"I'm going to drop a hint at the first
opportunity I get, quite casually, that whichever of you girls gets
married first gets a cheque from me for one hundred thousand pounds."
Even Selina was staggered. Mrs. Bullsom was positively frightened.
"Mr. Bullsom!" she said. "Peter, you ain't got as much as that? Don't
tell me!"
"I am worth to-day," Mr. Bullsom said, solemnly, "at least five hundred
thousand pounds."
"Peter," Mrs. Bullsom gasped, "has it been come by honest?"
Mr. Bullsom smiled in a superior way.
"I made it," he answered, "by locking up forty thousand, more than half
of what I was worth, for five years. But I knew what I was about, and
so did the others. Mason made nearly as much as I did."
Selina looked at her father with a new respect. He rose and brushed the
ashes of his cigar from his waistcoat.
"Now I'm off," he declared. "Brooks and I will be back about seven, and
I shall try and get him to sleep here. Fix yourselves up quiet and
ladylike, you girls. Good-bye, mother."
* * * * *
"We have about an hour before dinner," Mr.
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