"Oh, aunty!" said little Sue, who had listened to the roar of great guns in awe and terror, "it will make you sick." "Sick!" said the dowager, looking almost real in her affected youth with congenial excitement: "it is life, child. But let us see what Winnett says." Before reading the lawyer's note let us follow Payne. The reader will understand that Mason was now in the condition of Ivanhoe after his wager with the Templar of the precious reliquary, and before he was relieved by the gratitude of Isaac of York. He lacked the means to get to his Ashby de la Zouche. But at Payne's rueful face in telling of his interview with the dowager the graceless scamp threw his fat figure on the bed, cracking his sides with laughter. "I don't see the fun," said Payne sulkily. "I wish I was well out of it. The dowager talked devilish strong." "If my aunt won't help us," said Mason, "my uncle will. You must just take my stop-watch to the three balls. Farewell to my golden repeater! We've come to my uncle's old shop!" Payne was just leaving when a voice in the next room stopped him. "It's that infernal pawnbroker," said he in a rage. The man came in, smooth, civil, obsequious. "I thought you'd like to have this thing off your mind," said he, presenting a note of Mason's. The two looked at each other blankly. "See here, Levison," said Mason coaxingly: "you know my aunt will settle all these things, and I want money right now. Payne was just going to see you." "She'll pay some--not this," said the man coolly. "In fact, I am just from Winnett's. He has paid Levi and Walker"--at which Mason stared--"and taken out a writ in summary proceedings. In fact, I come to warn you, and one good turn deserves another: pay it and go." Mason by chaffering got a small sum on his watch over the debt. He was clear at last. Payne had left, and Mason was taking a final drink at the bar when a man tapped his shoulder. Aunt Fanny had played her trump and won: it was the sheriff. "All right!" said Levison, laughing. "Whenever you _have_ anything, you know, I am accommodating, but--" We can now return and read Aunt Fanny's correspondence. CHAPTER V. When the lawyer's note, by anticipation, announced the arrest described in the last chapter, Aunt Fanny, like an old spirit of the turf, began to groom for that other match. I declare it was not an unlovely sight to see the two women, youth and its affectation, wrapping arms about each other in joyous mood over this double victory. The dowager took occasion to praise her nephew's gallantry, the chivalry that prompted him to take up an old woman's quarrel, with hints that the other party, even if his rhymes had been unintentional, betrayed a rudeness that ill became the Vere de Vere. Perhaps this part, as it included little Sue, had as well have been left out, but Aunt Fanny had her points to make, and always played a bold, high game.