Ingram," said Mrs. Kavanagh, "will you talk seriously for one
minute, and tell me whether we are to expect to see you in the Tyrol?"

But Ingram was not in a mood for talking seriously, and he waited to
hear Mrs. Lorraine strike in with some calmly audacious invitation.
She did not, however, and he turned round from her mother to question
her. He was surprised to find that her eyes were fixed on the ground
and that something like a tinge of color was in her face. He turned
rapidly away again. "Well, Mrs. Kavanagh," he said with a fine air
of indifference, "the last time we spoke about that I was not in the
difficulty I am in at present. How could I go traveling just now,
without knowing how to regulate my daily expenses? Am I to travel with
six white horses and silver bells, or trudge on foot with a wallet?"

"But you know quite well," said Mrs. Lorraine warmly--"you know you
will not touch that money that Mrs. Lavender has left you."

"Oh, pardon me," he said: "I should rejoice to have it if it did not
properly belong to some one else. And the difficulty is, that Mr.
Mackenzie is obviously very anxious that neither Mr. Lavender nor
Sheila should have it. If Sheila gets it, of course she will give it
to her husband. Now, if it is not to be given to her, do you think I
should regard the money with any particular horror and refuse to touch
it? That would be very romantic, perhaps, but I should be sorry, you
know, to give my friends the most disquieting doubts about my sanity.
Romance goes out of a man's head when the hair gets gray."

"Until a man has gray hair," Mrs. Lorraine said, still with some
unnecessary fervor, "he does not know that there are things much more
valuable than money. You wouldn't touch that money just now, and all
the thinking and reasoning in the world will never get you to touch
it."

"What am I to do with it?" he said meekly.

"Give it to Mr. Mackenzie, in trust for his daughter," Mrs. Lorraine
said promptly; and then, seeing that her mother had gone to the end
of the drawing-room to fetch something or other, she added quickly,
"I should be more sorry than I can tell you to find you accepting this
money. You do not wish to have it. You do not need it. And if you did
take it, it would prove a source of continual embarrassment and regret
to you, and no assurances on the part of Mr. Mackenzie would be able
to convince you that you had acted rightly by his daughter. Now, if
you simply hand over