"So that you have to choose between the young lady with her two hundred a year and Lady Ellis?" "In a sense, yes. But I have a difficult game to play. It strikes me that at the very first mention of a _probable_ pupil Lady Ellis would take fright and leave. Now, you know, Robert, I have not got Miss Thornycroft yet, or even the promise of her; and it might happen that the negotiation would drop through. Where should I be in that case, with Lady Ellis gone?" "On the ground, fallen between two stools," was Mr. Robert Lake's irreverent answer. It angered Mrs. Chester; but she had an end to serve, and let it pass. "I want you and your wife to do me a favour, Robert. Stay here for a week or two with us, paying me, of course; you know what my circumstances are. My heart would be good to keep you, but my pocket is not. I am so afraid of Lady Ellis finding the place dull. She has come for a month to see how she likes it. I forget whether I told you this yesterday. On Monday, when we were talking together after her arrival, she said to me, 'You will allow me to stay a month to see if the place will suit me: if it does, we will then make our agreement.' What could I say?" "And you fear it may not suit her?" "I fear she will find it dull. She said this morning she thought the house would be triste but for the presence in it of Mr. and Mrs. Lake. Now, you do me a good turn, and stay a week or two." "I'd stay fast enough, Penelope--there's the fishing; but I don't know about Clara. You must talk to her." "You must talk to her," returned Mrs. Chester. "Nobody else has a tenth of the influence over her that you have." "I'll see," said Mr. Lake, alighting from the dressing-table. "We'll stay a day or two longer, at any rate: I know I can promise that." Mr. Lake went straight to his wife, and recounted to her, word for word as nearly as he could recollect, what Mrs. Chester had said. There was nothing covert in his disposition: his fault, if it was a fault, was undisguised openness. But he did not urge the matter one way or the other. Clara looked grave at the proposition, and he left it to her. "I said we would remain a day or two longer, Clara. I thought you would not object to that, as it is to do her, as she fancies, good." "I don't mind staying to the end of the week, Robert, now we are here. We will go home on Saturday, if you like." "All right." And Mr. Lake strolled away in his careless lightness. CHAPTER VI. Justice Thornycroft's Visit.