"I am horribly sorry for Reggie. But oh, I can't forget how little the coffin looked. Francis, what a handsome family they are! I couldn't help noticing that, even when they cried, the girls were pretty."
It was more than could have been said of Ada; and she knew it, but cried all the same.
"The younger girl is extremely good-looking," the brother said, "and she is a conscientious and good girl, besides."
He thought how certainly, if she had so wished it, she might have been going to be his sister-in-law, and the reflection again quickened the perception of the fact that something was due from the family of Forcus to that of Day.
"I will go and see George Boult to-morrow," he said.
"The draper, do you mean? Why?"
"He is their adviser. Put the poor woman into that wretched shop. He will know what can be done for them."
Sir Francis, however, did not find himself greatly helped in his benevolent project by Mr. George Boult, a circumstance surprising the man to whom the character of the successful draper was not unknown. That he would have accepted on the widow's behalf without scruple anything that could be got, was what was expected of him; instead of which he received all the rich man's propositions coldly, and did not even faintly encourage his charitable intentions.
Through his brother—however blameless in the matter—a heavy sorrow had come upon these poor people. It would be a great relief to Sir Francis and his family if he could be allowed in any way to be of use to them. His name need not appear. Mr. Boult could arrange the transaction. He had heard that the grocer's business was not successful—?
The shop must be given up. George Boult admitted the fact. The woman was too timid for trade. All women were. No blame to her, specially. She had been industrious, and careful. She was standing behind her counter that very morning. He had seen her there. But what customers would care to go to buy soap and candles of a woman half dead with grief?