"Continue to hear me patiently, sir. I have but little more to say. This gentleman writes constantly to her, but not to the home in which she has lived from childhood. I am here to ask you whether it is possible that such an intimacy will result in a manner honourable to the girl whom I, an old and childless man, love with all the earnestness and devotion of which I am capable--for whose happiness I would lay down my life as surely as every word I have spoken to you is the honest and straightforward truth." "And it is to this point you must come at once," said Mr. Temple, whose tone would have been arrogant but for the effect which the genuine pathos of his visitor produced upon him against his will. "What interest can I have in the name of this gentleman, who, seeing a pretty girl who is flattered by his attentions, follows her, and falls into the trap she lays for him----" But if his speech had not trailed off here, it would have been arrested by Seth's indignant protest. "Stop!" he cried, in a ringing voice. "Hear first the name of the man who is wooing my child, and who from your own sentiments--for nature transmits good and evil qualities from father to son--is seeking to entrap an innocent girl!" At this moment these two men--the one so high in the world, the other so low--changed positions. It was Mr. Temple who cowered, and Seth Dumbrick who raised his head to the light. "Speak the name then," said Mr. Temple. "Your son--Arthur Temple!" A cold smile served at once to hide Mr. Temple's agitation and to outwardly denote the value he wished Seth Dumbrick to believe he placed upon his statement. "And you," he said, with contemptuous emphasis, "have connived at this intimacy, and have come to me to place a price upon----" Again he was interrupted indignantly by Seth. "You mistake. I have never, so that I could recognise it, seen the face of your son; I have had no conversation with my child upon the subject, and she does not know of my visit to you. She has not confided in me." "How then do you happen to be aware of the particulars you have narrated so fluently? How have you gained the knowledge of the letters and the gifts?" "Having only the good of my child at heart, and being better versed in the villainies----" "Be careful of your words." "If your son has no honourable intention towards my girl, the word is in its proper place. Being better versed in the ways of the world than she, a young and inexperienced child, can possibly be, I exercised my rightful authority, and searched her trunk, to discover what she was concealing from me. I found the tokens there. The letters are written on paper stamped with a crest, surrounded by Latin words which I do not understand." Mr. Temple, in silence, handed Seth a sheet of notepaper. "The crest and words," said Seth, putting on his spectacles to examine them, "are the same as these." "Is that all you have to say?"