'Give the State the benefit of your experience of unpaid tradesmen's bills,' interposed Ellice sarcastically. It was the old tone, unused by her since her betrothal; but a change seemed all at once to have come over her. Her father's under lip fell, and he stared at her in a piteously crest-fallen way. She pushed back her chair from the table, folded her arms, and gazed intently at the fire. The silence lasted some time. At length she said slowly, still keeping her eyes on the fire, 'I hope, for both our sakes, you will never get it.' 'For both our sakes----?' began Mr. Quentin, with a remonstrative emphasis on 'both'; but his daughter again interrupted him. 'When I say "both," I do not mean myself and you. But what absurdity it all is!' she broke off with a short mocking laugh. 'I might as well hope that the Queen will not come out here this afternoon, and take a cup of tea with us.' 'Well, I must say, Ellice, that I don't understand all this,' exclaimed Mr. Quentin, clearing his throat and pulling down his waistcoat with the air of a man who feels he has been unfairly attacked. 'If you care nothing for ease and dignity yourself, that is no reason why you should grudge your father the means of--hm--comfort and consideration appropriate to advancing years. And hereafter, when I am gone----' Ellice put up her hand, and a curious smile crossed her lips. 'You are too imaginative, father,' she said, in a quiet, but no longer antagonistic, voice. 'I am very matter-of-fact, and I can see that if what you wish came to pass, it would be the ruin of my happiness. And I daresay you remember that when I am not in a good humour I am not pleasant company. For heaven's sake do not let us mention this foolish subject any more.' She got up and went out of the room; and Mr. Quentin, after standing for several minutes with his back to the fire, now putting his hands beneath his coat tails, now thrusting them in his pockets, and now inserting his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat in the jerky manner of one whose composure and self-esteem have been exasperated, pulled from his breast-pocket a large leather-covered memorandum-book, opened it, and applied his thick nose diligently to its contents. After a prolonged investigation, he closed it, and ejaculating 'Fifteen thousand a year! and got by a fluke! Why mayn't a fluke transfer it to me?--and then, I fancy, I should see my way to a better match for Ellice than this affair with Herne,'--he buttoned his coat, took a cheroot from the stand on the mantelpiece, lit it, sighed, and walked out.