providence to the House of
Lackington,--eh, is that it?"

"Your Lordship's explanation is most gracious," said Dunn, bowing.

"Come, now; let us talk seriously," said the Viscount, in a changed
tone. "What is it you propose?"

"What I would _suggest_, my Lord," said Dunn, with a marked emphasis on
the word, "is this. Submit the documents of this claim--we can obtain
copies of the most important of them--to competent opinion, learn if
they be of the value I attribute to them, see, in fact, if this claim
be prosecuted, whether it is likely to succeed at law, and, if so,
anticipate the issue by a compromise."

"But what compromise?"

"Your Lordship has no heir. Your brother, who stands next in succession,
need not marry. This point at once decided, Conway's claim can take its
course after Mr. Beecher's demise. The estates secured to your Lordship
for life will amply guarantee a loan to the extent you wish."

"But they are mine, sir; they are mine this moment. I can go into the
market to-morrow and raise what amount I please--"

"Take care, my Lord, take care; a single imprudent step might spoil all.
If you were to negotiate a mere ten thousand to-morrow, you might be met
by the announcement that your whole property was about to be litigated,
and your title to it contested. Too late to talk of compromise, then."

"This sounds very like a threat, Mr. Dunn."

"Then have I expressed myself most faultily, my Lord; nor was there
anything less near my thoughts."

"Would you like to see my brother? He shall call on you in Dublin; you
will be there by--when?"

"Wednesday week, my Lord; and it is a visit would give me much
pleasure."

"If I were to tell you my mind frankly, Dunn," said the Viscount, in a
more assured tone, "I 'd say, I would not give a ten-pound note to
buy up this man's whole claim. Annesley, however, has a right to be
consulted; he has an interest only second to my own. See him, talk it
over with him, and write, to me."

"Where shall I address you, my Lord?"

"Florence; I shall leave this at once,--to-night," said Lord
Lackington, impatiently; for, somehow,--we are not going to investigate
wherefore,--he was impatient to be off, and see no more of those he had
been so intimate with.

CHAPTER XII. ANNESLEY BEECHER'S "PAL"

Lord Lackington was not much of a letter-writer; correspondence was not
amongst the habits of his day. The society in which he moved, and of
which, to some extent, he