“Perhaps you are right, but I acted for the best. Then there was nothing for Tom to do here. You had dismissed him from the shop.”
“Yes, I know, but I would have taken him back again after awhile.”
“Why didn’t you tell him so. Then he would have been here now.”
“Things may turn out for the best after all, Mrs. Thatcher,” said Mr. Simpson, evading a direct reply. “Meanwhile, I came in to see if there was any way in which I could help you.”
Mrs. Thatcher looked surprised. John Simpson was about the last person from whom she would have expected an offer of assistance.
“In what way?” she asked.
“I was thinking you might want to raise money on the place,” suggested Simpson, blandly.
“I do need money,” said the widow, hesitatingly.
“Of course you do; you couldn’t well help it,” said the manufacturer briskly. “Now I have come here prepared to make you an offer.”
“Well, sir?” said Mrs. Thatcher, inquiringly.