"Well, I should like to repeat it to you. The marriage which has been arranged--by you--will not take place. That"s all."

"That," replied Mr. Haliburton easily, "is a matter for Joan and myself--"

"We will refer to my ward as Miss Gaymer for the rest of this interview," said Hughie stiffly.

"Certainly. To resume. You see, Marrable, although you were appointed Miss Gaymer"s guardian by the eccentric old gentleman who bears the same name as yourself, your authority does not last for ever. I understand that the lady will shortly become her own mistress."

"She will."

"In which case she will have the control of her own property."

"That is so."

"Well,"--Mr. Haliburton paused, and flicked the ash off his cigarette,--"don"t you think that this display of authority on your part, considering that it is subject to a time-limit, is rather ridiculous?"

"I have only one observation to make on that point," said Hughie coolly, "and that is, that I have made no display of authority of any kind."

"My dear sir," said Mr. Haliburton, raising his histrionic eyebrows, "aren"t you forbidding the banns?"

"I have never forbidden anything. I have merely stated that the match will not come off."

"Don"t let us quibble, man!" said Haliburton impatiently. He got off the table. "Look here, Marrable, there is no need for you and me to be mealy-mouthed in this matter. Let"s be frank. You want this girl: so do I. She can"t marry both of us, so she must pick one. She has picked me: I have her word for it. She says she cares for me more than any man in the world, and would tramp the roads with me. And I with her! Why, man--"

As he uttered these n.o.ble words Mr. Haliburton struck an att.i.tude which many young women in the front row of the pit would have considered highly dramatic, but which merely struck the prejudiced and unsympathetic male before him as theatrical in the extreme.

"Drop it!" said Hughie. "You make me quite sick."

He spoke the truth. He did not know whether Haliburton"s rhapsody rested on any a.s.sured foundation or not. But in any case Joan"s fresh and innocent youth was a very sacred thing, and even the suggestion that she could have anything in common with this glorified super made him feel physically unwell.

Mr. Haliburton broke off, and smiled.

"Marrable," he said, almost genially, "we understand each other! I see you want plain English. I said just now that we were both fond of the girl. So we are. But I fancy we are both a bit fonder of her little bit of stuff--eh? Now, you have been handling the dibs for a matter of eighteen months, I understand. You have feathered your nest pretty comfortably, from all I hear. Don"t be a dog in the manger! Let your friends into a good thing too!"

The mask was off with a vengeance. Hughie swallowed something and thanked G.o.d that, if his wanderings among mankind had taught him nothing else, they had taught him to hold himself in till the time came. He said:--

"Haliburton, I have told you several times that I do not forbid this engagement; because, as you have very acutely pointed out, my _veto_ does not last for ever; but the match is not coming off, for all that.

Before you go I will explain what I mean. I don"t want to, because the consequences may be serious, both for Miss Gaymer and myself; but it will show you how absolutely determined I am to make a clean sweep of you.

"I should like to say in the first place that I should never have stood between Miss Gaymer and _any_ man, so long as I honestly thought he could make her happy--not even a man whom I personally would regard as an a.s.s or an outsider. But there are limits to everything, and you strike me as being the limit in this case. I have been making inquiries about you, and I now know your antecedents fairly well. You apparently are an actor of sorts, though all the actors of my acquaintance look distinctly unwell when your name is mentioned. However, whatever you are, I should be sorry to see any woman in whom I take an interest compelled to spend even half an hour in your company. In fact, if you had not originally come down here as a friend of Lance Gaymer"s,--over whom, by the way, I find you once had some hold,--I should have asked Captain Leroy"s permission to kick you out of the place some time ago!"

Mr. Haliburton looked a little uncomfortable. He held a good hand, but Hughie was obviously not bluffing. He had an uneasy feeling that there must be an unsuspected card out somewhere.

"To come to the main point," continued Hughie, "I want this engagement to be declared off by _you_, not by me. What is your price?"

Mr. Haliburton breathed again. Bribery? Was that all? He replied briskly:--

"How much have you got?"

"Is a thousand pounds any use?" asked Hughie.

"Twenty might be," replied the lover.

"My limit," said Hughie, who was not a man to haggle about what Mr.

Mantalini once described as "demnition coppers," "is five thousand pounds."

"Talk sense!" said Mr. Haliburton briefly.

"The offer," continued Hughie steadily, "is open for five minutes. If you accept it I will write you a cheque now, and you will sit down and write a letter formally breaking off, on your own initiative, any engagement or understanding you may have entered into with Miss Gaymer, and undertaking never to come near her again; and I will see she gets it. If not--well, you"ll be sorry, for you"ll never make such a good bargain by any other means."

Haliburton eyed him curiously.

"Is this your own money you are offering me?" he said.

"It is," said Hughie, looking at his watch. "Three minutes left."

"Won"t it make rather a hole in your capital account?"

"It will. In fact, hole won"t be the word for it! But it will be worth it."

Intelligence dawned upon Mr. Haliburton.

"I see," he said slowly. "You expect to recoup yourself later, when--when the marriage settlements are drawn up, eh? Or perhaps," he added sarcastically, "eighteen months of careful trusteeship have put you in a position to afford this extravagance!"

Hughie was surprised at his own self-control. Only the little pulse which Joan had noticed beat a.s.siduously in his right temple.

"Fifteen seconds!" he said. "Do you take this offer, Mr. Haliburton?"

"No."

"Right!" Hughie put his watch back into his pocket and regarded the misguided blackmailer before him rather in the manner of a benevolent policeman standing over a small boy with a cigarette.

"Your last few remarks," he said, "have been so offensive that I know you would not have had the pluck to make them unless you thought you had me absolutely under your thumb. But I may as well proceed to my final move, and terminate this interview. I am very averse to taking this particular step, because its results may be awkward, as I said, for Miss Gaymer. That is why I offered you practically all the available money I have to call the deal off. But I see I can"t help myself. Now, Haliburton,--by the way, I forgot to mention that your real name is Spratt: you seem to have become a big fish since you took to fortune-hunting,--I am going to make you break off your engagement. I am going to pay you a high compliment. I am going to give you a piece of information, known only to myself and Miss Gaymer"s banker, for which you will ultimately be very grateful, and the knowledge of which will cause you, when you get outside (which will be very soon now), to kick yourself for a blamed fool because you did not accept my first offer."

Mr. Haliburton-Spratt shuffled his feet a trifle uneasily, and Hughie continued:--

"You seem to be suffering from an aggravated attack of the prevailing impression that Miss Gaymer is an heiress. Her fortune has been variously estimated by tea-table experts at anything from forty to a hundred thousand pounds. I will now tell you what it really is. Get off the table: I want to open that dispatch-box."

Mr. Haliburton, conscious of a slight sinking sensation just below the second b.u.t.ton of his waistcoat, moved as requested, and Hughie took out of the box a bank-book and a bulky letter.

"When I came home from abroad," he said, "I found this letter awaiting me. It is from my uncle. The following pa.s.sage will interest you: "... I have realised practically all my personal estate, and have placed the cash to your credit on Joey"s behalf"--Joey is the name," he explained punctiliously, "by which Miss Gaymer is known to her intimate friends--"at the Law Courts Branch of the Home Counties Bank.... The rest of my property is set down and duly disposed of in my will, and cannot be touched until my death is authenticated.""

"I hope there was a respectable sum in the bank," said Mr. Haliburton, his spirits rising again.

Hughie opened the pa.s.s-book.

"When I went to the bank in question," he said, "and asked to be allowed to see the amount of my balance, I was handed this pa.s.s-book. From it you will gather the exact value of Miss Gaymer"s fortune at the moment when I took over the management of her affairs."

He handed the book to Mr. Haliburton. That devout lover glanced eagerly at the sum indicated on the balance-line--and turned a delicate green.