all
be what you advise.'

'What a heavenly client!' he thought. 'But you must just give some
idea,' he said gently. 'For the fact is, any sum almost may be spent
on such a building: five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty
thousand, a hundred thousand.'

'I want it done well; so suppose we say a hundred thousand? My father's
solicitor--my solicitor now--says I may go to a hundred thousand without
extravagance, if the expenditure is scattered over two or three years.'

Somerset looked round for a pen. With quickness of insight she knew
what he wanted, and signified where one could be found. He wrote down in
large figures--

100,000.

It was more than he had expected; and for a young man just beginning
practice, the opportunity of playing with another person's money to that
extent would afford an exceptionally handsome opening, not so much
from the commission it represented, as from the attention that would be
bestowed by the art-world on such an undertaking.

Paula had sunk into a reverie. 'I was intending to intrust the work
to Mr. Havill, a local architect,' she said. 'But I gathered from
his conversation with you to-day that his ignorance of styles might
compromise me very seriously. In short, though my father employed him
in one or two little matters, it would not be right--even a morally
culpable thing--to place such an historically valuable building in his
hands.'

'Has Mr. Havill ever been led to expect the commission?' he asked.

'He may have guessed that he would have it. I have spoken of my
intention to him more than once.'

Somerset thought over his conversation with Havill. Well, he did not
like Havill personally; and he had strong reasons for suspecting that in
the matter of architecture Havill was a quack. But was it quite generous
to step in thus, and take away what would be a golden opportunity to
such a man of making both ends meet comfortably for some years to come,
without giving him at least one chance? He reflected a little longer,
and then spoke out his feeling.

'I venture to propose a slightly modified arrangement,' he said.
'Instead of committing the whole undertaking to my hands without better
proof of my ability to carry it out than you have at present, let there
be a competition between Mr. Havill and myself--let our rival plans for
the restoration and enlargement be submitted to a committee of the Royal
Institute of British Architects--and let the choice rest with