“We should be very sorry to see Mr Eaton go,” said Julia quietly; “but I think you are right.”
“Phil’s wrong,” said Mrs Otway to herself.
At this moment Sir Gordon entered the room with Mrs Hallam and proposed that Eaton should return with him, but only to find, to his annoyance, that the offer was declined.
“You will have to make the offer to my husband, Sir Gordon,” said Mrs Otway merrily. “You will not find him so ungrateful.” And then she turned to Eaton, leaving the old man free to continue a conversation begun with Mrs Hallam in another room.
“I do not seem to find much success in my offers,” he said, in a low voice; “but let me repeat what I have said. Should necessity arise, remember that I am your very oldest friend, and that I am always waiting to help Millicent Hallam and her child.”
“I shall not forget,” said Mrs Hallam, smiling sadly.
“If I am away, there is Bayle ready to act for me, and you know you can command him.”
“I have always been the debtor of my friends,” replied Mrs Hallam; “but no such emergency is likely to arise. I have learnt the lesson of self-dependence lately, Sir Gordon.”
“But if the emergency did occur?”
“Then we would see,” replied Mrs Hallam.