At the end of it all, he received what compensation they had to offer him; hugs and kisses, offers to do all sorts of impossible things, assistance in getting his armchair into precisely the right position, and him into the chair, and the table cleared and the lamp in just the right place for him to read his half-penny evening paper which was fetched for him from the pocket of his overcoat. And, finally, the crux of Gosling's whole position, a general air of complacency, good-temper and comfort. Gosling was an easy-going man, he hated rows. "Mind you, you two," he remarked with a return to facetiousness as he settled himself with his carpet slippers spread out to the fire--"mind you, I look on this money as an investment. You two gels got to get married; and quick or I shall be in the bankrup'cy Court. Don't you forget as these 'fal-lals' is bought for a purpose." "Oh, don't be so horrid, father," said Blanche, with a change of front; "it sounds as if we were setting traps for men." "Well, ain't you?" asked Gosling. "You said just now----" "Not like that," interrupted Blanche. "It's very different just wanting to look nice. Personally, I'm in no 'urry to get married, thank you." "You wait till Mr Right comes along," put in Mrs Gosling, and then turned the conversation by saying: "Well, father, what's the news this evening?" "Nothin' excitin'," replied Gosling. "Seems this new plague's spreadin' in China." "They're always inventin' new diseases, nowadays, or callin' old ones by new names," said Mrs Gosling. The two girls were busy with a sheet of note-paper and a stump of pencil that seemed to require frequent lubrication; they were making calculations. "This one's quite new, seemingly," returned Gosling. "It's only the men as get it." "No need for us to worry, then," put in Millie, more as a duty, some slight return for benefits promised, than because she took any interest in the subject. Blanche was absorbed; her unseeing gaze was fixed on the mantelpiece and ever and again she removed the point of the pencil from her mouth and wrote feverishly. "Oh, ain't there?" replied Gosling. He turned his head in order to argue from so strong a position. "And where'd you be, and all the rest of the women, if you 'adn't got no men to look after you?" "I expect we could get along pretty well, if we had to," said Millie. Gosling winked at his wife, and indicated by an upward movement of his chin that he was astounded at such innocence. "Who'd buy your 'fal-lals' for you, I should like to know?" he asked. "We'd have to earn money for ourselves," said Millie. "Ah! I'd like to see you or Blanche takin' over my job," replied her father. "Why, I'll lay there's 'alf a dozen mistakes in the figurin' she's doing at the present moment. Let me see!" Blanche descended suddenly from visions of Paradise, and put her hand over the sheet of note-paper. "You can't, father," she said.