Chapter 10

THE GREAT SECRET.

And so Laura McIntyre became duly engaged to Raffles Haw, and old
McIntyre grew even more hungry-looking as he felt himself a step nearer
to the source of wealth, while Robert thought less of work than ever,
and never gave as much as a thought to the great canvas which still
stood, dust-covered, upon his easel. Haw gave Laura an engagement ring
of old gold, with a great blazing diamond bulging out of it. There was
little talk about the matter, however, for it was Haw's wish that all
should be done very quietly. Nearly all his evenings were spent at
Elmdene, where he and Laura would build up the most colossal schemes of
philanthropy for the future. With a map stretched out on the table in
front of them, these two young people would, as it were, hover over the
world, planning, devising, and improving.

"Bless the girl!" said old McIntyre to his son; "she speaks about it as
if she were born to millions. Maybe, when once she is married, she
won't be so ready to chuck her money into every mad scheme that her
husband can think of."

"Laura is greatly changed," Robert answered; "she has grown much more
serious in her ideas."

"You wait a bit!" sniggered his father. "She is a good girl, is Laura,
and she knows what she is about. She's not a girl to let her old dad go
to the wall if she can set him right. It's a pretty state of things,"
he added bitterly: "here's my daughter going to marry a man who thinks
no more of gold than I used to of gun-metal; and here's my son going
about with all the money he cares to ask for to help every ne'er-do-well
in Staffordshire; and here's their father, who loved them and cared for
them, and brought them both up, without money enough very often to buy a
bottle of brandy. I don't know what your poor dear mother would have
thought of it."

"You have only to ask for what you want."

"Yes, as if I were a five-year-old child. But I tell you, Robert, I'll
have my rights, and if I can't get them one way I will another.
I won't be treated as if I were no one. And there's one thing: if I am
to be this man's pa-in-law, I'll want to know something about him and
his money first. We may be poor, but we are honest. I'll up to the
Hall now, and have it out with him." He seized his hat and stick and
made for the door.

"No, no, father," cried Robert, catching him by the sleeve. "You had
better leave the matter alone. Mr. Haw is a very sensitive man.
He would not like to be examined upon such a point. It might lead to a
serious quarrel. I beg that you will not go."

"I am not to be put off for ever," snarled the old man, who