There was a pause. Tony and Joan returned to their circulars in an odd silence. The Haberdashers' Assistants seemed suddenly to have diminished in importance.
“By-the-by,” said Joan Ferriby at length, “papa wants to see you, Tony. He has a new scheme. Something very large and very important. The only question is whether it is not too large. It is not only in England, but in other countries. A great international affair. Some distressed manufacturers or something. I really do not quite know. That Mr. Roden—you remember?—has been to see him about it.”
Cornish nodded in his quick way. “I remember Roden,” he answered. “The man you met at Hombourg. Tall dark man with a tired manner.”
“Yes,” answered Joan. “He has been to see papa several times. Papa is just as busy as ever with his charities,” she continued, addressing White. “And I believe he wants you to help him in this one.”
“Me?” said White, nervously. “Oh, I'm no good. I should not know a haberdasher's assistant if I saw him.”
“Oh, but this is not the Haberdashers' Assistants,” laughed Joan. “It is something much more important than that. The Haberdashers' Assistants are only——”
“Pour passer le temps,” suggested Cornish, gaily.
“No, of course not. But papa is really rather anxious about this. He says it is much the most important thing he has ever had to do with—and that is saying a good deal, you know. I wish I could remember the name of it, and of those poor unfortunate people who make it—whatever it is. It is some stuff, you know, and sounds sticky. Papa has so many charities, and such long names to them. Aunt Susan says it is because he was so wild in his youth—but one cannot believe that. Would you think that papa had been wild in his youth—to look at him now?”
“Lord, no!” ejaculated White, with pious solidity, throwing back his shoulders with an air that seemed to suggest a readiness to fight any man who should hint at such a thing, and he waved the mere thought aside with a ponderous gesture of the hand.
Joan had, however, already turned to another matter. She was consulting a diary bound in dark blue morocco.