“I will try, sir,” I said.
“That’s right,” he said; “and try hard.—Well, Grimstone, what is it?”
The overseer looked from me to his principal and back again, before rustling some papers in his hand in an ill-used way.
“It’s very hard on me, sir, that more attention isn’t paid to the business. Here are you and me toiling and moiling all day long to keep the customers right, and Mr John at races and steeplechases, and Lord knows what—anything but the business!”
“You’re always grumbling, Grimstone,” said Mr Ruddle testily. “Here, let me see.—You needn’t wait, Grace, you can go.”
I thanked him and hurried off, leaving the two immersed in some business matters, and thinking of nothing else now but my visit.
There was a warm welcome for me at Westmouth Street, and Miss Carr’s eyes looked bright and satisfied, I thought; but I could not help seeing that she was paler and thinner than when I saw her last.
“Well, Antony,” she said, after seating me beside her; “it seems an age since we met. What have you been doing?”
I told her—busy at the office, and also about Mr Revitts.
“Yes,” she said thoughtfully. “I was in the neighbourhood of Rowford last month, and I—”