'So he wants to marry dollars?' 'I suppose he has no objection to them; but have you seen Miss Bangs?' 'I don't remember her,' said Merton. 'Then you have not seen her. She is beautiful, by Jove; and, I fancy, clever and nice, and gives herself no airs.' 'And she has all that money, and yet the old gentleman objects!' 'He can not stand the bristles and lard,' said Logan. 'Then the Prince of Scalastro--him I have come across. You would never take him for a foreigner,' said Merton, bestowing on the Royal youth the highest compliment which an Englishman can pay, but adding, 'only he is too intelligent and knows too much.' 'No; there is nothing the matter with _him_,' Logan admitted--'nothing but happening to inherit a gambling establishment and the garden it stands in. He is a scientific character--a scientific soldier. I wish we had a few like him.' 'Well, it is a hard case,' said Merton. 'They all seem to be very good sort of people. And Lady Alice Guevara? I hardly know her at all; but she is pretty enough--tall, yellow hair, brown eyes.' 'And as good a girl as lives,' added Logan. 'Very religious, too.' 'She won't change her creed?' asked Merton. 'She would go to the stake for it,' said Logan. 'She is more likely to convert the Prince.' 'That would be one difficulty out of the way,' said Merton. 'But the gambling establishment? There is the rub! And the usual plan won't work. You are a captivating person, Logan, but I do not think that you could attract Lady Alice's affections and disentangle her in that way. Besides, the Prince would have you out. Then Miss Bangs' dollars, not to mention herself, must have too strong a hold on Scremerston. It really looks too hard a case for us on paper. You must go down and reconnoitre.' Logan agreed, and wrote asking Lord Embleton to come to the office, where he could see Miss Willoughby and arrange about her visit to him and his manuscripts. The young lady was invited to arrive rather later, bringing Miss Blossom as her companion. On the appointed day Logan and Merton awaited Lord Embleton. He entered with an air unwontedly buoyant, and was introduced to Merton. The first result was an access of shyness. The Earl hummed, began sentences, dropped them, and looked pathetically at Logan. Merton understood. The Earl had taken to Logan (on account of their hereditary partnership in an ancient iniquity), and it was obvious that he would say to him what he would not say to his partner. Merton therefore withdrew to the outer room (they had met in the inner), and the Earl delivered himself to Logan in a little speech.