"Oh, very well. Show Mr. Duncombe into the library."
"That's right," said Lady Denby, approvingly, "You can't afford to offend such a man as this Mr. Duncombe. There are not too many men who are willing to work for you for nothing. I suppose he has come about those mines?"
"I suppose so," assented Lady Eleanor, bitterly.
"I will go and see."
Ralph Duncombe had been a friend of Lady Eleanor's father. The late earl had been fond of dabbling in the city and had met the successful young merchant there and found him extremely useful. It had been chiefly owing to Ralph Duncombe's advice and counsel that the late earl had made the fifty thousand pounds which he had left to Lady Eleanor. He had done nothing for some years before his death without consulting the keen man of business, and Lady Eleanor had followed her father's example.
She would not have been a particularly rich woman with fifty thousand at three per cent., but Ralph Duncombe had invested it for her in such a way that it had brought in sometimes ten and fifteen. He had bought shares and sold them again at a big profit; had dealt with her money as if it had been his own, and had been as lucky with it. The greatest and latest piece of good fortune had only just turned up. He had purchased some land on the coast, calculating to dispose of it to a building company, but while negotiating with them discovered traces of copper; and it was on the cards that he had by one of those flukes which seemed to come so often to Ralph Duncombe, found a large fortune for her.
"How do you do, Mr. Duncombe?" she said. "What a shame that you should have to come all this way from the city."
"It does not take long by the Underground," he said, in his grave voice, as he shook hands; "and I have some important news for you."
"Yes," she said, and she motioned him to a chair.
As he sat down she noticed that he looked graver than usual, and that there was a tired and rather sad expression in his eyes.