"Certainly I can. It will be better in every way, for it would be a pity to pull down those cottages; and, moreover, I shall be glad to sell you a plot of land near the railway, if it only comes."
"Very well then. Mind, it is a promise that if this comes about, I am to have first chance of the land."
"Yes, you shall, Brading, if only for what you have done for Arthur Murray. The lad has grit, and you have given him a chance of proving it."
But Mr. Brading would not be drawn into discussing this topic.
"I must be going," he said. "I have been hindered a good deal already. Lady Mary and such folk have small idea of the value of time to a busy man, but you have, and I am not going to be tempted to talk to you any longer," he added with a laugh.
Mr. Andrews was a keen observer, and knew Mr. Brading well, and he detected something like a false ring in the laughter of his old friend. "There is a screw loose somewhere if I am not mistaken," he muttered to himself as he went back to his seat, after opening the door for Mr. Brading.
Then he touched the gong on his table, and a young clerk came in from the outer office. "Send Phillips to me," he said.
"Mr. Phillips is just going to his dinner, sir."
"Run after him, then, and tell him I want to see him first," said Mr. Andrews.
The old clerk, who knew all the secrets of the office as well as Mr. Andrews did himself, came back the next minute.