He rose to go, but Mr. Brown stopped him by a gesture.  “A cousin!” he exclaimed.  “Do not excite yourself; be calm.  On the face of it, that would seem conclusive; but appearances are notoriously deceitful.  Will you assure me on your honor that there is no motive, no family feud, at the bottom of this?  Cousins do not go about the world denouncing each other—­as a rule.  Family pride, affection, a thousand things, prevent them from making such things public; but still it is not impossible.  I do not say that it is impossible; only improbable,—­very improbable.  Give me your word, though, that there is no motive.—­we must always look for a motive in these cases,—­and I will promise to give the matter full and impartial investigation.”

“I’ll do nothing of the sort.  I will bid you good-morning,” exclaimed Mr. Ramsay, reaching out impetuously for his hat.

“You have meant well, perhaps.  I am obliged to you, if such be the case.  I will bear what you have said in mind, and let you know my decision,” said Mr. Brown, delivering a verdict from the bench.

“Just as you please,” replied Mr. Ramsay haughtily; and so they parted.

Left to himself, however, Mr. Brown ceased to be judicial, and became practical.  He recalled, as he sat there, a number of circumstances that had not impressed him favorably in connection with his guest.  Mr. Drummond had borrowed a considerable sum of him, on the ground of delayed remittances.  Mr. Drummond had filled his pockets with his host’s Havanas in the most scandalous fashion, yet never had a cigar.  Mr. Drummond had done a number of ill-bred things that he had not liked,—­such as ordering the carriage to be got ready on his own responsibility, lending valuable books without so much as asking permission, and the like.  The longer Mr. Brown thought of the late interview, the more uneasy he felt.  The paper had dropped from his hand, and he was still deep in his uncomfortable meditations, when the door opened, and his daughter ran to him and threw herself into his arms, crying hysterically, “Oh, popper, popper!  Oh! oh! oh!”

We will extricate the story of what had happened from the sobs and interruptions to which Mr. Brown had to submit, and preface it with some account of the relations between Bijou and Mr. Drummond-Plummer or Plummer-Drummond.

They had met in New York the previous winter, where Mr. Drummond had suddenly appeared, put up at a fashionable hotel, and, with no other credentials than his handsome person, good manners, and bold assertions that he was related to certain great people in England, had been accepted in society with that beautiful faith and charity that believeth all things an Englishman of supposed position may choose to say of himself, in spite of much disastrous experience of foreign adventurers both painful and ludicrous.  Attracted by Bijou, he promptly satisfied himself of the stability and reality of her father’s fortune, and began