'That is utterly false, Sir!' said Miss Lake, flashing and blushing with indignation. 'You, William, are a _gentleman_; and such inconceivable meanness cannot enter _your_ mind.' The attorney, with what he meant to be a polished sarcasm, bowed and smiled toward Miss Lake. Pale little Fairy, sitting before his 'picture-book,' was watching the scene with round eyes and round mouth, and that mixture of interest, awe, and distress, with which children witness the uncomprehended excitement and collision of their elders. 'My dear Miss Lake, I respect and esteem you; you quite mistake, I am persuaded, my good friend Mr. Larkin; and, indeed, I don't quite comprehend; but if it were so, and that your brother really wished--do you think he does, Mr. Larkin?--to buy the reversion, he might think it more valuable, perhaps.' 'I can say with certainty, Sir, that from that quarter you would get nothing like what you have agreed to take; and I must say, once for all, Sir, that--quite setting aside every consideration of honour and of conscience, and of the highly prejudicial position in which you would place me as a man of business, by taking the very _short turn_ which this young lady, Miss Lake, suggests--your letters amount to an equitable agreement to sell, which, on petition, the court would compel you to do.' 'So you see, my dear Miss Lake, there is no more to be said,' said the vicar, with a careworn smile, looking upon Rachel's handsome face. 'Now, now, we are all friends, aren't we?' said poor Dolly, who could not make anything of the debate, and was staring, with open mouth, from one speaker to another. 'We are all agreed, are not we? You are all so good, and fond of Willie, that you are actually ready almost to quarrel for him.' But her little laugh produced no echo, except a very joyless and flushed effort from the attorney, as he looked up from consulting his watch. 'Eleven minutes past three,' said he, 'and I've a meeting at my house at half-past: so, unless you complete that instrument _now_, I regret to say I must take it back unfinished, and the result may be to defeat the arrangement altogether, and if the consequences should prove serious, I, at least, am not to blame.' 'Don't sign, I entreat, I _implore_ of you. William Wylder, you _shan't_.' 'But, my dear Miss Lake, we have considered everything, and Mr. Larkin and I agree that my circumstances are such as to make it inevitable.' 'Really, this is child's play; _there_, if you please,' said the attorney, once more. Rachel Lake, during the discussion, had removed her hand. The faintly-traced line on which the vicar was to sign was now fairly presented to him. 'Just in your usual way,' murmured Mr. Larkin.