"Child, child!" said the inventor peevishly, "why do you tack on these petty details to my grand conception? It is the idea I want to sell; other people can use it. Now, will the government grant me a patent?" "Certainly," said Violet. "What royalty on all work executed by utilizing the tidal currents?" "A million per cent." "How much will that bring in?" "Three millions a minute!" "Ah," said he, sinking back with a sigh, "we have then reached the goal at last. Bayswater, we approach you. Shall the brougham be bottle-green or coffee-colored?" "A brougham!" cried Violet; "no--a barge of white and gold, with crimson satin sails, and oars of bronze, towed by a company of snow-white swans----" "Or mergansers"---- "And floating through the canals of claret which we shall set flowing in the streets. Then the Lord Mayor and the corporation will come to meet you, and you will get the freedom of the city presented in a gold snuff-box. As for Buckingham Palace--well, a baronetcy would be a nice thing." "A baronetcy! Three millions a year and only a baronet! By the monuments of Westminster Abbey, I will become a duke and an archbishop rolled into one, and have the right of sending fifteen people a day to be beheaded at the tower." "Oh, not that, uncle!" "And why not?" "Because there wouldn't be any publishers at the end of the year." "And here we are at Black Gang Chine!" Violet would not go down. She positively refused to go down. She called the place Black Gang Sham, and hoped they were pouring enough water down the kitchen pipe of the hotel to make a foaming cataract. But she begged Mrs. Warrener and Amy, who had not seen the place, to go down, while she remained in the carriage with Mr. Drummond. So these two disappeared into the bazaar. "You are not really going to Scotland, are you?" she said simply, her head cast down. "I have been thinking of it," he answered. "Why not?" "The air here is very sweet and soft," she said in a hesitating way. "Of course, I know, the climate on the west coast of Scotland is very mild, and you would get the mountain air as well as the sea air. But don't you think the storms, the gales that blow in the spring----" "Oh," said he cheerfully, "I shall never be pulled together till I get up to the north--I know that. I may have to remain here till I get stronger, but by-and-by I hope we shall all go up to Scotland together, and that long before the shooting begins." "I--I am afraid," said she, "that I shall not be of the party." "You? Not you?" he cried. "You are not going to leave us, Violet, just after we have found you?" He took her hand, but she still averted her eyes. "I half promised," she said, "to spend some time with Mr. and Mrs. Dowse. They are very lonely. They think they have a claim on me, and they have been very kind."