'And so this is your new office?' she cried, looking round. 'How you have blossomed out, haven't you? These offices are as fine as any in the City.'
'Yes,' said John; 'they are too fine to suit me.'
'Oh, I don't see why you should not have handsome offices as well as anyone else. You have been in my father's place of business, of course. But it is not so grand as these rooms.'
'I think that helps to show the absurdity of ours. Your father's house is an old-standing one, and this gives us an air of new riches which, I must confess, I don't like, especially as we have not the riches.'
'Then, why did you agree to have such offices? I suppose you had something to say about them?'
'Very little, I must own. They were engaged while I was in the North, and after they had been engaged, of course I did not like to say anything against them.'
'Well, and how is the mine getting on? You have not applied to me yet to fulfil my offer, which I think was a very fair one.'
'I have not needed to do so,' said Kenyon.
'Ah, then, subscriptions are coming in, are they? Where is the list?'
'We have no list yet. We are waiting for your cousin, who is in the North.'