He looked up at her and shrugged his shoulders.
"Do you think it is likely that I consort with marquesses or have any
influence with them?" he asked, with a smile.
"Anyway, it is you who have brought me this great good luck," she said,
as gratefully as if he had admitted the truth. "You have been my mascot.
A very dear, generous mascot. But you will let me pay you back? But I am
almost ashamed to speak of payment, when no money could repay."
"Certainly you shall pay me, my dear young lady," he said, quietly. "I
am poor, and you are proud. But you will wait until you draw the first
instalment of your salary."
"No need," she exclaimed, triumphantly. "See here!" She held up a
cheque. "The Marquess--what a kind, good sort of man he must be!--has
sent me a cheque to pay my fare and other expenses."
Mr. Clendon took the cheque.
"I see it is an open one. The bank will pay you when you present it," he
remarked, in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Yes, I am going presently. In the last letter he says that I can go
down to the place--Thexford Hall, it is called--as soon as I please;
and, of course, I shall start to-morrow. It is in Devonshire, and all my
life I've longed to see Devonshire. And now I'm to be paid for going
there! Mr. Clendon, I have been living in a dream since this letter
came. I've read it fifty--oh, a hundred times! Sometimes I've held it
tightly in both hands, afraid that it should turn to a withered leaf, as
the paper did in the fairy story, or that I should wake up from my dream
and find my hands empty. Do you know Thexford Hall?"
"It is a large place, I believe--quite a famous one," he said. "I hope
you will be happy there."
"I should be quite happy if it were not so far from Brown's Buildings,
and--and one who has been so good to me," said Celia, her eyes suddenly
moist. "But I may come up and see you some day, on my first holiday?
Yes, and it's not only you, but--Well, strange as it may sound, I have
grown fond of the Buildings. You see, it was my first home; I mean my
own home. And I've got to like the people, though I know so little of
them. Oh, Mr. Clendon----"
She paused a moment, and the colour stole to her face and she looked
hard at the fire. She went on hesitatingly, almost shyly: "You remember the young man who lived opposite? He has gone; but I
think--I mean, it is just possible that he may come back."