“Is he no help to you?” said Regina.
“Well, he is less than no help. I think I shall be obliged to suggest taking in another partner; the business is too big now to have the whole responsibility on one pair of shoulders. I must have a holiday now and again—goodness knows, it isn’t often for a man of my substance—but anything like the muddle in which I found things I never imagined even Chamberlain could accomplish. He’s a dear chap, too full of apologies, perfectly aware of his own shortcomings, always in a domestic pickle—which is not to be wondered at—but as a partner he is hopeless.”
“My poor Alfred!” said Regina.
“Ah, you may well say that. Of course, when one just comes back off a holiday, one doesn’t feel like doing collar work all the time, all uphill and no easement. But it will pass, and I must seriously think of taking someone else in.”
“Have you anyone in your eye?”
“Well, of course, Tomkinson’s a splendid man. One wouldn’t give him a full share, wouldn’t make him an equal exactly, but I think it would be a wise thing if we were to make him a junior partner. Besides that, someone else might get hold of him; he is well known as a first-class man.”
“I should, my dear. But why should you go on working and toiling like this? If you were to realize, and with what money I have we should be quite comfortable.”
“Oh no, oh no, thank you, Queenie, not while I am strong and well. I should like a little more time to myself; I should like to be able to run over to Paris for a week or to spend a few days by the seaside. I’m thinking of taking up golf—I began to take an interest in the game at Dieppe. It’s good for the liver; a mild craze for golf has saved many a man from an attack of paralysis.”
“You would join a golf club?”
“Oh, yes, one of those clubs round London.”