But with the gin-and-potash, and with Sophie, Mr. Juniper made his appearance.  He was a well-featured, tall man, but he looked the stable and he smelled of it.  His clothes, no doubt, were decent, but they were made by some tailor who must surely work for horsey men and no others.  There is a class of men who always choose to show by their outward appearance that they belong to horses, and they succeed.  Mr. Juniper was one of them.  Though good-looking he was anything but young, verging by appearance on fifty years.

“So he has been at it again, Miss Sophie,” said Juniper.  Sophie, who did not like being detected in the performance of her filial duties, led the way in silence into the house, and disappeared up-stairs with the gin-and-potash.  Mr. Juniper turned into the parlor, where was Mrs. Carroll with the other girls.  She was still angry, as angry as she could be, with her husband, who on being informed that morning of what his wife had done had called her brother “a beastly, stingy old beau,” because he had cut Amelia off with four hundred and fifty instead of five hundred pounds.  Mr. Carroll probably knew that Mr. Juniper would not take his daughter without the entirety of the sum stipulated, and would allow no portion of it to be expended on wedding-dresses.

“Oh, Dick, is this you?” said Amelia.  “I suppose you’ve come for your news.” (Mr. Juniper’s Christian-name was Richard.) On this occasion he showed no affectionate desire to embrace his betrothed.

“Yes, it’s me,” he said, and then gave his hand all round, first to Mrs. Carroll and then to the girls.

“I’ve seen Mr. Grey,” said Mrs. Carroll.  But Dick Juniper held his tongue and sat down and twiddled his hat.

“Where have you come from?” asked Georgina.

“From the Brompton Road.  I come down on a ’bus.”

“You’ve come from Tattersall’s, young man!” said Amelia.

“Then I just didn’t!” But to tell the truth he had come from Tattersall’s, and it might be difficult to follow up the workings of his mind and find out why he had told the lie.  Of course it was known that when in London much of his business was done at Tattersall’s.  But the horsey man is generally on the alert to take care that no secret of his trade escapes from him unawares.  And it may be that he was thus prepared for a gratuitous lie.

“Uncle’s gone a deal father than ever I expected,” said Amelia.

“He’s been most generous to all the girls,” said Mrs. Carroll, moved nearly to tears.

Mr. Juniper did not care very much about “all the girls,” thinking that the uncle’s affection at the present moment should be shown to the one girl who had found a husband, and thinking also that if the husband was to be secured, the proper way of doing so would be by liberality to him.  Amelia had said that her uncle had gone farther than she expected.  Mr. Juniper concluded from this that he had not gone as far as he had been asked, and boldly resolved, at the spur of the moment, to stand by his demand.  “Five hundred pounds ain’t much,” he said.