Mr. Vavasour spread out fat hands.
"My dear madam!" he said, deprecatingly. "My dear Mrs. Pringle! It is a strict rule of mine never to discuss a client's affairs, or to——"
Mrs. Pringle favoured him with a knowing look.
"Of course, it would be made worth Mr. Vavasower's while," she said, tapping a small reticule which she carried. "The family doesn't expect Mr. Vavasower to assist it for nothing."
Mr. Vavasour hesitated. He called up the Jarvis case in his mind, and remembered that Mr. Stephen Jarvis did not want a moneyed wife, and that, therefore, there would be no commission in that particular connection.
"Who are the members of the family, ma'am?" he inquired.
Mrs. Pringle looked him squarely in the face.
"The members of the family, Mr. Vavasower," she replied, "is me and my only son, John William, as has always been led to look upon himself as Stephen Jarvis's heir. And, of course, if so be as Stephen Jarvis was to marry a young woman, well, there'd no doubt be children, and then——"
"To be sure, ma'am, to be sure!" said Mr. Vavasour comprehendingly. "Of course, you and your son have means that would justify——"
"My son, John William, Mr. Vavasower, is in a very nice way of business in the grocery line," answered Mrs. Pringle. "But of course I don't intend to see him ousted out of his proper place because Stephen Jarvis takes it into his head to marry at his time of life! Stephen must be put off it, and there's an end of the matter."