She wore a flowered, French print blouse--little sprigs of roses on a white background--and a lace frill round her pretty, white, smooth throat. The buckle of her brown leather belt just gleamed over the edge of the table-cloth. In front of her were a litter of correspondence, a white cup of coffee, and two empty eggshells--for she was a perfectly healthy young animal with an excellent appetite.
'Well, dear, what is it?'
'I shall take the later train. Then I need not hurry, and can walk down at my ease.'
'How nice of you!'
'I am not sure that Dinton will think so.'
'Only one little hour of difference--what can it matter?'
'They don't run offices on those lines. An hour means a good deal in the City of London.'
'Oh, I do hate the City of London! It is the only thing which ever comes between us.'
'I suppose that it separates a good many loving couples every morning.'
He had come across and an egg-cup had been upset. Then he had been scolded, and they sat together laughing upon the sofa. When he had finished admiring her little, shining, patent-leather, Louis shoes and the two charming curves of open-work black stocking, she reminded him that he had asked for her advice.
'Yes, dear, what was it?' She knitted her brows and tried to look as her father did when he considered a matter of business. But then her father was not hampered by having a young man's arm round his neck. It is so hard to be business-like when any one is curling one's hair round his finger.
'I have some money to invest.'
'O Frank, how clever of you!'
'It is only fifty pounds.'
'Never mind, dear, it is a beginning.'
'That is what I feel. It is the foundation-stone of our fortunes. And so I want Her Majesty to lay it--mustn't wrinkle your brow though--that is not allowed.'
'But it is a great responsibility, Frank.'
'Yes, we must not lose it.'
'No, dear, we must not lose it. Suppose we invest it in one of those modern fifty-guinea pianos. Our dear old Broadwood was an excellent piano when I was a girl, but it is getting so squeaky in the upper notes. Perhaps they would allow us something for it.'
He shook his head.
'I know that we want one very badly, dear. And such a musician as you are should have the best instrument that money can buy. I promise you that when we have a little to turn round on, you shall have a beauty. But in the meantime we must not buy anything with this money--I mean nothing for ourselves--we must invest it. We cannot tell what might happen. I might fall ill. I might die.'
'O Frank, how horrid you are this morning!'
'Well, we have to be ready for anything. So I want to put this where we can get it on an emergency, and where in the meantime it will bring us some interest. Now what shall we buy?'
'Papa always bought a house.'
'But we have not enough.'
'Not a little house?'
'No, not the smallest.'
'A mortgage, then?'
'The sum is too small.'
'Government stock, Frank--if you think it is safe.'
'Oh, it is safe enough. But the interest is so low.'
'How much should we get?'
'Well, I suppose the fifty pounds would bring us in about thirty shillings a year.'
'Thirty shillings! O Frank!'
'Rather less than more.'
'Fancy a great rich nation like ours taking our fifty pounds and treating us like that. How MEAN of them! Don't let them have it, Frank.'
'No, I won't.'
'If they want it, they can make us a fair offer for it.'
'I think we'll try something else.'
'Well, they have only themselves to thank. But you have some plan in your head, Frank. What is it?'
He brought the morning paper over from the table. Then he folded it so as to bring the financial columns to the top.
'I saw a fellow in the City yesterday who knows a great deal about gold-mining. I only had a few minutes' talk, but he strongly advised me to have some shares in the El Dorado Proprietary Gold Mine.'
'What a nice name! I wonder if they would let us have any?'
'Oh yes, they are to be bought in the open market.