CHAPTER VI.
MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT "My dear Richard" (wrote Shelton's uncle the next day), "I shall be glad to see you at three o'clock to-morrow afternoon upon the question of your marriage settlement...." At that hour accordingly Shelton made his way to Lincoln's Inn Fields, where in fat black letters the names "Paramor and Herring (Commissioners for Oaths)" were written on the wall of a stone entrance.

He ascended the solid steps with nervousness, and by a small red-haired boy was introduced to a back room on the first floor.

Here, seated at a table in the very centre, as if he thereby better controlled his universe, a pug-featured gentleman, without a beard, was writing.

He paused.

"Ow, Mr.Richard!" he said; "glad to see you, sir.