“He said, sir, I was to explain it was on very important business, or he would not have called so late at night. And he said, too, sir”—here the butler hesitated again—“that he must see you.”
“Tell him——,” Shelf began passionately; but there he stopped, and the rest of the sentence was lost. Fairfax had walked into the room.
The butler stood his ground, glancing with nervous respect from one to the other, till Shelf waved him to the door, through which he vanished noiselessly, with an apologetic sigh of relief. Then the other two faced one another.
“I must say, sir,” the shipowner began, with icy politeness, “that after what has occurred between us this day your intrusion strikes me as vastly wanting in taste. Of course, as a Christian, it has been my duty to forgive you the injurious thoughts which you bore against me; but, as a frail human man, I confess to have been so wounded by them that the sight of you tempts me to the sin of anger afresh. But, perhaps, sir, you have come here to express contrition, and to ask that I will hand back the resignation of the directorate which you so rudely thrust upon me.”
“I have come,” replied Fairfax, shortly, “for neither one thing nor the other. I am not calling upon you in your City capacity at all. I want to speak with you in your position of trustee to the lady whom I am now shortly going to marry.”
“She has sent you?”
“She is perfectly aware of my errand. A property in Kent has suddenly come into the market which will go for a comparatively low sum for cash down. I have been spending the day examining it, and meanwhile my solicitor has been going through the deeds. The place will suit us to the ground, and the title is as clear as could be wished for.”
“So you wish to buy this property with your wife’s money?” Shelf asked with a sneer.
“I am not disguising from myself the fact that Amy is an heiress. At the same time, I am not altogether a pauper myself. But I don’t think we two need go into that part of the money question, Mr. Shelf. As a point of fact (as you know quite well), she and I first met one another abroad, and fell in love, and got engaged without knowing a single word about our mutual outlook, social or financial. The point here is that Amy wants to become part purchaser in this Kent property with myself, and on her behalf I come to you for the formal permission. You know by the terms of her father’s will she was to have all her wishes with regard to the property taken into consideration after she reached the age of twenty-one, but was still to be under the semi-guidance of the trustees till she reached her twenty-third birthday.”
“I am only one of the trustees,” said Shelf. “You must arrange to bring my co-trustee up to meet me, and then I will talk the matter over with him.”