e say, but where do you come in? A stiff premium for
Isabel and 50 pounds for Jim and 150 pounds for me doesn't leave
much change out of 300 pounds!"

"Oh, I've all I want. Living at home, I don't get the chance of
spending a lot of pocket money."

"Why don't you close at once?"

"Because I can't get an answer out of Bernard. I've spoken to him
but he won't decide one way or the other. And he's my master,
and I can't take on another job if he objects. That's why I kept
it dark at home: what's the good of raising hopes that may be
disappointed?"

"Pity you can't chuck Bernard and take on Etchingham and the
five hundred."

"I should never do that," said Val in the rare tone of decision
which in him was final. "After all these years I could never
leave Bernard in the lurch. I owe him too much."

"As if the boot weren't on the other leg!" Rowsley muttered. He
was not mercenary--none of Mr. Stafford's children were: he saw
eye to eye with Val in Val's calm preference of six to eight
hundred a year: but when Val carried his financial principles
into the realm of sentiment Rowsley now and then lost his temper.
His brother smiled at him, amused by his irritation, unmoved by
it: other men's opinions rarely had any weight with Val Stafford.

"Pax till it happens, at all events! Honestly I don't think
Bernard means to object: he's been all smiles the last day or
two--Hyde's coming has shaken him up and done him good--"

"Oh! Hyde!"

Val let fail his paper and looked curiously at Rowsley, whose
tone was a challenge. "What is it now?"

"Do you like this chap Hyde?"

"That depends on what you mean by liking him. He's not a bad
specimen of his class."

"What is his class? Do you know anything of his people?"

"Of his family I know little except that he has Jew blood in him
and is very well off," Val could have told his brother where the
money came from, but forbore out of consideration for Lawrence,
who might not care to have his connection with the Hyde Galleries
known in Chilmark. "He came here because Lucian Selincourt asked
him to see if he could do anything for Bernard."

"I can't see Hyde putting himself out of his way to oblige Mr.
Selincourt."

"If you ask me, Rose, I should say he had only just got back to
England and was at a loose end. But there was a dash of good
nature in it: he's genuinely fond of Mrs. Clowes."

"So I gathered," said Rowsley. His tone was pregnant. Val sat
silent fo