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64 any question you might wish to ask, and to meet any objections you could put forward."

Lord Stranleigh sat suddenly very erect, the cigarette burning neglected between his two fingers.

"The girl!" he echoed. "The girl!! Oh, Peter, Peter, and this from you, whom I had supposed to be a solid mass of human Scotch granite! Do you mean to sit there calmly and tell me that you have allowed a girl to entangle you in a maze of American finance, which you do not in the least understand, and pit you against such a man as P. G. Flannigan? Peter, you amaze, shock, and horrify me! A girl, indeed! Well, this is unexpected. I beg to inform you, before you begin, that I refuse to meet her. The odds being against you in a catch-as-catch-can tumble with P. G. Flannigan, I am not heartless enough further to handicap you by meeting this girl, and destroying your prospects with her also. Everyone knows, Peter, that I am a better looking man than you, and as for our clothes, there is no comparison."

Mackeller had been shifting about uneasily in his chair, his countenance gradually assuming the lovely tint of a Queen Anne brick villa.

"Oh, you are always ragging me when I try to talk business."

"I'm not ragging you, Peter; I'm chaffing you. The subtleties of the English language are concealed from a Scotchman like you. Now, tell me