“Oh! they had very good reasons to give—family settlements, the desire to retire from business, and so on.”
“You went into this thing, I suppose, largely on the advice of these Allcrofts?”
“Entirely.”
“Well, if I had thought their advice good enough to lead me into it, I think I should have considered their example still better to lead me out. However, you aren’t out, so it’s no use talking about that. But perhaps it’s not too late now. The shares will have fallen, but you might clear at a trifling loss.”
“Rat, you mean?”
“If you like, yes. A sinking ship’s not the best quarters.”
“You forget, Mr. Beaumont, I told you many of my brother clergymen have invested in the Skerne Iron Works through my advice and influence, and, indeed, not a few others, widowed ladies chiefly of small means. And I cannot leave them in the lurch. I wish you to investigate the affairs of the Company, and to take such steps as may get me clear of it with honour and with as little loss as may be.”
“I understand thoroughly, Archdeacon, and I shall have pleasure in doing my best to protect both your interest and your honour.”
“And now, Mr. Beaumont, enough of business for to-day. It is time to dress, and we shall, no doubt, find my daughter expecting us in the drawing-room. Our neighbour, Squire Wright, is to dine with us to-day, I think.”
Whilst the Vicar and his lawyer were in serious conference in the library. Miss Eleanor St. Clair was whiling away the tedious quarter of an hour before the dinner-bell with the only other guest of the evening. She was the Archdeacon’s only child, and he a widower for some years, and, since her mother’s death, the charge of the household had devolved upon daughter. Perhaps that fact had given to Eleanor a thoughtfulness and an air of authority beyond her years. Tall, raven of hair, of pure, pale the complexion, with dark orbs, full of life and intelligence, Eleanor moved with the easy grace of accustomed dignity. Incessit regina. Related on her mother’s side to the noble house of Yarborough, she did not forget that her grandfather was an earl, and it is possible she was equally well aware that the coronet of a countess would sit becomingly upon the smooth, white brow borne so proudly above her long but rounded neck, and the white smooth shoulders her simple costume of to-night rather hinted than revealed.