honour to your
family, sir, say I respectfully. And there, the proud child has gone
away hungry, and he won't, I know, ever use that shilling to buy food!"

Father was not going to have that, you know, so he said to her:

"He does not belong to my family, I would have you to know. True, he is
allied to us through the female side; but we do not count him or his in
my family." He turned away and began to read a book. It was a decided
snub to her.

But mother had a word to say before Mrs. Martindale was done with.
Mother has a pride of her own, and doesn't brook insolence from
inferiors; and the housekeeper's conduct seemed to be rather presuming.
Mother, of course, isn't quite our class, though her folk are quite
worthy and enormously rich. She is one of the Dalmallingtons, the salt
people, one of whom got a peerage when the Conservatives went out. She
said to the housekeeper:

"I think, Mrs. Martindale, that I shall not require your services after
this day month! And as I don't keep servants in my employment when I
dismiss them, here is your month's wages due on the 25th of this month,
and another month in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt." She was
writing a receipt as she spoke. The other signed it without a word, and
handed it to her. She seemed quite flabbergasted. Mother got up and
sailed--that is the way that mother moves when she is in a wax--out of
the room.

Lest I should forget it, let me say here that the dismissed housekeeper
was engaged the very next day by the Countess of Salop. I may say in
explanation that the Earl of Salop, K.G., who is Lord-Lieutenant of the
County, is jealous of father's position and his growing influence.
Father is going to contest the next election on the Conservative side,
and is sure to be made a Baronet before long.

_Letter from Major-General Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie_, _V.C._,
_K.C.B._, _of Croom_, _Ross_, _N.B._, _to Rupert Sent Leger_, _Esq._, 14,
_Newland Park_, _Dulwich_, _London_, _S.E._

_July_ 4, 1892.

MY DEAR GODSON,

I am truly sorry I am unable to agree with your request that I should
acquiesce in your desire to transfer to Miss Janet MacKelpie the
property bequeathed to you by your mother, of which property I am a
trustee. Let me say at once that, had it been possible to me to do
so, I should have held it a privilege to further such a wish--not
because