I am sure that Raffles will do it if I ask him.
It is all very well for him to say that he does not want any thanks or
honours, but I should like to know what is the use of being a public
benefactor if you are to have no return for it. I am sure that if he
does only half what he talks of doing, they will make him a peer--Lord
Tamfield, perhaps--and then, of course, I shall be my Lady Tamfield, and
what would you think of that, Bob?" She dropped him a stately curtsey,
and tossed her head in the air, as one who was born to wear a coronet.
"Father must be pensioned off," she remarked presently. "He shall have
so much a year on condition that he keeps away. As to you, Bob, I don't
know what we shall do for you. We shall make you President of the Royal
Academy if money can do it."
It was late before they ceased building their air-castles and retired to
their rooms. But Robert's brain was excited, and he could not sleep.
The events of the day had been enough to shake a stronger man. There
had been the revelation of the morning, the strange sights which he had
witnessed in the laboratory, and the immense secret which had been
confided to his keeping. Then there had been his conversation with his
father in the afternoon, their disagreement, and the sudden intrusion of
Raffles Haw.
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