"I presume she would, if I put it to her," assented Arthur, as if the proposition admitted of no dispute. "I don't see why she should do so, or you, either." "I'm afraid, Dick, we Bohuns have our full share of family pride." "But Mr. Adair is, no doubt, a gentleman?" "Oh yes. That is, not in trade," added Arthur, carelessly. "Well, a gentleman is a gentleman," said Richard. "Of course. But I take it for granted that he holds no position in the world. And we Bohuns, you know----" Arthur stopped. Richard North laughed. "You Bohuns would like to mate only with position. A daughter, for example, of the Lord-Lieutenant of the county." "Exactly," assented Arthur, echoing the laugh, but very much in earnest for all that. "Madam has been recommending Miss Dallory to my notice." "Who?" cried Richard, rather sharply. "Miss Dallory." "You might do worse," observed Richard, after a pause. "No doubt of that. She is downstairs." "Who is downstairs?" "She. So madam has just informed me." "There's the gong." "And be hanged to it!" returned Arthur, getting into his coat. "I wish to goodness madam did not give us the trouble of putting on dinner dress every other day! Neither are entertainments seemly in your house during these troubled times." "What's more, I don't see how they will be paid for, if the trouble continues," candidly spoke Richard. "Madam must be uncommonly sanguine to expect it." "Or careless," returned Arthur Bohun. "Dick, my friend, it's a bad sign when a man has no good word to give his mother." That every grain of filial affection had long gone out of his breast and been replaced by a feeling akin to shame and contempt, Arthur Bohun was only too conscious of. He strove to be dutiful; but it was at times a hard task. Living under the same roof as his mother, her sins against manners and good feeling were brought under his notice perpetually; he was more sensitively alive to them than even others could be.