e, when he read the lines which referred to his
possible entanglement with some beautiful English girl. Here, with
widely different motives, was Mrs. Farnaby's warning repeated, by
a stranger writing from another quarter of the globe! It was an odd
coincidence, to say the least of it. After thinking for a while, he
turned abruptly to the third letter that was waiting for him. He was not
at ease; his mind felt the need of relief.

The third letter was from Rufus Dingwell; announcing the close of his
tour in Ireland, and his intention of shortly joining Amelius in London.
The excellent American expressed, with his customary absence of reserve,
his fervent admiration of Irish hospitality, Irish beauty, and Irish
whisky. "Green Erin wants but one thing more," Rufus predicted, "to be
a Paradise on earth--it wants the day to come when we shall send an
American minister to the Irish Republic." Laughing over this quaint
outbreak, Amelius turned from the first page to the second. As his eyes
fell on the next paragraph, a sudden change passed over him; he let the
letter drop on the floor.

"One last word," the American wrote, "about that nice long bright letter
of yours. I have read it with strict attention, and thought over it
considerably afterwards. Don't be riled, friend Amelius, if I tell
you in plain words, that your account of the Farnabys doesn't make me
happy--quite the contrary, I do assure you. My back is set up, sir,
against that family. You will do well to drop them; and, above all
things, mind what you are about with the brown miss, who has found
her way to your favourable opinion in such an almighty hurry. Do me a
favour, my good boy. Just wait till I have seen her, will you?"

Mrs. Farnaby, Mellicent, Rufus--all three strangers to each other; and
all three agreed nevertheless in trying to part him from the beautiful
young Englishwoman! "I don't care," Amelius thought to himself "They may
say what they please--I'll marry Regina, if she will have me!"

BOOK THE FOURTH. LOVE AND MONEY

CHAPTER 1

In an interval of no more than three weeks what events may not present
themselves? what changes may not take place? Behold Amelius, on the
first drizzling day of November, established in respectable lodgings, at
a moderate weekly rent. He stands before his small fireside, and warms
his back with an Englishman's severe sense of enjoyment. The cheap
looking-glass on the mantelpiece reflects the head and shoulde