"Who are your uncle's lawyers--or rather I should say yours?"
"Frith and Frith!"
"Of Steel Lane. Cheapside?" asked Herrick in a tone of surprise.
"Yes! Do you know them?"
"I know of them. They are the solicitors of my friend Joyce!"
"That is strange," said Marsh gaily, "the world is very small after all is it not. But I am forgetting my mother," he added sadly.
"I was told that Mrs. Marsh was your step-mother."
"So she is; but we get on very well together. She is devoted to me. I expect you have heard of her violent temper."
"Well I have," said Herrick hesitating, "it seems to be well known, if you will excuse my saying so."
"Oh, it's Town talk," replied Stephen with a vexed flush, "but she is really a good dear woman, and her own worst enemy. Since my father's death five years ago she has been my best friend. Once she nursed me through a most serious illness. There are worse women in the world than my step-mother Herrick, as you will find. She is a noble-looking woman, and I am glad to be rich if only for her sake. She is fond of luxury, but for my sake has borne poverty. And we have been very, very poor," finished Stephen with a sigh.