“Mannion!”

“Yes, Mannion:  I have got his letter to her.  She is criminated by it, even past her father’s contradiction—­and he doesn’t stick at a trifle!  But I’ll begin at the beginning, and tell you everything.  Hang it, Basil, you look as if I’d brought you bad news instead of good!”

“Never mind how I look, Ralph—­pray go on!”

“Well:  the first thing I heard, on getting to the house, was that Sherwin’s wife was dying.  The servant took in my name:  but I thought of course I shouldn’t be admitted.  No such thing!  I was let in at once, and the first words this fellow, Sherwin, said to me, were, that his wife was only ill, that the servants were exaggerating, and that he was quite ready to hear what Mr. Basil’s ‘highly-respected’ brother (fancy calling me ‘highly-respected!’) had to say to him.  The fool, however, as you see, was cunning enough to try civility to begin with.  A more ill-looking human mongrel I never set eyes on!  I took the measure of my man directly, and in two minutes told him exactly what I came for, without softening a single word.”

“And how did he answer you?”

“As I anticipated, by beginning to bluster immediately.  I took him down, just as he swore his second oath.  ‘Sir,’ I said very politely, ’if you mean to make a cursing and a swearing conference of this, I think it only fair to inform you before-hand that you are likely to get the worst of it.  When the whole collection of British oaths is exhausted, I can swear fluently in five foreign languages:  I have always made it a principle to pay back abuse at compound interest, and I don’t exaggerate in saying, that I am quite capable of swearing you out of your senses, if you persist in setting me the example.  And now, if you like to go on, pray do—­I’m ready to hear you.’  While I was speaking, he stared at me in a state of helpless astonishment; when I had done, he began to bluster again—­but it was a pompous, dignified, parliamentary sort of bluster, now, ending in his pulling your unlucky marriage-certificate out of his pocket, asserting for the fiftieth time, that the girl was innocent, and declaring that he’d make you acknowledge her, if he went before a magistrate to do it.  That’s what he said when you saw him, I suppose?”

“Yes:  almost word for word.”

“I had my answer ready for him, before he could put the certificate back in his pocket.  ‘Now, Mr. Sherwin,’ I said, ’have the goodness to listen to me.  My father has certain family prejudices and nervous delicacies, which I do not inherit from him, and which I mean to take good care to prevent you from working on.  At the same time, I beg you to understand that I have come here without his knowledge.  I am not my father’s ambassador, but my brother’s—­who is unfit to deal with you, himself; because he is not half hard-hearted, or half worldly enough.  As my brother’s envoy, therefore, and out of consideration for my father’s peculiar feelings, I now offer you,