He was in his study among his books, and rose to greet her with that affectionate kindliness he reserved for her.
"I want to know something, Mr. Haggard," said the girl in her determined way.
He looked at her over his spectacles.
"Yes."
"Can they put you in prison if you lose your money?"
"Not if you lose it honestly," replied the vicar.
One reason the girl liked him so much was that he never played the fool. The heavy horse-chaff with which the average Englishman of the Duke's type, in his elephantine efforts at gallantry, thinks it necessary to adorn his conversation, were not for him.
"Oh, he'll lose it honestly all right," cried the girl eagerly, unconscious of the fact that she was giving herself away, or careless of it.
It was not hard for the other to gauge her mind. Casually he turned over an evening paper.
"I see there's good news about Mr. Silver's Bank," he said. "It's weathered the storm."