"Great men have more room for faults than small men," quoted Carrington. "Don't look angry, Miss Tollart; I really mean what I say. Your father is clever." "I'm glad to hear that some one does him justice," said the girl bitterly, and looking more womanly as she spoke. "Usually everyone is against him. But Kit will help me to keep him straight when we are married. Mrs. Beatson would drive him crazy." "Sophy! Sophy! She is my mother," expostulated Kit, blushing. "I know that," snapped Miss Tollart tartly. "It is the only thing I have against you as my husband. But so long as she lives at a distance--well, it's no use talking. Dorinda, I'm going now." She went out to put on her hat and cloak, while Kit stood irresolutely by the door he had just opened, looking so downcast that Hendle clapped him on the back. "Cheer up, old boy; it will be all right," he said, feeling profoundly sorry for the lad since Mrs. Beatson was decidedly a very disagreeable mother. And then Carrington put a question. "When does your mother expect her annuity?" "She says she may get it at any time," replied Kit, rather stiffly, as he did not see why a stranger like the barrister should interfere; "but I know very little about it. All she told me was that she was to get two hundred a year and would leave Mr. Hendle to go to Australia." "Oh, I shall place no obstacle in her path," observed Rupert somewhat grimly. "After all, as I soon marry Miss Mallien, there will be no need for me to have a housekeeper." It was at this moment and before Carrington could ask further questions, which he very much wished to do, that Sophy returned. Evidently she had been crying, for her eyes were red, but her emotions were quite under control and, after taking leave of her hostess and the two men, she went away with Kit. They seemed to be rather a forlorn young couple. Dorinda remarked as much when she returned to the drawing-room after seeing them to the door. "What else can you expect," asked Carrington coolly, "when they are connected with a drunkard like Tollart and a shrew like Mrs. Beatson? So she intends to go to Australia, does she? I don't want to hurt your feelings, Miss Mallien, but I see your father's finger in this." "Say as little about my father as is possible," answered Dorinda, with a rich color flushing her fair cheeks. Little as she respected her shady parent she did not intend to discuss him with a stranger whom she disliked. Carrington was diplomatic enough to skate away from the thin ice. "Rupert and I have taken all the papers and clothes and odds and ends of Leigh to The Big House," he remarked; "and there they can stay until we hear from the Australian sea-captain who inherits. The London lawyer has written him." "And the will?" "We have not found it yet."