"Let me finish. I want you to understand equally well why I offer you help which may very likely seem to you an impertinence."
"No, indeed," said Pamela; "on the contrary, I am very grateful."
Others were approaching the spot where they stood. They turned and walked slowly over the grass away from the paddock.
"There is no need that you should be," Mudge continued; "you will see that, if you listen." And in a few words he told her at last something of his own career. "I sprang from a Deptford gutter, with one thought--to get on, and get on, and get on. I moved from Deptford to Peckham. There I married. I moved from Peckham to a residential suburb in the south-west. There my wife died. Looking back now, I am afraid that in my haste to get on I rather neglected my wife's happiness. You see I am frank with you. From the residential suburb I moved into the Cromwell Road, from the Cromwell Road to Grosvenor Square. I do not think that I was just a snob; but I wanted to have the very best of what was going. There is a difference. A few years ago I found myself at the point which I had aimed to reach, and, as I have told you, it is a position of many acquaintances and much loneliness. You might say that I could give it up and retire into the country. But I have too many undertakings on my hands; besides, I am too tired to start again, so I remain. But I think you will understand that it will be a real pleasure to me to help you. I have not so many friends that I can afford to lose the opportunity of doing one of them a service."
Pamela heard him to the end without any interruption; but when he had finished she said, with a smile--
"You are quite wrong about the reason for my hesitation. I asked a friend of mine a few weeks ago to help me, and he gave me the best of help at once. Even the best of help fails at times, and my friend did. I was wondering merely whether it would not be a little disloyal to him if I now accepted yours, for I know he would be grieved if I went to any one but him."
"I see," said Mr. Mudge; "but I think that I can give you help which no one else can."
It was clear from his quiet persistence that he had a definite plan. Pamela stopped and faced him.
"Very well," she said. "I leave the whole matter for a little while in your hands."
"Thank you," said Mr. Mudge; and he looked up towards the course. "There are the horses going down."