"I say, kids! Hear that? Your sister here hasn't any use for a shilling. Bet you haven't either! Eh? I don't think!"
Ensued clamour, with jostling and laughter and clutching of coins, from which the head of the house retired to his chair by the fire, chuckling and content. He enjoyed distributing largesse, especially where there was no great need for it, though he was liberal enough to famous charities. He never gave to beggars, on principle.
Louise slipped out of the room under cover of the noise, and was dressed and departing when her step-mother called her back.
"Louise! You stay to lunch to-day, don't you?"
"At school? Oh no, Mamma. Holidays, you know! They only open a class-room for the exam."
"The fifty-pound job, eh?" Her father eyed her over the top of his paper approvingly. For once his daughter was showing a proper spirit. "Go in and win, my girl! I've given you the best education money could buy. If you don't get it, you jolly well ought to. Fifty quid, eh? I wasn't given the chance of earning fifty quid when I was thirteen. Shop-boy, I was. Started as shop-boy like me father before me."
His wife cut in sharply.
"Isn't there an afternoon examination? I understood——"
"Yes, Mamma. But no dinners. It's all shut."
Mrs. Denny frowned.