CHAPTER IX.
SHOWING HOW MR. ROBINSON WAS EMPLOYED
ON THE OPENING DAY.
"Et tu, Brute?" were the words with which Mr. Brown was greeted at six o'clock in the morning on that eventful day, when, at early dawn, he met his young partner at Magenta House. He had never studied the history of Cæsar's death, but he understood the reproach as well as any Roman ever did.
"It was your own doing, George," he said. "When she was swore at in that way, and when you went away and left her—."
"It was she went away and left me."
"'Father,' said she when she came back, 'I shall put myself under the protection of Mr. William Brisket.' What was I to do then? And when he came himself, ten minutes afterwards, what was I to say to him? A father is a father, George; and one's children is one's children."
"And they are to be married?"
"Not quite at once, George."
"No. The mercenary slaughterer will reject that fair hand at last, unless it comes to him weighted with a money-bag. From whence are to come those five hundred pounds without which William Brisket will not allow your daughter to warm herself at his hearthstone?"
"As Jones has got the partnership, George, Maryanne's husband should have something."