“Oh, but he is not going to die,” the girl interposed quickly. “Why, he has only just begun to live!”
“Just so, madam; but life at best is uncertain. I was going to say that, were your husband unfortunately to die, the furniture would be yours—as his widow—without any further payment.”
“How nice!” Dinah murmured. “You give me the cold shivers down my back. Widow indeed! And I’m not even married yet. Can I see your chief this morning?”
The clerk looked dubious. “That is scarcely necessary, madam, at this stage of the proceedings,” he replied. “The head of our firm is a very busy man——”
But Dinah had espied a familiar figure looming in the background—a figure with a broad waistcoat and a heavy gold chain.
“Mike!”
“Dinah! Why, what an unexpected treat this is, little girl!”
He came forward to greet her, his good-natured face beaming with pleasure. Dinah bowed with a saucy air of apology to the astonished clerk, and favoured her brother-in-law with a hearty kiss. Then she linked her arm in his, and passed down a narrow passage which was lined on either side with bedsteads of every description.
“Mike,” she said impressively, “I have come to talk to you about something very serious. I am going to take you into my confidence; that is why I have come down here. It is just between ourselves. Do you understand?”
Mike nodded gravely. “Perfectly,” he replied. “You will do well to take me into your confidence. But it is just my luncheon-time. Thompson, lay another knife and fork, please”—this to another of his numerous clerks. “Things of importance are much better discussed after lunch, you know. You are not in a hurry to get home?”