Adela pouted. "That is no reason why I should do so, papa. I don't want to marry." "You might all remain unmarried for ever, and make five old maids of yourselves, and buy cats and monkeys to pet, if it were not for the horrible dilemma we are in," screamed the countess, in her well-known fiery tones, and with a wrathful glance at the earl; for her tones always were fiery and her glances wrathful when his unpardonable recklessness was recalled to her mind. "Mr. Grubb has been, so to say, the salvation of us for years--for years, Adela,--every year has brought its embarrassments, and he has helped us out of them. As well tell her the truth at once, Lord Acorn," she concluded sharply. "Ugh!" grunted he, in what might be taken for a note of unwilling assent. "And if we put this affront upon him--refuse him your hand, which he solicits with so much honour and liberality--it will be all over with us. We can't live any longer in England, for there's nothing left to live upon; we must go abroad to some wretched hole of a continental place, and lodge on one dirty floor of six rooms, and live as common people. What chance would there be of your picking up even a merchant then?" Adela rose, smiling incredulously. "Things cannot be as bad as that, mamma." "Sit down, Adela," cried her father, peremptorily, raising his hand to check the flow of eloquence his wife was again about to enter upon. "It _is_ as bad. Grubb has behaved like a prince to me, and nothing less. And, if he should recall the money he has lent, I know not, in truth, where any of us would be. _I_ should have to run; and be posted up as a defaulter, into the bargain, all over the kingdom." And, in a few brief words, he explained facts to her; making, of course, the worst of them. The obstinacy on Adela's countenance faded away as she listened: she was deeply attached to her father. "You will be a very princess, if you take him, Adela," said Lady Acorn. "Ah! I can tell you, child, before you have come to my age you will have found out that there's little worth living for but wealth, which brings ease and comfort. I ought to know; for our want of it, through one absurd extravagance or another"--with a dreadful glance at her lord--"has been the worry and bane of my married life." "You have been extravagant on your own score," growled he. "But, papa, I don't care for Mr. Grubb. Apart from the disreputable fact that he is a tradesman----" "Those merchant-princes cannot be called tradesmen, Adela," quickly interposed Lord Acorn, who could put the case strongly, in spite of his prejudices, when it suited his interest to do so. "Well, apart from that, I say I do not like him." "You cannot _dis_like him. No one can dislike Francis Grubb." "I shall if I am made to marry him."