‘Before I could answer anything Miss Juana said, “Yes, do, Mr. Featherstone, there’s a dear man. We should love to have you.”
‘The charming and adorable creature condescended to joke. I said, “I gladly accept your very kind invitation.”
‘So I went up and stayed at their house till the Monday morning. Miss Juana drove down on the motor-car, me sitting by her side, and Mr. Craig behind. It was very enjoyable.
‘Mr. Craig himself was very polite to me during my visit, and so was Miss Teresa, Miss Juana’s sister. Miss Teresa drove us back to London on the Monday morning. And for this I was sorry; not that I have a word to say against Miss Teresa, who is a pretty enough girl, and amiable. Just before we started on the journey to London Mr. Craig put a small but heavy portmanteau under the back seat of the motor-car. I asked him what that was, merely from idle curiosity, and he said, “Money, my lad.” The two ladies were not about I laughed, thinking he was joking. But that day he called me into his private room and said, in a very ordinary tone of voice, “Featherstone, here is fifty pounds in new silver. Pay it into my private account.”
‘“Yes, sir,” I said, not thinking. It was the luncheon hour, and nearly all the clerks were out. I casually examined the silver. Of course I can distinguish a bad coin in a moment, almost by instinct. I seem to be mysteriously warned of the approach of a bad coin. But this money was all right. The next morning Miss Juana called in, and she and I had a chat. I liked her more and more. And, either I was an insufferably conceited ass, or she liked me. I knew there was more than thirty years’ difference between us. But I said to myself, “Pooh! what is thirty years? A man is as young as he feels.” I knew that I had only an income of two hundred a year, which might rise to two hundred and twenty-five or two hundred and fifty; but I said to myself that thousands of people married happily on less than that. I felt that it was impudent on my part to aspire to the hand of this angel; but I also said to myself that it was always impudence that succeeded.
‘Anyhow, I was madly and deeply in love, I, bank cashier, aged fifty odd.
‘Two hours after Miss Juana had called Mr. Craig called me into his room and said again in a very ordinary tone of voice: “Featherstone, here is another fifty pounds in silver. Pay it into my private account.” As before, the money lay in piles on his desk. “Yes, sir,” I said. I thought it very strange, but my mind was preoccupied with Miss Juana, and he was Miss Juana’s father, so I said nothing else. Again, most of the other clerks were out when I filled up the slip and put the cash into the drawers. All that day I thought of Miss Juana. Let me say now that I am convinced she had no part in the plot, for it was a plot, which Mr. Craig laid against me.
‘At the end of that week Mr. Craig had paid over two hundred pounds’ worth of new silver into his private account, and these payments continued. In a fortnight I was asked down to the Craigs’ country house again. I cannot describe my courtship of Miss Juana. I find my statement is getting too long. But in any event I could not describe it. It was the most precious, the only precious fragment of my life. The only drawback to my timid happiness was Mr. Craig’s attitude to me—a sort of insinuating attitude, quite at variance with the usual style of this powerfully-minded and very reticent man. The payments of new silver continued. In a business of the magnitude of our Kilburn branch the silver was, of course, distributed in the ordinary routine of affairs without special notice being taken of it.
‘One day I proposed to Miss Juana. It was a terrible moment for me. To this hour I do not know how I dared to do it. To my inconceivable astonishment and joy Miss Juana said: “You honour me, Mr. Featherstone. I am a poor girl. My father is not rich. I do not love you, but I like you, and I esteem you. I accept your hand.”
‘Later I said to Mr. Craig: “Mr. Craig, I have asked your daughter Juana to be my wife, and she has done me the honour to consent. Do you also consent?”