And later, after he had displayed for her inspection the cheque for a thousand and eighty pounds, the old lady cried, with moist eyes:
'My darling, your poor father might well insist on having you called Shakspere! And to think that I didn't want it! To think that I didn't want it!'
'Mark my words!' said Aunt Annie. 'Sir George will ask you to stay on.'
And Aunt Annie was not deceived.
'I hope you've come to your senses,' the lawyer began early the next morning, not unkindly, but rather with an intention obviously pacific. 'Literature, or whatever you call it, may be all very well, but you won't get another place like this in a hurry. There's many an admitted solicitor earns less than you, young man.'
'Thanks very much, Sir George,' Henry answered. 'But I think, on the whole, I had better leave.'
'As you wish,' said Sir George, hurt.
'Still,' Henry proceeded, 'I hope our relations will remain pleasant. I hope I may continue to employ you.'
'Continue to employ me?' Sir George gasped.
'Yes,' said Henry. 'I got you to invest some moneys for me some time ago. I have another thousand now that I want a sound security for.'