“If I were in your place, Mr. Colson, I should not rent these rooms at all. They are not suited to your sister's needs. I am sure you can do better.”
The agent was disgusted. “Mr. Colson,” indeed! The disreputable young scamp whom nobody trusted. He would show this silly woman a fact or two.
“Business is business” he repeated, doggedly. “Either they must take the room, and pay the rent in advance, or else they must hustle out this very night.” He had waited now three days after time for decency's sake, and more than that he couldn't and wouldn't do.
Dirk stood looking from one to the other; the red coming and going on his swarthy face. Here was responsibility! He had not thought of it before. The mother was not there to count out the hoarded rent with trembling fingers, and save the wretched home to them for another month. She would never be there again. He had nothing with which to pay rent; he had nowhere to move. Yet she had called him Mr. Colson, and seemed to expect him to act for himself and Mart.
It was she who answered the agent, but she spoke to Dirk.
“Very well; I suppose you are quite as willing to leave here to-night as at any time? If I were you, I would leave immediately. Let your sister come home with me for the night, and until you have time to make other arrangements.”
Mr. Roberts had been summoned to a bank meeting, and had sent Ried to attend his wife. He came forward now, from the carriage where he had stood waiting, and laid a hand on Dirk's arm.
“And you come home with me to-night, Colson,” he said in a cordial tone, such as he might have used with any young friend; “then we shall have a chance to talk things over and make plans.”
“That is nice,” Mrs. Roberts said, quickly, rejoicing in her heart over Ried's promptness to act. “Then you can get away from this wretched place at once. Mr. Roberts will see to the removal of your goods, whatever you need, and the agent can call on him in the morning. That will be the simplest way to settle it all. May she go with me?”
A slight, caressing movement of a gloved hand on the girl's arm accompanied this question.