“George,” he said, as the fox-terrier stood up against his knee, “if that woman were only struck dead to-day, there are two thousand families in England who would rejoice madly if they only knew one-tenth part of what I know. Poor beggars, they have trusted me to the hilt, and she makes me behave to them like a fiend. D’you know, my small animal, I wish very much just now an earthquake or a revolution or something like that would occur, to shuffle matters up. Then if I got killed I should be spared a great deal of worry; and if I didn’t, why I’ve got large hands, and I believe could grab enough in the general scramble to suit even her. As it is, however, with neither earthquake nor revolution probable, I’m a desperate man, ready to take any desperate chance of commercial salvation. Eh, well!” he concluded, as he reached for a paper-block and rested it on George’s back, “worrying myself about the matter won’t improve it. The only thing is to try and keep things running in their present groove.” He broke off and scribbled a Biblical text. “Other men would have been suspected long before this. But my reputation has saved me.” He smiled to himself softly. “What a thing it is to be known as a thoroughly good man!” He broke off at this point, and applied himself with gusto to writing his sermon for the ensuing Sunday. CHAPTER IV. BUSINESS AT A BALL. When people are engaged, they usually contrive to meet with frequency, and so Amy Rivers showed no very great surprise at seeing Fairfax again later in the evening. She only said: “Why, I didn’t know you knew the Latchfords.” To which Hamilton Fairfax replied that he did not know them, but had met another man at the club who was coming to the party, and that the other man had brought him. “An extra male never matters at a big dance,” said Fairfax. “Besides,” he went on, “I wanted particularly to see you this evening. Since we parted last, I’ve heard of an estate for sale in Kent which I fancy would just suit us. The present holder wants money, and therefore it’s going cheap; but there’s another fellow after it, and I’ve only got the refusal till to-morrow morning. So you see I want your views on the subject at once.” “Very well,” said Miss Rivers; “you shall tell me about it in, say, three dances from now. There are no programs here to-night; but I have promised the next two waltzes and the square, and don’t particularly want to cut them. In the mean time, I wish you would go and talk to Mrs. Shelf. She said when we were driving here that she wanted to speak to you. I don’t know about what, but she’ll tell you that herself.” “Right!” said Fairfax. “Ta-ta for the present!” And he went through the rooms till he saw the blaze of diamonds and rubies which decked the handsome person of Mrs. Theodore Shelf.