As he let himself out he almost fell over another caller who was at that moment raising his hand to the knocker. This was a dapper gentleman of about his own age, with an alert and sprightly air and a good-humoured, sharp-featured face.
Rosalie, just standing within the half-open parlour-door, caught sight of the new-comer and wondered who he might be. In a moment he had set her doubts at rest.
‘Good-day, ma’am,’ he remarked, advancing cheerily with outstretched hand. ‘I must introduce myself, I see; I’m not so well known to you as you are to me. My name is Cross—Samuel Cross—and I am one of Mr. Robinson’s clerks. Robinson and Bradbury, solicitors, you know—that’s who I am. I just called round to—to make a few remarks with regard to certain business matters in the hands of our firm.’
‘Won’t you sit down?’ said Rosalie, hastily taking possession of her husband’s chair. It should not, if she could help it, again be desecrated that day. She pointed out a small one, but Mr. Samuel Cross, without noticing the intimation, stepped quickly forward and seated himself opposite to the widow in the chair she had just vacated—Isaac Sharpe’s chair. Rosalie contemplated him with knitted brows; since Mr. Sharpe, that trusted friend, had not thought fit to occupy his customary place himself that afternoon, she felt ill pleased at the intrusion of this presumptuous stranger.
What a callow little shrimp of a man it was, to be sure, and how unlike, with his spare form and small narrow face—a face which she mentally compared to that of a weasel—to the large, bland personality of Isaac!
‘A matter of business,’ she said drily. ‘I am surprised that Mr. Robinson should send you on Sunday.’
‘Oh, this is quite an informal visit, Mrs. Fiander; not at all official. I came of my own accord—I may say, in my private capacity. This here is n’t a six-and-eightpenny affair. He! he!’
‘Oh!’ said Rosalie, even more drily than before.
‘No; seeing, Mrs. Fiander, that you are left so peculiarly lonely and desolate, I just thought to myself that it would be only kind to call in in passing and mention that your business matters, Mrs. Fiander, are in a most satisfactory position. I have frequently heard our firm remark that they seldom had to deal with affairs more satisfactory and straightforward.’
‘My husband had a very clear head for business,’ said Mrs. Fiander. ‘I always found that.’