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"And as to my being conceited you're always hinting I'm conceited I'm no more so than any young man would be in my place, with a lot of girls trying to catch him Ah, there you go! Don't jump on me, Deleah. You know what I mean. Lots of girls are looking out to get married, and I've got money, and I've got a name " "On the Brewers' carts. 'Forcus and Sons; Brewers."
But before Deleah could comply another arm was proffered, and proffered in a manner so brusque and so determined that the young Forcus fell back involuntarily. "Thank you. Miss Deleah is in my charge," a voice said; and Deleah felt herself dragged through the crowded porch, and over the pavement to the cab-door, on the arm of Mr. Charles Gibbon.
He thought how certainly, if she had so wished it, she might have been going to be his sister-in-law, and the reflection again quickened the perception of the fact that something was due from the family of Forcus to that of Day. "I will go and see George Boult to-morrow," he said. "The draper, do you mean? Why?" "He is their adviser. Put the poor woman into that wretched shop.
He folded it, and walked to the window, looking out thoughtfully upon the garden, his hands behind his back, the letter, held by its corner in one of them, waggling up and down. "She told me she had written," Miss Forcus said again, by way of reminder. "She simply says she has gone." "I shall miss her dreadfully. She is the dearest girl. Never have I seen one so lovely and so little vain."
He paid his call upon the senior partner earlier than usual on the morning after Mrs. Day's New Year's Dance, but not so early that Sir Francis Forcus had not received a visitor before him. A visitor who had upset the equanimity of that always outwardly unruffled, and carefully self-contained person. "You are up with the worm, this morning, Reggie," he said.
It chanced that Sir Francis Forcus drove to the Brewery an hour earlier than usual that morning, and a circumstance of rare occurrence that Reginald was pleased to drive with him. Both men came together into the private room of the elder, where Deleah, for an hour which had seemed a lifetime, awaited them. If Sir Francis had ever seen William Day's little daughter, he had forgotten her.
Boult easily; and then, seeing no reason why he should not do so, went on to explain that it was through the attentions of Mr. Reginald Forcus that misfortune had come about. "So Miss Bessie tells me," he finished, and inquired with the glance of a glistening eye at Sir Francis if he had the pleasure of Miss Bessie's acquaintance.
She flew down the little neatly rolled gravel path, and out through the freshly painted gate, and once on the road, as if more than life was endangered by delay, she rushed onward at break-neck speed. Sir Francis Forcus, solemn and serene of face, riding homeward, had his attention drawn to a little figure which flew ahead of him.
The Forcus family did not deal at his shop; the deference therefore which the draper never failed to pay his customers was not needed here. He shook poor Reggie's hand mercilessly, and inquired after Sir Francis. Mr. George Boult had recently been made a magistrate; Sir Francis and he sat on the same bench.
"We must remember that the poor things have seen better days, and be careful how we offer," Miss Forcus said. "I have no doubt we shall find they would rather starve than touch our money." "I hope they know Reggie has gone away; otherwise it might have looked heartless his not being there to-day." "They will understand. And Reggie could not have stood it.
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