nd indigo.
Ebony tables of framed, inlaid onyx held tortoise shell and lacquer
ornaments, an inlaid tulip-wood music-box, volumes in elaborately tooled
morocco, and a globe where, apparently, metallic fish were suspended in
a translucent, green gloom.

The light from the multiple candelabras of ormolu and cut lustres
streamed from the walls over Jasper Penny, sunk forward in profound
absorption, and his mother's busy, fat hands working with gay worsteds.
At her side a low stand of rubbed Chinese vermilion held her spilling
yarns. Her face was placid, dryly pinkish and full. An irreproachable,
domestic female. Herself the daughter of a successful Pennsylvania
German Ironmaster, her wealth had doubled the Penny successes. There had
been other children; Jasper could only faintly remember two, mostly in
the form of infantile whimpering.

The inevitable termination of the evening was readied by the appearance
of a pitcher of steaming, spiced mulled wine. A cupful was formally
presented to Amity Merken; Gilda Penny sipped hers with an audible
satisfaction, and Jasper Penny absently drank the fragrant compound of
cinnamon bark and lemon, cloves, sugar and claret. A measure of that,
before retiring, could not but be beneficial to Susan Brundon, fatigued
by the duties of her Academy. He thought of the sharper breath of the
brandy and oranges compounded by Essie Scofield. A thin odour of
foxglove clung to the memory of his wife.

XV

Jasper Penny supplemented Jannan's letter to Essie Scofield, asking for
an appointment with his client at the law office, with a short
communication laying before her the condition in which he had found
Eunice, his knowledge of her neglect to provide their daughter with the
funds he had sent for that purpose, and definite plans for his complete
control of the child. At the despatch of this he felt that his duty,
where Essie as a formal parent resided, was ended. It was now only a
question of an agreement on terms. He got no reply, other than a
notification from Stephen Jannan that a meeting had been arranged for
the following week. And, at eleven o'clock, on a clear, thin blue winter
morning, he mounted, with Eunice, to the entrance of Jannan's offices on
Fourth Street.

Essie Scofield, in widespread mulberry silk with tight sleeves and broad
steel buttons, a close brimmed blue bonnet filled with lilacs and tied
with an old rose ribbon, was more compelling than Jasper Penny had
remembe