"NO, no, my dear boy!" said his father; "you would have degraded yourself, gratified him, and had to pay a large sum for a small. satisfaction. But now all that is past; explain to us the rest of the business. How happened the money to arrive so apropos, and without the accompaniment of the miser of Ryebury! Was Mr. Tims, senior, unwilling to meet Mr. Tims, junior on a business, in regard to which it was evident that the lawyer both wished and anticipated a different result?"
"Strange enough to say, my dear sir," replied Captain Delaware, "you are asking me questions which I can not at all answer. There is Blanche smiling," he added, "because I told her the same, before I came down, and she chose to be incredulous; though she knows that there never was sailor or landsman yet so little given to romancing as I am."
"But you can tell me when it was you received the money?" said Sir Sidney, in some degree of surprise.
"Oh, certainly, sir!" answered his son. "It was this morning, not long before Blanche came up to my room."
"Why, they told me you had not been out this morning," said his father.
"Neither have I, my dear sir," replied Captain Delaware.
"In short, papa, he makes a mystery of the whole affair," said Blanche "and will not say how or where he got it."
"You are wrong, my dear sister," rejoined her brother. "I am perfectly willing to say how and where I got it; and in fact I told you before."
"Oh, but, William!" exclaimed his sister, "I saw very well that you were only jesting. You did not, I am sure, intend me to give credence to that story!"
"Well for you that you are not a man, my pretty Blanche," answered Captain Delaware, shaking his hand at her, good-humoredly. "I will repeat the same, word for word, to my father; and if he do not believe me, I will swear to it, if he likes."