Reuben’s countenance recovered all its luminous radiance. He stole a glance at this younger girl’s face, and felt that he almost loved her too.
“No,” Miss Kate went on, “in fact, we took the opportunity of his being away to come and try to see you alone. We are dreadfully anxious, Mr. Tracy, about the way things are going on.”
The lawyer could not restrain a comprehending nod of the head, but he did not speak.
“We do not understand at all what is being done,” proceeded Kate. “There is nobody to explain things to us except the men who are doing those things, and it seems to us that they tell us just what they like. We maybe doing them an injustice, but we are very nervous about a good many matters. That is why we came to you.”
Reuben bowed again. There was an instant’s pause, and then he opened one of the little mica doors in the stove. “I’m afraid this isn’t going to burn up,” he said. “If you don’t mind smoke, the other room is much warmer.”
It was not until he had safely bestowed his precious visitors in the cosier room, and persuaded them to loosen all their furs, that his mind was really at ease. “Now,” he remarked, with a smile of relief, “now go ahead. Tell me everything.”
“We have this difficulty,” said Kate, hesitatingly; “when I spoke to you before, you felt that you couldn’t act in the matter, or learn things, or advise us, on account of the partnership. And as that still exists—why—” She broke off with an inquiring sigh.
“My dear Miss Minster,” Reuben answered, in a voice so firm and full of force that it bore away in front of it all possibility of suspecting that he was too bold, “when I left you I wanted to tell you, when I wrote to you I tried to have you understand, that if there arose a question of honestly helping you, of protecting you, and the partnership stood between me and that act of honorable service, I would crush the partnership like an eggshell, and put all my powers at your disposal. But I am afraid you did not understand.”
The two girls looked at each other, and then at the strong face before them, with the focussed light of the argand burner upon it.
“No,” said Kate, “I am afraid we didn’t.”