“Very good. When does the train start?”
“Almost immediately. Can I look after your luggage?”
Knight at once took leave of his travelling companions. “My father’s chief business manager has come to meet me at my request,” he said, “and we travel together. Good-bye, Dallington, and thank you for everything, old fellow. Hope you will find your Margaret unchanged. I should be sorry to think we had come to the end of the story. Remember, we are but beginning it.”
“I will not forget,” answered Dallington.
“Good-bye, Miss Wentworth. I am glad to have your address. You will be sure to hear from me.”
When they were in the carriage, Knight and Hancourt looked steadfastly at each other before either spoke, and each noted the changes which the years had made.
“How is Mrs. Hancourt? And how are your children?” asked Knight.
“They are very well, thank you. Mr. Arthur, I am not sure that I ought to have met you, for there have been many changes in the last few months, and I am no longer in your father’s employment.”
“How is that? I thought my father could not do without you.”
“You are wanted at home, sir. Mr. Knight has become a universal manufacturer, and has an enormous business, or a dozen businesses, and employs thousands of hands. He has been for the last few years making money fast; but as fast as he has got rich his workpeople have got poor, and that is not right, Mr. Arthur.”