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Mr Bennett stared in a frozen sort of way at the hand He had placed Sam by now He knew that Sir Mallaby had a son This, presunation

"I ahted to meet you, Mr Bennett," said Sam "You could not have cos are There is no need for a long explanation You cahter, Mr Bennett, and you have found a son!"

And he would like to see the ht Sam, who could have put it more cleverly and pleasantly and tactfully than that

"What are you talking about?" said Mr Bennett, recovering breath "I haven't got a son"

"I will be a son to you! I will be the prop of your declining years"

"What the devil do youyears?" demanded Mr Bennett with asperity

"He means when they do decline, father dear," said Billie

"Of course, of course," said Sam "When they do decline Not till then, of course! I wouldn't dream of it But, once they do decline, count on me! And I should like to say for my part," he went on handsomely, "what an honour I think it, to become the son-in-law of a man like Mr Bennett Bennett of New York!" he added spaciously, not so much because he knehat he meant, for he would have been the first to admit that he did not, but because it sounded well

"Oh!" said Mr Bennett "You do, do you?"

Mr Bennett sat down He put away his handkerchief, which had certainly earned a rest Then he fastened a baleful stare upon his newly-discovered son It was not the sort of look a proud and happy father-in-law-to-be ought to have directed at a prospective relative It was not, as a ht to have directed at anybody except possibly an exceptionally prudish judge at a criminal in the dock, convicted of ain the actual line of fire, only caught the tail end of it, but it was enough to create a ry!"

"You can't be angry!"

"Why can't I be angry!" demanded Mr Bennett, with that sense of injury which comes to self-willed men when their whiry! I come here and find you like--like this, and you seeive three rousing cheers! Of course I'men I have ever met"