house duty. You know the sort of thing.... And I've had a very fair
offer for the place.'

'Whom from?'

'Well, Dain. I know he's wanted the house a long time. Of course, he's a
hard nut to crack, is Dain. But he went up to two thousand, and
yesterday I got him to make it guineas. That's a good price, Nora.'

'Is it?' she exclaimed absently.

'I should just imagine it was!' said John.

So it was expected of her that she should surrender her home, her
domain, her kingdom, the beautiful and mellow creation of her
intelligence; and that she should surrender it to David Dain, and to
the impossible Mrs. Dain, and to their impossible niece. She remembered
one of Milly's wicked tales about Mrs. Dain and the niece. Milly had met
Mrs. Dain in the street, and in response to an inquiry about the health
of the hypochondriacal niece, Mrs. Dain, gorgeously attired, had
replied: 'Her had but just rallied up off th' squab as I come out.'
These were the people who wanted to evict her from her house. And they
would cover its walls with new papers, and its floors with new carpets,
in their own appalling taste; and they would crowd the rooms with
furniture as fat, clumsy, and disgusting as themselves. And Mrs. Dain
would hold sewing meetings in the drawing-room, and would stand
chattering with tradesmen at the front door, and would drive out to
Sneyd to pay a call on Leonora and tell her how _pleased_ they all were
with the place!

'Do you absolutely need the money, John?' She came to the point with a
frank, blunt directness which angered him.

'I don't absolutely need anything,' he retorted, controlling himself.
'But Dain made the offer----'

'Because if you do,' she proceeded, 'I dare say Uncle Meshach----'

'Look here, my girl,' he interrupted in turn, 'I've had exactly as much
of Uncle Meshach as I can stand. I know all about Uncle Meshach, what I
wanted to know was whether you cared to sell the house.' And then he
added, after hesitating, and with a false graciousness, 'To oblige me.'

There was a marked pause.

'I really shouldn't like to sell the house, John,' she answered quietly.
'It was aunt's, and----'

'Enough said! enough said!' he cried. 'That finishes it. I suppose you
don't mind my having asked you!'

He walked out of the room in a rage.

Tears came into her eyes, the tears of a wounded and proud heart. Was it
conceivable that he expected her to be willing to sell her house?... He
must indeed be in serio