Is the arrangement that I have proposed not agreeable to you ?" Iris assured him that she gratefully acceded to the arrangement.

At the same time, she confessed to having been a little startled, on discovering that he was in consultation with the police.

"I remember that we are in Ireland," she explained, "and I am foolish enough to fear that you may be in some danger.

May I hope that it is only a trifle ?" Only a trifle! Among ether deficient sensibilities in the strange nature of Iris, Sir Giles had observed an imperfect appreciation of the dignity of his social position.

Here was a new proof of it! The temptation to inspire sentiments of alarm--not unmingled with admiration--in the mind of his insensible goddaughter, by exhibiting himself as a public character threatened by a conspiracy, was more than the banker's vanity could resist.