s all over the
house, until the servants thought he must have turned Atheist or
Republican, or something generally contemptuous and sarcastic. The girl
had him in her toils, and the fascination was too much for him. She
could look grand as a Greek goddess, calm and inscrutably imposing as
the Venus of Milo; but she could also play _Perdita_, and dance with her
enslaved ones like a veritable little witch. Robert Cassall was
captured--there could not be much error about that. He asked, with a
sudden snap of teeth and lips which made his niece start: "And how much
do you want to coax out of me, Miss Molly. Give me an idea. Of course
I'm to be the uncle in the play, and 'Bless you, me chee-ill-dren,' and
the rest. Oh yes!"

"Oh, one vessel could be kept up for L30,000."

"What! Per year?"

"No. The interest on L30,000 in North Western Railway stock would
support a vessel well. _You_ could easily support two."

"This girl's got bitten by a money-spending tarantula. Why you'd dance
a million away in no time. _Why_, in the name of common sense, why
should I support two vessels and their hulking crews--who chew tobacco,
of course, don't they? To be sure, and hitch their slacks! Why should I
support all these manly tars!"

"Now! I'll be angry. I'll tell you why. You know you have more money
than you can ever spend. You promise me some, and you're very good, but
I'd almost rather live on my own than have too much. Well, I can't bear
to think of your dying--but you must die, my own good dear, and you will
have to divide your money before you go. There will be a lot of
heart-burning, and I'm afraid poor me won't come off very lightly if I
am left behind you. You will want a memorial."

"You remember me and do as I would like you to do, and we sha'n't
trouble our minds much about memorials. I thought of almshouses,
though."

"Oh! uncle dear, and then the Charity Commissioners may come in, and
give all your money to fat, comfortable tradesmen's children, or
well-to-do professional men, instead of to your old people, and the
clergyman will be master of your money; and the old people will not be
grateful, and all will go wrong, and my dear uncle will be forgotten.
Oh! no."

"I say, come, come; you're too knowing. You're trying to knock a pet
scheme of mine on the head."

The old man was genuinely concerned, and he felt as if some prop had
been knocked away from him. But his sweet niece soon brought him round.
She had scare