"Marrable," he said, almost genially, "we understand each other! I see you want plain English. I said just now that we were both fond of the girl. So we are. But I fancy we are both a bit fonder of her little bit of stuff--eh? Now, you have been handling the dibs for a matter of eighteen months, I understand. You have feathered your nest pretty comfortably, from all I hear. Don't be a dog in the manger! Let your friends into a good thing too!" The mask was off with a vengeance. Hughie swallowed something and thanked God that, if his wanderings among mankind had taught him nothing else, they had taught him to hold himself in till the time came. He said:-- "Haliburton, I have told you several times that I do not forbid this engagement; because, as you have very acutely pointed out, my _veto_ does not last for ever; but the match is not coming off, for all that. Before you go I will explain what I mean. I don't want to, because the consequences may be serious, both for Miss Gaymer and myself; but it will show you how absolutely determined I am to make a clean sweep of you. "I should like to say in the first place that I should never have stood between Miss Gaymer and _any_ man, so long as I honestly thought he could make her happy--not even a man whom I personally would regard as an ass or an outsider. But there are limits to everything, and you strike me as being the limit in this case. I have been making inquiries about you, and I now know your antecedents fairly well. You apparently are an actor of sorts, though all the actors of my acquaintance look distinctly unwell when your name is mentioned. However, whatever you are, I should be sorry to see any woman in whom I take an interest compelled to spend even half an hour in your company. In fact, if you had not originally come down here as a friend of Lance Gaymer's,--over whom, by the way, I find you once had some hold,--I should have asked Captain Leroy's permission to kick you out of the place some time ago!" Mr. Haliburton looked a little uncomfortable. He held a good hand, but Hughie was obviously not bluffing. He had an uneasy feeling that there must be an unsuspected card out somewhere. "To come to the main point," continued Hughie, "I want this engagement to be declared off by _you_, not by me. What is your price?" Mr. Haliburton breathed again. Bribery? Was that all? He replied briskly:-- "How much have you got?" "Is a thousand pounds any use?" asked Hughie. "Twenty might be," replied the lover. "My limit," said Hughie, who was not a man to haggle about what Mr. Mantalini once described as "demnition coppers," "is five thousand pounds." "Talk sense!" said Mr. Haliburton briefly.