‘In a way he does. Those people down there may have some suggestion.’
Hilary took his brother’s arm.
‘Old boy, it’s ghastly for you. But ten to one it won’t be so bad as we think. I’ll talk to May, and if, after you’ve seen those people, you think asylum here is the best thing for Diana – offer it.’
Adrian pressed the hand within his arm.
‘I’ll get off now and catch my train.’
Left to himself Hilary stood frowning. He had seen in his time so much of the inscrutability of Providence that he had given up classing it as benevolent even in his sermons. On the other hand he had seen many people by sheer tenacity defeat many misfortunes, and many other people, defeated by their misfortunes, live well enough on them afterwards; he was convinced, therefore, that misery was over rated, and that what was lost was usually won. The thing was to keep going and not worry. At this moment he received his second visitor, the girl Millicent Pole, who, though acquitted, had lost her job at Petter and Poplin’s; notoriety not being dispelled by legal innocence.
She came, by appointment, in a neat blue dress, and all her money, as it were, in her stockings, and stood waiting to be catechized.
‘Well, Millie, how’s your sister?’
‘She went back yesterday, Mr Cherrell.’
‘Was she fit to go?’
‘I don’t think so, but she said if she didn’t, she’d likely lose her job, too.’
‘I don’t see that.’
‘She said if she stayed away any longer they’d think we was in that together.’
‘Well, and what about you? Would you like to go into the country?’
‘Oh, no.’
Hilary contemplated her. A pretty girl, with a pretty figure and ankles, and an easy-going mouth; it looked to him, frankly, as if she ought to be married.
‘Got a young man, Millie?’
The girl smiled.
‘Not very special, Sir.’
‘Not special enough to get married?’
‘He don’t want to, so far as I can see.’
‘Do you?’
‘I’m not in a hurry.’
‘Well, have you any views?’
‘I’d like – well, I’d like to be a mannykin.’
‘I daresay. Have Petters given you a reference?’
‘Yes, and they said they were sorry I had to go; but being so much in the papers the other girls –’
‘Yes. Millie, you got yourself into that scrape, you know. I stood up for you because you were hard pressed, but I’m not blind. You’ve got to promise me that you won’t do that again; it’s the first step to blue ruin.’
The girl made just the answer he expected – none.
‘I’m going to turn you over to my wife now. Consult with her, and if you can’t get a job like your old one, we might give you some quick training, and get you a post as a waitress. How would that suit you?’
‘I wouldn’t mind that.’
She gave him a look half-shy, half-smiling; and Hilary thought: ‘Faces like that ought to be endowed by the State; there’s no other way to keep them safe.’
‘Shake hands, Millie, and remember what I said. Your mother and father were friends of mine, and you’re going to remain a credit to them.’
‘Yes, Mr Cherrell.’
‘You bet!’ thought Hilary, and led her into the dining-room opposite, where his wife was working a typing machine. Back in his study he pulled out a drawer of his bureau and prepared to wrestle with accounts, for if there were a place where money was of more importance than in this slum centre of a Christendom whose religion scorns money, Hilary had yet to meet with it.
‘The lilies of the field,’ he thought, ‘toil not, neither do they spin, but they beg all right. How the deuce am I going to get enough to keep the Institute going over the year?’ The problem had not been solved when the maid said:
‘Captain and Miss Cherrell, and Miss Tasburgh.’
‘Phew!’ he thought: ‘They don’t let grass grow.’
He had not seen his nephew since his return from the Hallorsen Expedition, and was struck by the darkened and aged look of his face.
‘Congratulations, old man,’ he said. ‘I heard something of your aspiration, yesterday.’
‘Uncle,’ said Dinny, ‘prepare for the role of Solomon.’
‘Solomon’s reputation for wisdom, my irreverent niece, is perhaps the thinnest in history. Consider the number of his wives. Well?’
‘Uncle Hilary,’ said Hubert: ‘I’ve had news that a warrant may be issued for my extradition, over that muleteer I shot. Jean wants the marriage at once in spite of that –’