"Ah!" said his wife, "if you'd only shown that spirit from the beginning, Timothy!"
He collapsed.
"If we go back," she continued, thoughtfully, "I suppose there's some sort of work we can find, between us. Old folks hadn't ought to work like the young, and I'm sixty-five, and so is my husband. But——"
She stopped, with a sigh.
"I am empowered by Miss Messenger," Lord Jocelyn went on, with great softness of manner, "to make you a little proposition. She thinks that it would be most desirable for you to have your hands free while you make those researches which may lead to the discoveries we hope for. Now, if you have to waste the day in work you will never be able to make any research. Therefore Miss Messenger proposes—if you do not mind—if you will accept—an annuity on your joint lives of six hundred dollars. You may be thus relieved of all anxiety about your personal wants. And Miss Messenger begs only that you may let this annuity appear the offering of sympathizing English friends."
"But we don't know Miss Messenger," said her ladyship.
"Has she not extended her hospitality to you for two months and more? Is not that a proof of the interest she takes in you?"
"Certainly it is. Why—see now—we've been living here so long, that we've forgotten it is all Miss Messenger's gift."
"Then you will accept?"
"Oh, Lord Jocelyn, what can we do but accept?"