"I swore at the mat? Did I? Tut, tut, tut! How hard it is to break oneself of bad habits! Now, I'll be bound to say you never did such a thing as that, Max?" Max shook his head. "No, of course you would not. Ah, Max, I wish I was as good a man as you. It's wonderful how some men's minds are constituted." Hopper took off an unpleasant-looking respirator that he had been wearing more or less--more when he was speaking, less when he was not; and when it was in its place it seemed to have the effect of sticking his grey moustache up into his nostrils, like a fierce _chevaux de frise_. Then he put his hat on his hooked stick, and his great-coat on a chair, so as not to confront the moral aphorisms that were waiting to catch his eye, and followed Max up into the drawing-room, where the ladies looked horror-stricken at the sight of the guest. But there was no help for it; and Mrs Max, at a sign from her lord, put on her most agreeable air, though Violante gave him, uncompromisingly, an ugly look with one eye, which seemed to pierce him, while she clinched the shaft with the other, Hopper replying with his lowest bow. The brothers Tom and Fred came in directly after,--Tom to offer his hand, while Fred gave a supercilious nod and went up to his mother. Hopper nodded, and as soon as the dinner was announced, offered his arm to Mrs Max, and they went down to the dining-room. A well-ordered house had Max Shingle, and his dinners were nicely served; and since he was obliged to receive the visits of Hopper, he made a virtue of necessity, trying all the dinner-time to lay little traps for him to fall into about his brother Richard. But as Hopper saw Tom lean eagerly forward, and Fred turn sharply to listen to his answers, while a frown passed between the two brothers, he misunderstood every word said to him as the dinner went on. "So Richard is doing uncommonly well, is he?" said Max. "Hey? You're not doing uncommonly well? So I heard in the City. Some one told me your house was quite shaky." "Who told you that?" cried Fred fiercely. "Hey?" "I say who told you that?" cried Fred, more loudly. "I can't hear a word you say, young man," replied Hopper; "you must come round. This, is a bad room of yours for sound, Maximilian--I'd have it altered." There were several little encounters of this kind during the repast; for Hopper, as soon as he saw the object of his host, strove religiously to frustrate his efforts, and with such success that Max gave up in disgust, and tried another tack, after making up his mind to call on his brother and become reconciled. This he was the more eager for, since it was a fact that he had lost very heavily of late, and his house was tottering to its fall. "Ah!" said Max at last, as the dinner progressed slowly, "it's a pity, Hopper, that you have no money to invest."