"There is an inquietude in your very pose that unsettles me, and with a little fortitude one can get used to anything.

For instance, if anybody had told me five years ago that I could take my after-dinner coffee without a slight flavour of old cognac I should not have believed them." Nellie Townshead evinced a little impatience.

"It might be slightly more difficult to dispense with the dinner, as well as the coffee, and that is what we shall probably have to do presently," said she.

"Why did you borrow that money from Mr.Hallam, father?
Any one could have seen that he was a rascal, and I believe that Mr.Seaforth warned you." Townshead sighed.

"The difficulty," he said, "is to arrive at a correct decision before one knows what will happen.