Mr. Raggett delicately intimated that he was stopping because he preferred, all things considered, to be alone. Finding the young man, however, bent upon accompanying him, he divulged the plot of which he had been the victim, and bitterly lamented his share in it.
“You don’t want to marry her, then,” said the astonished Dick.
“Course I don’t,” snarled Mr. Raggett; “I can’t afford it. I’m too old; besides which, she’ll turn my little place topsy-turvy. Look here, Dick, I done this all for you. Now, it’s evident she only wants my furniture: if I give all the best of it to you, she’ll take you instead.”
“No, she won’t,” said Dick grimly; “I wouldn’t have her now not if she asked me on her bended knee.”
“Why not?” said Raggett.
“I don’t want to marry that sort o’ girl,” said the other scornfully; “it’s cured me.”
“What about me, then?” said the unfortunate Raggett.
“Well, so far as I can see, it serves you right for mixing in other people’s business,” said Dick shortly. “Well, good-night, and good luck to you.”
To Mr. Raggett’s sore disappointment, he kept to his resolution, and being approached by Mr. Boom on his elderly friend’s behalf, was rudely frank to him.
“I’m a free man again,” he said blithely, “and I feel better than I’ve felt for ever so long. More manly.”