Goodridge laughed again, and emptying his glass, refilled it and held it with an unsteady hand between his bleary eye and the dim window. Aarons watched him with a wry smile, patient and sardonic, looking for the psychological moment when his lips would unclose under the influence of the repeated bumpers. "Boy," he called to the attendant, "another bottle; shall it be the same, Parson?" "This is fair, but they’ve a better one," replied Goodridge, smacking his lips. "Bring us a bottle of the best you have," Aarons ordered, and when it came, he filled both glasses and proposed the health of the beautiful viscountess, and a rich husband for her. Again Goodridge laughed, and this time with such rapturous glee that Aarons was quite confounded. "What a merry fellow you are, Parson," he grunted; "I’d give a guinea to know what you are laughing at." "A guinea!" cried Goodridge. "You would give more than that, I’ll warrant. Why, I was thinking that there’s no more chance for Sir Geoffrey Beaudesert than there is—for—_you_, for example—or me!" "You think not?" queried Aarons, passing over the personal application of the remark with a mental reservation. "I _know_ it," said Goodridge, with tipsy solemnity. "I’ll take my oath on it." "Your oath may be priceless," said Aarons, "but I can only _pay_ for proof." "And what," said Goodridge, setting down his empty glass, "may you be willing to pay for proof that Sir Geoffrey Beaudesert can not marry the Lady Prudence?" Aarons eyed him warily. "I have a judgment against you, Parson, for forty-three pounds and costs. I will vacate the judgment and give you—five guineas. ’Tis a liberal offer for—I know not what." For answer, the reverend gentleman leaned across the table, and extending his right hand within a few inches of Aarons’ nose, snapped his fingers half-a-dozen times. "That for your judgment!" he shouted truculently. "I’m in the Rules for life and you can neither keep me in nor let me out. Why, man, I’ve a score of judgments against me, and if you vacated yours, I should be no better off; nay, worse, for it might remind the creditors who have long since forgotten me. No, no, most excellent money-lender, my secret may be worth nothing or it may be worth much, but only cash can buy it—ready cash!" Aarons, with a scowling brow, reflected. Was it worth a large sum to break off the match between those two headstrong young people? If Goodridge was to be believed the marriage was impossible, and no expenditure of his beloved gold was needed to prevent it. On the other hand, the triumph of proving to Prue some hidden treason of Sir Geoffrey’s allured him, and the possibility that she might avenge herself by taking another and wealthier husband, included the probability of that other husband being the one to enlighten her and offer himself as the ready instrument of retaliation. "I will give you ten guineas, cash," he said, after a pause.