“To begin with, we must persuade Evelyn,” said Ledward and started the car.
Hannah smiled, but she said nothing, and when they stopped at a new rough-cast house Ledward was not forced to use much persuasion.
“I wonder whether you would like to see a play,” he said to Mrs. Haigh. “There’s a rather good matinee, and I would drive you down in the evening. The car carries four passengers.”
Mrs. Haigh and Mrs. Grant refused politely, but they agreed for Evelyn and Hannah to go. The girls went off to get other clothes, and Hannah stopped for a moment at Evelyn’s room.
“I like the lean, dark type, and Mr. Ledward’s rather fat; otherwise I think him top-hole,” she said. “You feel he knows something; and for the most part very young men are fools. Your mother’s a sport, but since you have a lover in Canada, perhaps her letting you go was strange.”
“Harry’s an old friend and almost like a relation,” Evelyn replied and sent Hannah off, but when she shut the door she pondered.
Kit was in Canada. There was the trouble, because Evelyn felt he need not have gone. She knew he had not cheated the shipyard company. Kit did not cheat, but he was ridiculously proud and he ought not to be generous where his generosity cost her much. Harry, of course, was another sort, and Evelyn knew him selfish, but she approved his cleverness, and to some extent he attracted her. Anyhow, she liked excitement, and in a few days she would be back at Netherdale. She got up and thoughtfully studied her clothes and hats.
A week or two afterward, Jasper, going to a Cumberland ironworks, stopped for the week-end at Netherhall. The evening he arrived was cold and a savage wind beat the thick walls. After dinner the party went to the drawing-room fire, and by and by a servant carried in a card.
“The gentleman is in the hall.”
Alan Carson took the card and turned to Jasper. “Thomas Blake; a Glasgow address! Looks like a business card. I don’t know the fellow. Perhaps a shipbuilding customer has got on your track.”