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‘I vary so,’ panted Mr. Daffy, wiping his face with a handkerchief. ‘Sometimes one things seems to suit me–ugh, ugh–sometimes another. Going to town, Mr. Lott?’

‘Yes.’

The blunt affirmative was accompanied by a singular grimace, such as might have been caused by the swallowing of something very unpleasant; and thereupon followed a silence which allowed Mr. Daffy to recover himself. He sat with his eyes half closed and head bent, leaning back.

They had a general acquaintance with each other’s domestic affairs. Both were widowers; both lived alone. Mr. Daffy’s son was married, and dwelt in London; the same formula applied to Mr. Lott’s daughter. And, as it happened, the marriages had both been a subject of parental dissatisfaction. Very rarely had Mr. Lott let fall a word with regard to his daughter, Mrs. Bowles, but the townsfolk were well aware that he thought his son-in-law a fool, if not worse; Mrs. Bowles, in the seven years since her wedding, had only two or three times revisited her father’s house, and her husband never came. A like reticence was maintained by Mr. Daffy concerning his son Charles Edward, once the hope of his life. At school the lad had promised well; tailoring could not be thought of for him; he went into a solicitor’s office, and remained there just long enough to assure himself that he had no turn for the law. From that day he was nothing but an expense and an anxiety to his father, until–now a couple of years ago–he announced his establishment in a prosperous business in London, of which Mr. Daffy knew nothing more than that it was connected with colonial enterprise. Since that date Charles Edward had made no report of himself, and his father had ceased to write letters which received no reply.

Presently, Mr. Lott moved so as to come nearer to his travelling companion, and said in a muttering, shamefaced way–

‘Have you heard any talk about my daughter lately?’

Mr. Daffy showed embarrassment.

‘Well, Mr. Lott, I’m sorry to say I have heard something–‘

‘Who from?’

‘Well–it was a friend of mine–perhaps I won’t mention the name–who came and told me something–something that quite upset me. That’s what I’m going to town about, Mr. Lott. I’m–well, the fact is, I was going to call upon Mr. Bowles.’

‘Oh, you were!’ exclaimed the timber-merchant, with gruffness, which referred not to his friend but to his son-in-law. ‘I don’t particularly want to see him, but I had thought of seeing my daughter. You wouldn’t mind saying whether it was John Roper–?’

‘Yes, it was.’

‘Then we’ve both heard the same story, no doubt.’

Mr. Lott leaned back and stared out of the window. He kept thrusting out his lips and drawing them in again, at the same time wrinkling his forehead into the frown which signified that he was trying to shape a thought.

‘Mr. Lott,’ resumed the tailor, with a gravely troubled look, ‘may I ask if John Roper made any mention of my son?’

The timber-merchant glared, and Mr. Daffy, interpreting the look as one of anger, trembled under it.

‘I feel ashamed and miserable!’ burst from his lips.

‘It’s not your fault, Mr. Daffy,’ interrupted the other in a good-natured growl. ‘You’re not responsible, no more than for any stranger.’

‘That’s just what I can’t feel,’ exclaimed the tailor, nervously slapping his knee. ‘Anyway, it would be a disgrace to a man to have a son a bookmaker–a blackguard bookmaker. That’s bad enough. But when it comes to robbing and ruining the friends of your own family–why, I never heard a more disgraceful thing in my life. How I’m going to stand in my shop, and hold up my head before my customers, I–do–not–know. Of course, it’ll be the talk of the town; we know what the Ropers are when they get hold of anything. It’ll drive me off my head, Mr. Lott, I’m sure it will.’

The timber-merchant stretched out a great hand, and laid it gently on the excited man’s shoulder.