were always a wag. I've heard my father say he never knew any one
so full of humour."

"Indeed?"

"And I myself remember how good-natured you used to be when you
visited my father in Harley Street."

"Ay, indeed--let me see. Had your father risen to be at the top of the
profession by that time, with a promise of the chancellorship in his
pocket when his father died?"

"My dear sir, I don't know what you mean--why--what"--

Haven't you been in the habit of telling your friends so after
dinner?" enquired Mr Roe; "now, remember."

"Well! I may perhaps have said that he hoped to be chancellor."

"No, no--you have uniformly stated as a fact that he had the written
promise of the office--and you have constantly appealed to your aunt
for the truth of your statement."

"La! Mr Roe--how should I know about law and chancellorships? It isn't
a lady's business."

"It is a lady's business not to corroborate a falsehood."

"Really, my good sir," said Mr Gillingham Howard, "you are too hard on
a little after-dinner talk."

"Not a bit, not a bit--that after-dinner talk, as you call it, for
forty years, day after day retailing falsehoods, and asseverating them
so constantly, that you at last almost succeed in deceiving yourself,
does away all the distinctions in your mind between truth and
falsehood--and when once the boundary is broke down, there is no
farther pause. A man may go on, and boast about his cricket and
shooting till he would not stick at a false oath."

"Sir! I bear many things from an old friend of our family, but an
imputation on my veracity is intolerable. Do I ever deviate from the
truth, Aunt Susan?"

"You! Oh, no! if there's any quality you excel in more than another,
it is your truth. Low people may tell lies, and of course do; but you!
Mr Gillingham Howard!--you are a perfect gentleman, from the crown of
your head to the sole of your foot."

"Omitting all the intermediate parts," replied Mr Roe. "You know very
well what I mean, sir; and, moreover, you know that what I say is
true--but I will spare you at present. I wish to purchase Surbridge
Hall. I will give you the full price. Will you sell it or not?"

"Why, sir, a place that has been long in one's family"----

"I was nearly forty years old when it was bought--and hope to live few
years yet," interposed Mr Roe.

"And I don't see what pleasure you could take in acquiring a place to
which you have no hereditary ties--my poor father--and my de