know whether the diamonds are
not locked up somewhere now, so that she can take them when she
pleases."

"What a singular woman!"

"It was odd; but she had some fad about it. What makes you ask about
Mrs. Finn?"

"She wants me to go and see her."

"What about?"

"I think I have heard your mother speak of her as though she loved
her dearly," said Tregear.

"I don't know about loving her dearly. They were intimate, and Mrs.
Finn used to be with her very much when she was in the country. She
was at Matching just now, when my poor mother died. Why does she want
to see you?"

"She has written to me from Matching. She wants to see me--"

"Well?"

"To tell you the truth, I do not know what she has to say to me;
though I can guess."

"What do you guess?"

"It is something about your sister."

"You will have to give that up, Tregear."

"I think not."

"Yes, you will; my father will never stand it."

"I don't know what there is to stand. I am not noble, nor am I rich;
but I am as good a gentleman as he is."

"My dear fellow," said the young lord, "you know very well what I
think about all that. A fellow is not any better to me because he
has got a title, nor yet because he owns half a county. But men have
their ideas and feelings about it. My father is a rich man, and of
course he'll want his daughter to marry a rich man. My father is
noble, and he'll want his daughter to marry a nobleman. You can't
very well marry Mary without his permission, and therefore you had
better let it alone."

"I haven't even asked his permission as yet."

"Even my mother was afraid to speak to him about it, and I never knew
her to be afraid to say anything else to him."

"I shall not be afraid," said Tregear, looking grimly.

"I should. That's the difference between us."

"He can't very well eat me."

"Nor even bite you;--nor will he abuse you. But he can look at you,
and he can say a word or two which you will find it very hard to
bear. My governor is the quietest man I know, but he has a way
of making himself disagreeable when he wishes, that I never saw
equalled."

"At any rate, I had better go and see your Mrs. Finn." Then Tregear
wrote a line to Mrs. Finn, and made his appointment.

CHAPTER IV

Park Lane

From the beginning of the affair Tregear had found the necessity
of bolstering himself up inwardly in his great attempt by mottoes,
proverbs, and instigations to courage addressed to himself. "None