"Come, that's cheering," and he smiled. "One likes to be made use of sometimes, in a stray sort of way. I am very much alone in the world, too, after a fashion: that is to say, I have no one belonging to me in the way of near relations. But I have been used to comfort myself with thinking that everybody belonged to me, and that I might always be doing something for somebody or other."
The speaker paused, and began afresh,—"I wonder whether you remember a certain sermon or address of your good Vicar, when he said something about Nobody's Business being commonly Everybody's Business. That struck me, just because it was a favourite thought of my own. Odd, how much one is impressed by what a man says in the pulpit, if one has happened to have that very same idea in one's own mind before. Why should one think better of it, merely because it has been one's own notion? However, so things are; and I had often said to myself,—
"'Now, John Willoughby, you haven't got much business of your own to attend to, so the best you can do is to look about and see whatever happens to be "nobody's business," and then just take that up and make it "your business."'
"And when I heard your Vicar say pretty much the same thing, I was delighted. No reason for being so, but I was, and I suppose most people would have been in my place. Man's an odd being, you know. But here am I chattering on, and letting you have no time to put in a single word."
"No; I like to hear you. Please go on," Mildred answered quietly. "Tell me how you carry out that plan."
"Not much difficulty. There's always something wanting to be done, or somebody needing to be helped. And though I haven't kith or kin, I have no lack of money. So the question is—how to use my money to the best advantage. Not always in the regular channels, you know, but in doing things that perhaps nobody else is quite able or quite willing to do. No end of things turn up, one way and another."
Then another pause.
"I had a very good business in the second-hand book trade for years; and when health showed signs of failing, I disposed of that, and money came to me unexpectedly from another quarter. So, of course, the question arose, what to do with myself and my money, to the best advantage? I'm no advocate for reckless giving to anybody that asks,—just pauperising those who ought to work for themselves. But very often one may help those who are down to get up again, or those who are in difficulties to get out of them. I can't go in for regular hard work, but I can see to that sort of thing."
A sudden thought had come to Mildred, making her eyes brighten. She looked round at him, and said, "And perhaps, sometimes, if you find a collection being made for something that is very much wanted, you give a check to help it on."
"Sometimes, yes,—if that seems to be the right thing to do."