'But I presume you have done me the honour to invite me to this conference on a point of business, Mr. Beltham?' said my father, admonished by the hint. 'I have, sir,' the squire replied. 'And I also have a point. And, in fact, it is urgent, and with your permission, Mr. Beltham, I will lead the way.' 'No, sir, if you please. I'm a short speaker, and go to it at once, and I won't detain you a second after you've answered me.' My father nodded to this, with the conciliatory comment that it was business-like. The old man drew out his pocket-book. 'You paid a debt,' he said deliberately, 'amounting to twenty-one thousand pounds to my grandson's account.' 'Oh! a debt! I did, sir. Between father and boy, dad and lad; debts! . . . but use your own terms, I pray you.' ' I don't ask you where that money is now. I ask you to tell me where you got it from.' 'You speak bluntly, my dear sir.' 'You won't answer, then?' 'You ask the question as a family matter? I reply with alacrity, to the best of my ability: and with my hand on my heart, Mr. Beltham, let me assure you, I very heartily desire the information to be furnished to me. Or rather--why should I conceal it? The sources are irregular, but a child could toddle its way to them--you take my indication. Say that I obtained it from my friends. My friends, Mr. Beltham, are of the kind requiring squeezing. Government, as my chum and good comrade, Jorian DeWitt, is fond of saying, is a sponge--a thing that when you dive deep enough to catch it gives liberal supplies, but will assuredly otherwise reverse the process by acting the part of an absorbent. I get what I get by force of arms, or I might have perished long since.' 'Then you don't know where you got it from, sir?' 'Technically, you are correct, sir.' 'A bird didn't bring it, and you didn't find it in the belly of a fish.' 'Neither of these prodigies. They have occurred in books I am bound to believe; they did not happen to me.' 'You swear to me you don't know the man, woman, or committee, who gave you that sum?' 'I do not know, Mr. Beltham. In an extraordinary history, extraordinary circumstances! I have experienced so many that I am surprised at nothing.' 'You suppose you got it from some fool?' 'Oh! if you choose to indict Government collectively?' 'You pretend you got it from Government?'