I shall let her know at once of these things, and break off the business--unless you do ONE THING.' A workman brought up another candle from the vault, and prepared to let down the slab.

'Well, Mr.Power, and what is that one thing ?' 'Go to Peru as my agent in a business I have just undertaken there.' 'And settle there ?' 'Of course.

I am soon going over myself, and will bring you anything you require.' 'How long will you give me to consider ?' said Dare.
Power looked at his watch.

'One, two, three, four hours,' he said.

'I leave Markton by the seven o'clock train this evening.' 'And if I meet your proposal with a negative ?' 'I shall go at once to my niece and tell her the whole circumstances--tell her that, by marrying Sir William, she allies herself with an unhappy gentleman in the power of a criminal son who makes his life a burden to him by perpetual demands upon his purse; who will increase those demands with his accession to wealth, threaten to degrade her by exposing her husband's antecedents if she opposes his extortions, and who will make her miserable by letting her know that her old lover was shamefully victimized by a youth she is bound to screen out of respect to her husband's feelings.