“I suppose he will be very rich some day,” Miss Alicia remarked the first morning she and T. Tembarom took their breakfast alone together after his departure. “It would frighten me to think of having as much money as he seems likely to have quite soon.” “It would scare me to death,” said Tembarom. She knew he was making a sort of joke, but she thought the point of it was her tremor at the thought of great fortune. “He seemed to think that it would be an excellent thing for you to invest in--I’m not sure whether it was the India Rubber Tree Company, or the mahogany-forests, or the copper-mines that have so much gold and silver mixed in them that it will pay for the expense of the digging,” she went on. “I guess it was the whole lot,” put in Tembarom. “Perhaps it was. They are all going to make everybody so rich that it is quite bewildering. He is _very clever_ in business matters. And so kind. He even said that if I really wished it, he might be able to invest my income for me and actually treble it in a year. But of course I told him that my income was your generous gift to me, and that it was far more than sufficient for my needs.” Tembarom put down his coffee-cup so suddenly to look at her that she was fearful that she had appeared to do Captain Palliser some vague injustice. “I am sure he meant to be most obliging, dear,” she explained. “I was really quite touched. He said most sympathetically and delicately that when women were unmarried, and unaccustomed to investment, sometimes a business man could be of use to them. He forgot”--affectionately--“that I had you.” Tembarom regarded her with tender curiosity. She often opened up vistas for him as he himself opened them for the Duke of Stone. “If you hadn’t had me, would you have let him treble your income in a year?” he asked. Her expression as that of a soft, woodland rabbit or a trusting spinster dove. “Well, of course, if one were quite alone in the world and had only a small income, it _would_ be nice to have it wonderfully added to in such a short time,” she answered. “But it was his friendly solicitude which touched me.” “If the time ever comes when you haven’t got me,” said Tembarom, buttering his toast, “just you make a dead sure thing of it that you don’t let any solicitous business gentleman treble your income in a year.” “Temple,” gasped Miss Alicia, “you--you surely cannot mean that you do not think Captain Palliser is--sincere!” Tembarom laughed outright his most hilarious and comforting laugh. “Sincere?” he said. “He’s sincere down to the ground--in what he’s reaching after; but he’s not going to treble your income or mine. If he ever makes that offer again, you just tell him I’m interested, and that I’ll talk it over with him.” Their breakfast was at an end, and he got up, laughing again, as he came to her end of the table, and put his arm round her shoulders in the unconventional young caress she adored him for.