[*] Fox.
[CHAPTER IV
BUSINESS]
EVENTS seemed to Flemington to be moving fast.
Lord Balnillo dined soon after five, and during the meal the young man tried to detach his mind from the contents of the letter lying in his pocket and to listen to his host’s talk, which ran on the portrait to be begun next morning.
The judge had ordered his robes to be taken out and aired carefully, and a little room with a north aspect had been prepared for the first sitting. The details of Archie’s trade had excited the household below stairs, and the servant who waited appeared to look upon him with the curious mixture of awe and contempt accorded to charlatans and to those connected with the arts. Only James seemed to remain outside the circle of interest, like a wayfarer who pauses to watch the progress of some wayside bargain with which he has no concern. Yet, though Archie’s occupations did not move Logie, the young man felt intuitively that he was anything but a hostile presence.
“With your permission I shall go early to bed to-night,” said Flemington to his host, as the three sat over their wine by the dining-room fire and the clock’s hands pointed to eight.
“Fie!” said the judge; “you are a young man to be thinking of such things at this hour.”
“My bones have not forgotten yesterday——” began Archie.