"Of course I cannot force it upon you," said Lord Castlewell.

"No; a lord cannot do that, even in this country, where lords go for
so much. But we are not a whit the less obliged to your lordship.
There are proprieties and improprieties which I don't understand.
Rachel knows all about them. Such a knowledge comes to a girl
naturally, and she chooses either the one or the other, according to
her nature. Rachel is a dragon of propriety."

"Father, you are a goose," said Rachel.

"I am telling his lordship the truth. There is some reason why you
should not take the money, and you won't take it. I think it very
hard that I should not have been allowed to earn it."

"Why were you not allowed?" asked the lord.

"Lest the people should be persuaded to rise up against you
lords,--which they very soon would do,--and will do. You are right in
your generation. The people were paying twenty-five cents a night to
come and hear me, and so I was informed that I must not speak to them
any more. I had been silenced in Galway before; but then I had spoken
about your Queen."

"We can't endure that, you know."

"So I learn. She's a holy of holies. But I promised to say nothing
further about her, and I haven't. I was talking about your Speaker of
the House of Commons."

"That's nearly as bad," said Lord Castlewell, shaking his head.

"A second-rate holy of holies. When I said that he ought to obey
certain rules which had been laid down for his guidance, I was told
to walk out. 'What may I talk about?' I asked. Then the policeman
told me 'the weather.' Even an Englishman is not stupid enough to pay
twenty-five cents for that. I am only telling you this to explain why
we are so impecunious."

"The policeman won't prevent my lending you L200."

"Won't he now? There's no knowing what a policeman can't do in this
country. They are very good-natured, all the same."

Then Lord Castlewell turned to Rachel, and asked her whether her
suspicions would go so far as to interfere between him and her
father. "It is because I am a pretty girl that you are going to do
it," she said, frowning, "or because you pretend to think so." Here
the father broke out into a laugh, and the lord followed him. "You
had better keep your money to yourself, my lord. You never can have
used it with less chance of getting any return." This interview,
however, was ended by the acceptance of a cheque from Lord Castlewell
for L200, payable to the order of Gera