' Oh, well, I believe it is going on fairly."
"I saw you advertised the sixteenth thousand the other day," put in Miss
Smithers, apologetically.
"Did we--did we? ah, then, you know more about it than I do," and he
looked at his visitor in a way that conveyed clearly enough that he
considered the interview was ended.
Miss Smithers rose, and then, with a spasmodic effort, sat down again.
"The fact is, Mr. Meeson," she said--"The fact is, that, I thought that,
perhaps, as 'Jemima's Vow' had been such a great success, you might,
perhaps--in short, you might be inclined to give me some small sum in
addition to what I have received."
Mr. Meeson looked up. His forehead was wrinkled till the shaggy eyebrows
nearly hid the sharp little eyes.
"What!" he said. "_What_!"
At this moment the door opened, and a young gentleman came slowly in. He
was a very nice-looking young man, tall and well shaped, with a fair skin
and jolly blue eyes--in short, a typical young Englishman of the better
sort, aetate suo twenty-four. I have said that he came slowly in, but
that scarcely conveys the gay and _degage_ air of independence which
pervaded this young man, and which would certainly have struck any
observer as little short of shocking, when contrasted with the worm-like
attitude of those who crept round the feet of Meeson.
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