as the carriage stopped by the kerb. ‘What does she want, I wonder? Dare, does she know you?’