You remember I was in
the office?"
"Yes," she said, with a suspicion of a blush, "I remember you were
very kind."
"Well, you see," he went on, "I had a great row with my uncle after that,
and it ended in his turning me out of the place, bag and baggage, and
informing me that he was going to cut me off with a shilling, which," he
added reflectively, "he has probably done by now."
"Do I understand you, Mr. Meeson, to mean that you quarrelled with your
uncle about me and my books?"
"Yes; that is so," he said.
"It was very chivalrous of you," she answered, looking at him with a
new-born curiosity. Augusta was not accustomed to find knights-errant
thus prepared, at such cost to themselves, to break a lance in her cause.
Least of all was she prepared to find that knight bearing the hateful
crest of Meeson--if, indeed, Meeson had a crest.
"I ought to apologise," she went on presently, after an awkward pause,
"for making such a scene in the office, but I wanted money so dreadfully,
and it was so hard to be refused. But it does not matter now. It is all
done with."
There was a dull, hopeless ring about her voice that awoke his
curiosity. For what could she have wanted the money, and why did she no
longer want it?
"I am sorry," he said.
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