The Market-Place

luncheon-room when he arrived. It indeed still lacked a few minutes of the appointed hour when they thus met and went in together. They w

int, which seemed at first sight uniformly distributed: one saw afterward that it approached pallor at the veined temples, and ripened into purple in minute patches on the cheeks and the tip of the pointed nose. Against this flushed skin, the closely-cropped hair and small, neatly-waxed moustache were very white indeed. It was a thin, lined, care-worn face, withal, which in repose, and particularly in profile, produc

of every dish, and he emptied his glass as promptly as his host could fill it. There was hardly a word of explanation as to the

notice," Thorpe said then. "I sent two, you know-to

luncheon time. I read in bed. There's really noth

-paid sort," said Thorpe slowly. He realized that it was high ti

at had money in it. And I should very much like occupation, to

n't think I can even outline it to you yet. But I'm sure it will suit you-that is, if I decide to

That will suit me very well," he declared, with feeling. "Whatever I ca

in you, and I want to be of use to you. All that I've said, I can do for you. But first, I'm curious to know everything that

'fixed' at all, as you call it. Good God, sir! They no more care what becomes of me than they do about their old gloves. I gave them name and breeding and position-and everythi

t he had hoped for. He proceeded with an informed caution. "Don't be annoyed if I touch upon family matters," he

patience." He paused, to scan his companion's face. "They divide him between them," he said then, from clenched teeth-"and I-mind you-I made the match! He was a young fellow that I found-and I brought him home and

horpe ventured the enquiry with

l, briefly. It was evident t

hem in the country over Sunda

ment of silence. "Which one-Edith?-that is, Lady Cres

on upon me," he observed, watching the father

d, simply. "She's supposed to be t

horpe assented, while th

rred to him to ask. The tone of the ques

she's not a beauty, you know-she lives with an old lady in Scotland. The oldest daughter-Blanche-

-Lord Plowden's

d. "At Plowden's!" he repeated, and added, as if half t

, here, on some of the things that I don't understand. You remember that it was Plowden who introduced you to me, don't you? It was through him that you g

h deliberation now, weighing all his words. "He may have thought it would

y, "he had an object in pleasing her. Let me

l response. His moustache lifted itself in the semblance of

that there was something about the General which impelled him to think and t

as understood that if he had been free to marry a

she have accepted him?" "Ah, there you have me," replied the other. "Who can tell what women will accept, and what they will refuse? My daughter ref

enniless," Thorpe rema

at all of taking my advice. I'm a man of the world, and I could have managed her affairs for her to her advantage, but sh

old gentleman read in this an enco

. I might have put by a comfortable provision for my old age, in those days, if I had been willing to push my claims, and worry the Staff into giving me what was my due. But that I declined to do-and when I was retired, there was nothing for me but the ration of bread and salt which they serve out to the old soldier who has been too modest. I served my Queen, sir, for fort

s not my son-in-law. I could do with Italy very well-but that doesn't enter into anyone's calculations. No! let the worn-out old soldier sell boot-laces on the kerb! That's the spirit of woman-kind. And my daughter E

u say?" put in

h drowned. The title would have gone to her son-but no, of course, she had no son-and so it passed to a stranger-an outsider that had been an usher in a school, or something of that sort. You can fancy what a blow this was to me. Instead of being the grandfather of

r some minutes, relighting his cigar more than once meanwhile. He had made a mental calculation of what the old man had had to drink, and had reassur

of her own money her own way? It's little enough, God knows, for such a lady as she is. Why should you expect her to support you out of it? No-sit still! Listen to me!"-he stretched out

he foreground, as it were, and the angry scarlets and violets of the cheeks beneath them carried an unabated threat of apoplexy-but their owner, after a moment

he wanted to know about this veteran. If he had the fierce meannesses of a famished

friend in the world. To those that get in my way, or try to trip me up, I'm the devil-just plain devil. Now then-you're getting three hundred a year from my Company, that is to say from me, simply to oblige my friend Plowden. You don't do anything to earn this money; you're of no earthly use on the Board. If I chose, I could put you of

am," said the General, inflating hi

u are," Thorpe interrupted him

an injured tone, "that I can be as loy

ody, mind you, until the thing speaks for itself. We're keeping dark for a few months, d'ye see?-lying low. Then, as I say, I shall be a very rich man. Well now, I wouldn't gi

me surreptitious agency, to have already taken his fancy. It was a curious project; th

e that she should be so poor. Well, then-I might say to you, here's two thousand a year, say, made over to you in your name, on the understanding that you turn over half of it, say, to her. She could take it from you, of course, as her father. You cou

nd thought: "You'd have to set about making friends with her

, and poured out for himself still another petit verre. His purse

objections to it?" dem

for it," answered the other, slo

t in the other, with perem

kably well-kept. "I suppose one doesn't do something for nothing," he said. "I see what I would

ring serenity. "But what does that matter? You admit th

aightened himself in his chair, and looked hard at his compani

he began, cautiously picking his phrases-"to

the danger that advantage might be taken of his softness. "I'm a plain-spoken man," he went on, with a hardening voice, "and people mu

to say," he commented deferentially, "was that I thought I saw ways of

e, upon consideratio

I am so much more familiar with the whole situation than you can possibly be-I wonder that you won't l

declared, readily enough

n opinion," he protested, apologetically, "till I understand a bit more clearly what it is you propose to yourself. You mustn't

ing of something else. When he spoke, it was with no trace

But-starting with that proviso-I suppose I haven't seen any other woman that I'd rather think about mar

nce, mind, and she has a horror of it. Her husband was the most frightful brute and ruffian, you know. I was strongly opposed to the marriage, but her mother carried it through. But-yes-about her-I think she is afraid to marry again. If she does ever consent, it will be because poverty has broken her nerve. If she is kept on six hundred a year, she may be starved, so to speak, in

aternal statement. "I see what you me

nally he offered a diversion, in the form of a remark about the hour, Thorpe shook himself, and then pon

mbankment garden, Kervick was emboldened to recall to him t

ently. "I think-I think I'll take a

iness. "But when am I to see you again?" he enquire

e as if the suggestio

red, in distressed doubt as to the judicious tone to take. "You

dering attention. "Oh yes," he said, with lethargic vagueness-"I have

gateway, and chose a path at random. To the idlers on the garden benches who took note of him as he passed, he gave the impression of one struggling with nausea. To hi

ateway, mentally summarizing the events of the day, after the other had vanished. At last, nestling his chin comfortably into the fur of his collar, he sm