one father," said Mr. Clare. "And I don't ask you."

In the first astonishment and delight of hearing those unexpected words,
she started to her feet, crossed the room, and tried to throw her arms
round his neck. She might as well have attempted to move the house from
its foundations. He took her by the shoulders and put her back in her
chair. His inexorable eyes looked her into submission; and his lean
forefinger shook at her warningly, as if he was quieting a fractious
child.

"Hug Frank," he said; "don't hug me. I haven't done with you yet; when
I have, you may shake hands with me, if you like. Wait, and compose
yourself."

He left her. His hands went back into his pockets, and his monotonous
march up and down the room began again.

"Ready?" he asked, stopping short after a while. She tried to answer.
"Take two minutes more," he said, and resumed his walk with the
regularity of clock-work. "These are the creatures," he thought to
himself, "into whose keeping men otherwise sensible give the happiness
of their lives. Is there any other object in creation, I wonder, which
answers its end as badly as a woman does?"

He stopped before her once more. Her breathing was easier; the dark
flush on her face was dying out again.

"Ready?" he repeated. "Yes; ready at last. Listen to me; and let's get
it over. I don't ask you to give Frank up. I ask you to wait."

"I will wait," she said. "Patiently, willingly."

"Will you make Frank wait?"

"Yes."

"Will you send him to China?"

Her head drooped upon her bosom, and she clasped her hands again, in
silence. Mr. Clare saw where the difficulty lay, and marched straight up
to it on the spot.

"I don't pretend to enter into your feelings for Frank, or Frank's for
you," he said. "The subject doesn't interest me. But I _do_ pretend to
state two plain truths. It is one plain truth that you can't be married
till you have money enough to pay for the roof that shelters you, the
clothes that cover you, and the victuals you eat. It is another plain
truth that you can't find the money; that I can't find the money; and
that Frank's only chance of finding it, is going to China. If I tell him
to go, he'll sit in a corner and cry. If I insist, he'll say Yes, and
deceive me. If I go a step further, and see him on board ship with my
own eyes, he'll slip off in the pilot's boat, and sneak back secretly to
you. That's his disposition."

"No!" said Magdalen. "It's not his disposition;