"Is that absolutely necessary?" he asked.

"We have two hundred a year between us, my mother and I," she answered
drily. "Perhaps you can understand that an extra two or three pounds a
week is desirable."

"Damn!" Jacob muttered, under his breath.

"I really don't see why you should be profane," she remonstrated.

"It's too absurd, your going out to work," he insisted. "I had
business connections in the old days with the house of Bultiwell, by
which I profited. Why cannot I be allowed, out of the money I can't
ever dream of spending, to settle--"

"If you are going to be impertinent," she interrupted coolly, "I shall
get up and go out."

Jacob groaned and cast about in his mind for a less intimate topic of
conversation. The subject of theatre-going naturally presented itself.
A momentary gleam of regret passed across her face as she answered his
questions.

"Yes, I remember telling you how fond I always was of first nights,"
she admitted. "Nowadays, naturally, we do not go to the theatre at
all. My mother and I live very quietly."

Jacob cleared his throat.

"If," he suggested, "a box at the theatre could be accepted on the
same terms as this luncheon--for your mother and you, I mean," he went
on hastily, "I am always having them given me. I'd keep out of the
way. Or we might have a little dinner first. Your mother--"

"Absolutely impossible!" she interrupted ruthlessly. "I really feel
quite ashamed enough of myself, as it is. I know that I have not the
slightest right to accept your very delicious luncheon."

"You could pay for anything in the world I could give you, with a
single kind word," he ventured.

She sighed as she drew on her gloves.

"I have no feeling of kindness towards you, Mr. Pratt," she said, "and
I hate hypocrisy. I thank you very much for your luncheon. You will
forgive my shaking hands, won't you? It was scarcely in the bargain.
And I must say good-by now. I am due back at the office at half-past
two."

So Jacob derived very little real pleasure from this trip into
an imaginary Paradise, although many a time he went over their
conversation in his mind, trying to find the slenderest peg on which
he could hang a few threads of hope. He rang up the city office and
made sure that Miss Bultiwell should be offered the most desirable
plot of land left, at the most reasonable price, after which he
invited Dauncey, who was waiting impatiently for an interview, to take
an easy-chair, an