"Oh, no, you won't," he replied, again with that odious smile. "Too much hangs upon it for you. We part, then, with at least a sporting chance of meeting again. I hope I shall prove a dutiful son-in-law. Good morning." He bowed, seeming not to notice her appealing hands, outstretched in one last attempt to pierce his armour. He was gone. Thus ended her mission--the last throw of the dice, upon which she had staked so much! Nothing now between her and beggary but the remains of the cheque for twenty pounds, sent to her by Mr. Rosenberg. CHAPTER VI GAUNT'S TERMS "_Her hand was close to her daughter's heart And it felt the life-blood's sudden start; A quick deep breath did the damsel draw Like the struck fawn in the oakenshaw._"--Rossetti. Virginia, lily-pale in the heat, sat at the window of the tiny parlour dignified by the name of dining-room, adding up accounts. She had given Pansy her lunch, eaten some bread and cheese herself, and left the child to her daily afternoon rest while she applied herself to the discussion of ways and means. It was Tony's half-holiday, and he would be home, he promised, at five o'clock, to help her carry down the little invalid into the garden to have tea. He was renouncing an hour of his precious cricket to do this. What a darling he was! Virginia's eyes grew misty as she thought of him--how pluckily he went without things that "other chaps" had! How loyally he refrained from piercing her heart with the thought of her own helplessness to supply him with what he wanted! Now, for the first time, she was alone with the problem created by her mother's improvidence. In all its bare hideousness, the thing confronted her. The rent was due. They had always waited to pay it until the cheque for the quarter's rent at Lissendean came in. Now there was no cheque to be expected. If her mother's errand to-day had failed, she must give notice to quit that very afternoon. Even so, where was this quarter's rent to come from? The balance at the bank was seven pounds six and two-pence. The furniture must be sold. This, with her mother's pretty things, would pay the landlord. Afterwards--what?