"I don't care a farthing more about Canada!" he flashed out. "I have made up my mind. If you really meant what you said to-day, I will marry your niece, and I don't care whether she has a penny or no." The financier's plans had indeed culminated with a rush! But he expressed no surprise, merely raised his eyebrows mildly and puffed some blue rings of smoke, as he answered: "I always mean what I say, only I do not care for people to do things blindly. Now that you have seen my niece are you sure she would suit you? I thought, after all, perhaps not, to-night: she is certainly a difficult person. It would be no easy task for any man to control her--as a wife." [Illustration: "The whole expression of her face changed as he came and leaned upon the piano."] "I don't care for tame women," Lord Tancred said. "It is that very quality of difficulty which has inspired me. By George! did you ever see such a haughty bearing? It will take a man's whole intelligence to know which bit to use." "She may close her teeth on whatever bit you use, and bolt with it. Do not say afterwards that I let you take her blindly." "Why does she look at me with such hate?" Lord Tancred was just going to ask--and then he stopped himself. It was characteristic of him that now he had made up his mind he would not descend to questions or details--he would find all out later for himself--but one thing he must know: had she really consented to marry him? If so, she had her own reasons, of course, and desire for himself was not among them; but, somehow, he felt sure they were not sordid or paltry ones. He had always liked dangerous games--the most unbroken polo ponies to train in the country, the freshest horses, the fiercest beasts to stalk and kill--and why not a difficult wife? It would add an adorable spice to the affair. But as he was very honest with himself he knew, underneath, that it was not wholly even this instinct, but that she had cast some spell over him and that he must have her for his own. "You might very well ask her history," Francis Markrute said. He could be so gracious when he liked, and he really admired the wholehearted dash with which Lord Tancred had surrendered; there was something big and royal about it--he himself never gambled in small sums either. "So as I expect you won't," he continued, "I will tell you. She is the daughter of Maurice Grey, a brother of old Colonel Grey of Hentingdon, whom everybody knew, and she has been the widow of an unspeakable brute for over a year. She was an immaculate wife, and devoted daughter before that. The possibilities of her temperament are all to come." Lord Tancred sprang from his chair, the very thought of her and her temperament made him thrill. Was it possible he was already in love, after one evening? "Now we must really discuss affairs, my dear boy," the financier went on. "Her dower, as I told you, will be princely."