"I don't care if it's made public or not. All I want is my marriage lines--when the time comes."
"And you quite understand that, whatever the relations may be, from the legal point of view, in which we stand to each other, you'll get no money out of me, for the sufficient reason that I shall have none to give you."
"I don't want your money. I don't want anything from you except that one thing; and--and--mind you do turn up!"
"I've been thinking things over in the silent watches of the night, and I've quite decided that I will turn up."
"I will, I will; be assured I will. Now I believe I'm ready. I was thinking of troubling you to tell Mr. Austin that I'll be with him in a second, but I'll save you that trouble."
Standing by the door she was beginning a sentence. He cut her short.
"All right, my dear; I'll mind. Would you mind getting out of the way?"
She moved aside to let him pass. He went down the stairs to his sitting-room below, quickly, lightly, humming a tune as he went, as if he had not a care in the world; and with a face which was all sunshine he entered his visitor's presence.
"My dear Rodney, this is an unconventional hour at which to pay a call, but I didn't think that in my case you'd mind about conventions, and I thought that, as I didn't get a chance of speaking to you last night, I'd have a few words with you before you started for the City. I suspect that I needn't tell you that I was glad to hear the news from Stella."
The speaker was a short, sturdily-built, fresh-coloured man, probably somewhere in the fifties, whose neatly trimmed beard was a shade whiter than his hair. A pair of bright eyes looked out from behind gold-rimmed spectacles; about his whole appearance there was a suggestion of health, vigour, and clean living. He took both the young man's hands in his, looking up at him as at one whom he both esteemed and liked.
"You're on the tall side. Stella always did like six-footers. I shouldn't wonder if that's the main reason why she's contracted a fondness for you."
"It's very good of you, sir, to look me up in this unceremonious way. You must join me at breakfast."
"On this occasion I've been an earlier bird than you--I've breakfasted--but I will join you in a cup of coffee."
