`In that case,' said Mrs. Luxmore, `you may save yourself the trouble of speaking, for I have fully made up my mind to have nothing to do with her. I will not hear one word in her defence; but as I value nothing so particularly as the virtue of justice, I think it my duty to explain to you the grounds of my complaint. She deserted me, her natural protector; for years, she has consorted with the most disreputable persons; and to fill the cup of her offence, she has recently married. I refuse to see her, or the being to whom she has linked herself. One hundred and twenty pounds a year, I have always offered her: I offer it again. It is what I had myself when I was her age.'

`Very well, madam,' said the Prince; `and be that so! But to touch upon another matter: what was the income of the Reverend Bernard Fanshawe?'

`My father?' asked the spirited old lady. `I believe he had seven hundred pounds in the year.'

`You were one, I think, of several?' pursued the Prince.

`Of four,' was the reply. `We were four daughters; and painful as the admission is to make, a more detestable family could scarce be found in England.'

`Dear me!' said the Prince. `And you, madam, have an income of eight thousand?'

`Not more than five,' returned the old lady; `but where on earth are you conducting me?'

`To an allowance of one thousand pounds a year,' replied Florizel, smiling. `For I must not suffer you to take your father for a rule. He was poor, you are rich. He had many calls upon his poverty: there are none upon your wealth. And indeed, madam, if you will let me touch this matter with a needle, there is but one point in common to your two positions: that each had a daughter more remarkable for liveliness than duty.'

`I have been entrapped into this house,' said the old lady, getting to her feet. `But it shall not avail. Not all the tobacconists in Europe . . .'

`Ah, madam,' interrupted Florizel, `before what is referred to as my fall, you had not used such language! And since you so much object to the simple industry by which I live, let me give you a friendly hint. If you will not consent to support your daughter, I shall be constrained to place that lady behind my counter, where I doubt not she would prove a great attraction; and your son-in-law shall have a livery and run the errands. With such young blood my business might be doubled, and I might be bound in common gratitude to place the name of Luxmore beside that of Godall.'

`Your Highness,' said the old lady, `I have been very rude, and you are very cunning. I suppose the minx is on the premises. Produce her.'

`Let us rather observe them unperceived,' said the Prince; and so saying he rose and quietly drew back the curtain.

Mrs. Desborough sat with her back to them on a chair; Somerset and Harry were hanging on her words with extraordinary interest; Challoner, alleging some affair, had long ago withdrawn from the detested neighbourhood of the enchantress.

`At that moment,' Mrs. Desborough was saying, `Mr Gladstone detected the features of his cowardly assailant. A cry rose to his lips: a cry of mingled triumph . . .'

`That is Mr. Somerset!' interrupted the spirited old lady, in the highest note of her register. `Mr. Somerset, what have you done with my house-property?'

`Madam,' said the Prince, `let it be mine to give the explanation; and in the meanwhile, welcome your daughter.'